My Back Pages

bob dylan
crimson flames tied through my ears • rolling high and mighty traps
pounced with fire on flaming roads • using ideas as my maps
"we'll meet on edges soon" said I • proud neath heated brow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now

half wrecked prejudice leaped forth • "rip down all hate !" I screamed
lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull • I dreamed
romantic facts of musketeers • foundationed deep somehow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now

girls faces formed the forward path from phony jealousy
to memorizing politics of ancient history
flung down by corpse evangelists • unthought of though somehow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now

a self ordained professors tongue • too serious to fool
spouted out that liberty is just equality in school
"equality !" • I spoke the word as if a wedding wow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now

in a soldiers stance I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach
my pathway led by confusion boats • mutiny from stern to bow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now

my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect
deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
"good and bad" I define these terms quite clear • no doubt somehow
ah but I was so much older then • I'm younger than that now