What You Think You Got Away With

Oh, I got away

With a hell of a lot

A hell of a lot

Not that I didn’t get my dings in

I got my dings

Believe me

Real ones

Ones where I thought--

Oh, I’m over

I’m done

But I wasn’t done, was I?

You know, they ask you--

They’ll ask you

What you’d say

To your younger self

And what I’d say to myself

Years and years ago

A whole lifetime ago is--

You

Are going to get away

With

So

Much

Shit

I mean--

It is crazy

What I have gotten away with

When you really think about it

Because

What does getting away with it mean?

It means that, you know

When you’re not getting away with it

You’re reminded all the time

That you did it

That you did something

You weren’t supposed to do

But then one day
Somebody else does something
They’re not supposed to do

And people, you know

They don’t forgive you necessarily

But they just--forget you

And through the process of forgetting

They do something better than forgive

They let you--

Get away with it

Whatever it is, you know?

But there’s a condition to that

There’s an agreement

And the agreement is--

Don’t you ever forget

What you did

That, sure, you can get away with it

But only if you remember

That from that point on

You ain’t shit, son

You are no better

Than the thing you did

And so one day

You get tired

Of being shit

And you decide

You want to make something

Of yourself

So you start to build something

Make something

Like I said

Try to take advantage of the fact

That you weren’t done

When you thought

You were done

And you think it’s fine

Because it’s been so long

Since you got away

With what you thought

You got away with

You think it’s old news

You think…

You think it’s ancient history

But nothing is

And in some ways

It’s a game

Or it feels like one

Where you lose--every time

Because the game is--

Don’t forget

You’re just someone

Other people allow to--

To, uh--

To continue

To exist

To be

And the minute

You try to do more?

That’s when they let you know

That’s when they let you know

That you didn’t get away

With a damn thing