failure (mind the label's warnings)
Well birth canal opened, out came pay dirt.
My mother said, "Well now, that didn't even hurt."
"Must be paradise or a surprise,
I'll take either but not insincere lies".
Records man said, " How about a name".
Mother opined, "They're all the same",
But took a mirror and lipstick
An left t' right wrote real quick,
"Drawoh" an' then said nice and slick,
"It's failure spelled backwards , best o' god's tricks".
Success breeds failure
As failure births success,
Both shove your head
In a hydraulic press.
As fate would have it right where I lay,
Socrates' complete works started in to play.
It was the only copy on the planet earth.
I started wondering how much it was worth.
So I started reckoning on the abacus
That was also there, well, just because.
Socrates' tune that sentimental morn
Was the success and failure of being born.
I loved my mother and so I vowed
T' sacrifice the life of a sacrificial cow.
I'd only walk backwards for all my life
(Does that make you think of Lot's wife?)
I'd walk the road of my backwards name .
"Nothing but failure" would be the name of my game.
Success breeds failure
As failure births success,
Both shove your head
In a hydraulic press.
I'm in my tomb and think above
To the name on my gravestone as the fire of love.
That on my tomb is the word, "failure"
With love itself as my eternal jailer.
I could end it here but you know my mother did despise
Above all else "insincere lies".
Eternity passes and what I don't know
Is that the word is "success", pure as snow.
For dying after me was my evil twin.
I don't think I told you anything 'bout him.
His name was "Howard", ( he was a mover an' a shaker)
Written with mother's other lipstick called "heart breaker".
He cited Aquinas in his argument
That took my failures and shoved them into rent.
Proved I was the only man t' reach his life's aim
Complete failure gave me the honest claim
As a total success and for my eternal shame
He chiseled that word in my tombstone's frame.
Success breeds failure
As failure births success,
Both shove your head
In a hydraulic press.
But don't weep for me all you who hear this
For I lie here swimming in eternal bliss.
Remember I told you that I don't know
My tombstone's word is pure as snow.
An' you haven't forgot that mother said,
After she hit pay dirt on that birthing bed,
To the Records man who wanted my name
"What ever for?, why, "They're all the same",
So how about you discard blame
And think of "success" as love's flame.
Success and failure are the gambler's sky.
Both are the same wall t' wall alibi
For getting' it together before you die
An' answering the question, "Why?"
We're all gamblers in the valley of death.
I think it's 'bout time t' give this stuff a rest,
So lie next t' me and say a name.
I'll call it the truth as you enjoy love's flame.
Success breeds failure
As failure births success,
Both shove your head
In a hydraulic press.