Franz Nicolay : Walking A Thin Line

Walking A Thin Line

We’re just sitting here waiting for the ice to fall
We’re just counting the drops as they drip from the ledge
The only sound is the crack of ice sheets loosening
The only light is the flash of the sun as it sets

Walking a thin line
Scanning the ridgeline

I become like a dove in the wilderness, like an owl in the ruins
Had a taste of the wages of bitterness
Lost all I needed to lose
I have acquired the fate of the criminal—to get the cross or the crown
Whether I be noble or pitiful
Be the king or the clown

Didn’t do those things which I should have done,
But I did all the rest
Stole the gold of the sons of the second sons
Nudged the egg from the nest

It means something to wake and lie there listening
It means something to feel the things that you don’t say
It means something to see the snowflakes glistening
It means something to see the cracks in the clay

To be walking a thin line
Scanning the ridgeline

So tremble, then, and go from sin
And leave your guilt for dead
You are my portion and my cup
You are my feather bed

Set forth a tune upon a harp
Set out the wine and bread
And turn your worries to the pledge of better times ahead

And walk that thin line
Scanning the ridgeline
Walking that thin line
Scanning the ridgeline

Wrong way on a narrow wire
Feeling the edges align
Low buzz of an amplifier
The dull glaze and the shine