How Many People - Joelistics

Alice is embarrassed by the thoughts in her head

And she thinks too much, she starts to get scared

Doctors told her, she was bipolar

Put her on prescription pills like that would solve it

It didn’t quell the low self-esteem

And the guys that she falls for treat her so mean

They tear off strips until there ain’t nothing left

But she can give back just as good as she gets

And she gets so worked up then down in the dumps

Can’t hold a steady job, unemployed for months

The drugs aren’t something that she does for fun

They’re just a way to stay comfortably numb

She says the world will cut you deep

It creeps and it eats up all the dreams you keep

But when the music begin and she starts to move

She is the bright light shining inside the room

She cries tears and they stream down her face

All beyond her years and she never feels safe

Well talking helps and she melts and dissolves

Can’t help thinking that the world is cold

In dreams she sees him, wakes up screaming

She can smell the beer on his breath and hear his breathing

They used to share the same name

Now she’ll never trust men again, simple and plain

Therapy helps but she still blames herself

The guilt and the shame of the regular hell

If she could she would send him straight to the grave

But she knows someday all debts get paid

I know her story, I am in awe of her strength

You just see a junkie who’s life is a mess

In a society so quick to judge

So quick to get drunk, not so quick to reflect

It’s easier to demonise an addict as a threat

A failure, a monster, a joke, a lost cause

It ain’t about the high, it’s the mental health

Alice didn’t need prison, she just needed some help

How many people do you know completely sober?

How many people do you know who self-medicate?

How many people do you know who on occasion take a little something something

just to take the pain away?

How many people do you know who have a problem?

How many people do you know with excuses?

How many people do you know who are wrestling with demons, and memories and

invisible bruises?

Cameron had a habit of having a fucking habit

Couldn’t figure out how to kick it into submission

It was killing him slowly, it was losing him friends

But something about the high always got him in the end

Nobody said it would be easy

He knew it, he wasn’t looking for pity

He knew the city was up to no good

Getting dizzy, he lay in the rhythm

And run a mock everyday with a singular vision

He was born in the belly of the beast

Where the beast feasts on the belly of the deceased

He would sleep underneath bright neon street signs

Quick on the rewind, flip it on the b side

He’d spent enough nights sleeping in the park

To know a dollar wasn’t too much to ask for

And he would kick with the homeless, the hopeless, the hounded

Somehow he would fit in with the outlaws

And in the cracks and the fissures

The city was a vicious little animal without inhibitions

He would look but he couldn’t tell the difference

Between the saints and the sinners, the heroes and the villains

A brother in prison, a sister in the system

He never knew his dad and his mum was indifferent

Listen, we all make the best of the life we get

But some get a lot less to begin with

Yeah

How many people do you know completely sober?

How many people do you know who self-medicate?

How many people do you know who on occasion take a little something something

just to take the pain away?

How many people do you know who have a problem?

How many people do you know with excuses?

How many people do you know who are wrestling with demons, memories and

invisible bruises?

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache

I ain’t trying to judge nobody’s ache