Lesser lights are laid out like luminaries
on the way along a road that’s paved
What’s it’s like to face all these two-bit trials, Lord
I can’t say if my bright ideas flicker and fade
when they’re put on the page
Lesser lights are always a rage
I won’t be ashamed
Lesser lights will play out like loud celebrities
on stage in a forgotten age
Whether the world will stay in its orbit or it
withers away with a bang one day
could be fodder for a gossiping
writer’s scathing exposé
Lesser lights shine on all the same
in the darkest days
Lesser lights on a hill
a city in vain
Lesser lights in a pill
dissolving away
Take one for the pain
Lesser lights have made up all my songs
an immortal mistake while I was barely awake
Time has a scythe that takes out
my billy club and siren shake
with a spear that’s a fake
I could die and rise up again
with an adroit plié
Lesser lights are a rousing refrain
of legerdemain
Lesser lights are swill
a drunkard’s stain
Lesser lights can kill
and they can stay the killing for days
We’ll all burn away