Day 11: Volunteer

Lyrics:
By day you're working for your mercenary gain
You smile, you shake their hands, you play their silly games
By 5 o'clock you find your eyes are over glazed
And then you're gone

You're dying slowly from a thousand paper cuts
You try to move, but your career is in a rut
Your lack of inspiration's tearing at your gut
And then you're done

Go on away from here
Perhaps you'll find some comfort in a glass of beer
But your conscience won't abide falling down below the line
Perhaps it's time to volunteer

The world is suffering; you know you're not alone
This land is full of sinners looking to atone
But they don't know the way; they're waiting to be shown
The finish line

Everyone's a flower, but they feel just like a weed
They long to find the fertilizer to succeed
The irony you see is that the only way to lead
Is from behind

Go on, and don't be bitter
It's not too late for you to reconsider
If you don't know where you're going
Some things glitter more than coins
And you could join the volunteers

Whoa, the volunteers
They come from nowhere, then they disappear
And though they're rarely seen, they still do it all for free
Thank God they're here; thank God they're here

You're no devil, but you know you're not a saint
You have no expertise, you're only second rate
What can you offer them? You're just a child of fate
But now you're here

Go on and persevere
Don't turn away from them because of fear
You don't have to see the light; just do it 'cause it's right
You should try to volunteer

Details: So I was supposed to do some volunteering today, but I had to shift my schedule to be here for the water heater to get fixed, and that didn't jive with the non-profit's schedule. But, anyway, I decided to write about volunteering. It helped that the prompt today for the Fearless Songwriting Challenge was "Selfless Loving Saints", which could be a hyperbolic way of describing volunteers. And like last night, I still wanted to write something with more enriched lyrics, so I ended up with something like a sub-Dylan dystopian tune.

This song took close to 6 hours to write and, for the first time this year, I failed to get it recorded before midnight. I did finish writing the song at about 11:55 (which has been a trend the last few days), but there are waaaaay too many words to not screw up. So it took about an hour to record, and now I'm up late doing the social media. Song-a-day January continues!