“Hope this is what you had in mind”.
(Three ones: The Desert Man and the Ever-changing Sand, the other one was so easily forgotten…)
One desert above her head
And the other lays upon
No one else is going to change it
Though they can do it by themselves
A fight of pride, always the same
It doesn’t matter who wins the game
“We’ve only got one chance to fill our fates”
But they don’t even know what they are fighting for
The time has come
A figure rises above the horizon
They don’t even care
Nobody is gonna stop their fray
A sword with poison cutting with rage and fury
The battle is almost decided…
They think that there’s no fire around their battlezone
There’s fear and pain but no rescue for the one poor
Its life is sinking, they’re not gonna help
‘Cause they’re too busy to see how far they have fallen
Enjoy the fight between their rights
Stopping hits using their pride
Approve their actions to bleed your memories
A fight against its breath
No help will come
As soon as something falls
No help will come
A fight against its breath
Its essence is fading
As soon as something is wrong
No help will come
They fight against its breath
This part of me has ended, he said
Alone, left in the cold, I will remain
“I need to ignore this part of me, forever”
Joy, out of this war, it just escaped
Enjoy the fight between their rights
A fight against its breath
No help will come
As soon as something falls
Now it’s too late
A fight against its breath
No help came, disaster
As soon as something is wrong
Disgrace, you see
They fight against its breath
[Too late now, at least for her
No one knew about her inner struggle
Not even the Desert Man noticed
Their battle will never be decided]
Help them to ride all the hate that erased themselves
They want to feel like they felt once
But no one stopped their battle…
“The Desert Man and the Ever-changing Sand play their roles in an endless fight — since there will never be a winner. In every conflict, there is a common loser: the one who is used as a weapon.”
First of the two unleashing factors.
When my parents separated, I was used by them to hurt each other. Sometimes I benefited from it, but at a certain point it was only a source of stress.
Since there was no communication between them, they would turn to me to pass messages along. It seemed unfair to me, because it was not my responsibility but theirs. I often argued about it. But not with my mother, she was already dealing with enough.
These lyrics emerged from ‘nothing,’ as something that gradually began to reflect my two parents and their relationship; or perhaps, how I perceived it. How I felt about it.
TOOL had to be included. This line from Ticks & Leeches, in my eyes, is resentful. It’s a sarcastic way of throwing someone’s disapproval back at them.
Perhaps in the context of the original song it isn’t like that, but it resonated with me that way, and it felt very fitting for my song.