Cadmium Colors

I spend my hours doing alchemy

I mix my yellows and my blues to make a shade of green

Prosaic practice of depravity

Suspending innocents above their disbelief

I wish that I could paint a pretty picture onto everything

And leave a mark upon the world that felt like anything

But maybe that's the essence of an artist and their legacy

Just chasing down a sense of infamy

Put brush to canvas with a pirouette

A simple motion makes the consequence intricate

All the little nothings, and my parapet

I hope it's something that you don't forget

Cadmium red is the ground beneath

Cadmium orange, everything I see

Cadmium yellow is the air I breathe

Cadmium colors painted inside me

I can make autumn from a single leaf

Steal a fine picture like a first class thief

Make the water work like you won't believe

Find a new world that can set you free

How could anybody ever live like me?

I spend my hours doing alchemy

I make a life refining zinc inside the smeltery

It's not exactly where I want to be

But wanting doesn't matter when there's mouths to feed

I wish that I could paint a pretty picture of a fantasy

And turn a feeling to a living for my family

Instead, I'll make the metals in the pigments in my reverie

And maybe that can be enough for me

Oh, isn't it funny, facing destiny?

It's like a knife inside, twisting my arteries

God, I want for nothing but identity

(I think that something might be wrong with me)

Cadmium red is the ground beneath

Cadmium orange, everything I see

Cadmium yellow is the air I breathe

Cadmium colors painted inside me

Ante-grade fever, 101 degrees

Shatter my body with a gentle breeze

Damn it, I am real and I have my dreams

Watch me burn brighter 'til I fail to breathe

How could anybody ever live like me?

Baby, do you know what it's like to die?

To see the sparkle fade from inside your eye

I can't remember what it's like to feel autonomy

Can't even feel it in the moments that you left to me

(I don't wanna leave with a work undone)

(The paint can barely dry 'fore it fills my lungs)

I keep a bullet in the chamber, mocking me

But I don't wanna feel it coming out of me

I don't want-

I spend my hours doing alchemy

I'll mix my yellows and my blues to make a shade of green

Chasing impossible philosophy

And hoping that this poison ain't the death of me

Cadmium red is the ground beneath

Cadmium orange, everything I see

Cadmium yellow is the air I breathe

Cadmium colors painted inside me

I can make autumn from a single leaf

Steal a fine picture like a first class thief

Make the water work like you won't believe

Find a new world that can set you free

How could anybody ever live like-?

Baby, do you know what you wanna hear

'Cause you can say the word, make it, oh so clear

We're all just searching for a sense of solidarity

To hold each other close and confiscate our destiny

(No one wants to leave with a work undone)

(We only need a brush we can pass along)

I kept a bullet in the chamber for a rainy day

But what's the point in planning for it anyway?

I've got too many colors for a shade of grey

And I can make it Autumn every single day