Failure (Station 16)

 Failure (Station 16)

Yhu, mtshana!

I’ve failed

Like, proper failed, hey

I’m writing this note from the bottom of the rock

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

From Station 16,

A psych ward in the middle of Germany, somewhere,

Nowhere

(Irgendwo, Nirgendwo)

A man screams into the night from Station 15 below

Lower than rock bottom

But he doesn’t know that

(Maybe he does, I can’t say)

When we go on our morning walks in the park below,

Us Station 16 Leute, 

(Station 16 people),

We look up at the Station 14 and Station 15 people,

They’re always screaming something incomprehensible,

The guy next to me always says:

Zum Glück sind wir nicht wie sie

(Luckily, we aren’t like them)

They’re the addicts and the ones who tried to kill themselves

I don’t know,

I mean, I’m no better off than them, really

They failed and I did too

I failed ‘better’ because I risked less

They threw the dice on life and death!

I think we all want to escape,

Stations 14 to 16,

Life is too much with us –

It becomes overbearing

I don’t mean to sound macabre,

But, the Station 14 and Station 15 people,

They tried

I was too scared

Zum Glück,

(Luckily),

As my therapists tell me

I don’t know

Station 14 and Station 15 people strike me as people of action

A quality I admire

But they failed

I failed

Stations 14 to 16,

We all failed

But each morning we Station 16 people look up and say,

Zum Glück sind wir nicht wie sie

I don’t know, hey

We all failed,

To different degrees, sure,

But we’re all here,

At rock bottom