Patterns

Dm            
The night sets softly  
                         F    Dm       
With the hush of falling le-e-eaves,  
                       
Casting   shivering shadows  
                          C              
On the houses through the trees,  
        Dm                    
And the light from a street lamp  
                       F    Dm     
Paints a pattern on my wa-a-all,  
                       C  
  Like the pieces of a puzzle  
     Bb      C        Dm             
Or a child's   uneven scrawl  

     Dm                    
Up a narrow flight of stairs  
                   F    Dm     
In a narrow little ro-o-oom,  
                    
As I lie upon my bed  
                     C              
In the early evening gloom.  
  Dm                   
Impaled on my wall  
                  F    Dm     
My eyes can dimly se-e-e  
                   C  
 The pattern of my life  
        Bb     C        Dm          
And the puzzle  that is me.  

         Dm                
From the moment of my birth  
                     F    Dm      
To the instant of my de-e-eath,  
                             
There are Patterns I must follow  
                            C               
Just as I must breathe each breath.  
       Dm               
Like a rat in a maze  
                   F    Dm     
The path before me li-i-ies,  
                       C  
 And the pattern never alters  
  Bb  C        Dm            
Until  the rat dies.  

        Dm                    
And the pattern still remains  
                           F    Dm      
On the wall where darkness fe-e-ell,  
                            
And it's fitting that it should,  
                        C              
For in darknesss I must dwell.  
         Dm                  
Like the color of my skin,  
                       F     Dm     
Or the day that I grow o-o-o-old,  
                   C  
My life is made of Patterns  
         Bb       C      Dm               
That can scarcely  be controlled.