Consider this a warning
How not to live your life
And listen to my tale
Of a Dead Man’s strife

In my youthful years
A shadow, a ghost
Hiding from the features
The ones I hated most

Fading into backgrounds
From my life’s beginning
Insecurities ran my life
Such a Dead Man’s thinking

Then, I turned to structure
To use as my next mask
Using it to answer
Any question one could ask

This structure meant restriction
It made my feelings plain
There’s no beauty of insanity
In a Dead Man’s brain
I continued to grow older
And I still longed to fit in
Changing who I am
Forgetting who I’ve been

Thinking that re-sculpting
To what others want me to be
Is not a way of life
It is a Dead Man’s philosophy

As time went by and I grew older
I thought, “Why bother trying?”
The end of life is predetermined
It just results in dying

A fool to think about the end,
That this was all planned out
To think I had to keep this map
And walk a Dead Man’s route

Focused on the negatives
Even in success
Ignore the good and keep the bad
We humans do this best

Scribbling flaws on scrap paper
To log mistakes we made
Use any color you grab first
It’s all a Dead Man’s shade
“Why do things on my own
When osmosis works so well?”
Studying other’s experiences
Formulating stories to tell

But what an experience gives to another person
Is not the same as what it would give me
Thinking you can live vicariously through others
Is a Dead Man’s Theory

Don’t hide behind your flaws,
Other’s opinions, your past, your fears,
Or one morning you’ll wake up like me
And realize you’ve been dead for years.