[Verse 1]

The night sets softly

With the hush of falling leaves

Casting shivering shadows

On the houses through the trees

And the light from a streetlamp

Paints a shadow on my wall

Like the pieces of a puzzle

Or a child's uneven scrawl

[Chorus 1]

Up a narrow flight of stairs

In a narrow little room

As I lie upon my bed

In the early-evening gloom

Impaled on my wall

My eyes can dimly see

The pattern of my life

And the puzzle that is me

[Chorus 2]

From the moment of my birth

To the instant of my death

There are patterns I must follow

Just as I must breathe each breath

Like a rat in a maze

The path before me lies

And the pattern never alters

Until the rat dies

[Chorus 3]

The path before me lies

And the pattern never alters

And the pattern still remains

On the wall where darkness fell

And it's fitting that it should

For, in darkness, I must dwell

Like a rat in a maze

[Chorus 1]

Up a narrow flight of stairs

In a narrow little room

As I lie upon my bed

In the early-evening gloom

Impaled on my wall

My eyes can dimly see

The pattern of my life

And the puzzle that is me

[Outro]

Like the color of my skin

And the day that I grow old

My life is made of patterns

That can scarcely be controlled