I’ve been there before and I can see it coming,
Yes—can see it from a mile away.

That whole thing where you’re hanging on to one last wisp
Of what it used to be like
And then that’s gone, and where does that leave you?
Yeah, I’ve been there before.

That whole thing where you curse and rail against time
Or whatever power out there that’s greater than you’ll ever be
And it gets you nothing in the end
Yeah—I’ve been there before.

That whole thing where you wonder
If that was you not so long ago,
Really you, and not some imposter
Or, if that really was you and NOW you’re the imposter—
And because you’re out here alone, that’s why you don’t even know who you are anymore—
Because there’s no one to ask and no one to tell you.
Yeah, I’ve been there before.

That whole thing where even as you know it’ll happen
You ignore it and hope it will last forever
Even though you know it won’t.
Yeah. I’ve been there before.

That whole thing where, looking backwards and forwards,
You doubt yourself and you wonder
If you ever had—or, indeed, will have—any clue
At all—
Yeah, I’ve been there before.

It’s that little voice that speaks to you at night,
Even as you laugh to drown it out—
That voice that tells you:
This will end.
This is the voice of time.
Listen
And you might be able to hear it—
But only if you’ve heard it before.
Then it’s loud and clear.
Yeah, I’ve heard it before.

Maybe that’s the reason why
No matter how much I’d love to
I never give myself wholly to you.
Maybe that’s the reason why
No matter how much I don’t want to
I seem like I don’t care.
Maybe that’s the reason why,
Even as I hug you and laugh with you
And tell you how much I love you,
Even as we sit on the floor behind the blue auditorium on late nights on which going home is not an option,
Even as I lean on your shoulder and you stroke my hair,
No matter how much I need to,
I can never let myself give you my heart and soul—
Because I’ve been there before.

Maybe it’s because as we sit
Alone in the world behind the blue auditorium on those late nights,
I’m wondering if you can hear it too—
The voice of time.
I wonder if you’ve ever heard it before.

Because I don’t know about you,
But I’ve been there before—
And I can see it coming from a mile away.