I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear my crown of shit
On my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
Lyrics from LyricFind
Reflections
The Nine Inch Nails did the original song. This is a cover by Johnny Cash. I personally prefer the emotions and dynamics in this version since it conveys the message of the song better.
The song is about the regret faced by a person when they look back on their life and realise that they have hurt a lot of the people close to them in order to achieve what they have today. And when they realise how much they have hurt those that care about them, they realise that all their possessions and achievements are nothing compared to what they have lost. They are essentially dust. As a result, they now have only pain to give because they cannot even feel any pain after losing what really matters.
When a person comes to realise this, they are more than willing to start over again if possible to simply take an entirely different course of action and never take the same steps again just to avoid hurting the ones closest to them. The price of their current lives is expendable to save their loved ones from the pain produced by the friendship between them. They can leave what they have just to take better care of the ones they love.
