BORDERLINE

Verse 1

Everybody looks so ill at ease

So distrustful so displeased

Running down the table

I see a borderline

Like a barbed wire fence

Strung tight strung tense

Pickling with pretence

A Borderline

Verse 2

Why are you smirking at your friend?

Is this to be the night when

All well wishing ends

All credibility revoked

Thin skin, thick jokes

Can we blame it on the smoke

This sudden Borderline.

Verse 3

Every bristling shaft of pride

Church or Nation, Team or Tribe

Every notion we subscribe to

Is just a Borderline

Good or Bad, we think we know

As if thinking makes things so.

All convictions grow

Along a Borderline.

Verse 4

Smug in your jaded expertise,

You scathe the wonder world

And you praise barbarity

In this illusionary place -

This scared hard-edged rat race

All Liberty is laced

With Borderlines

Verse 5

Every income every age,

Every fashion-plated rage

Every measure, every gauge

Creates a Borderline

Every stone thrown through glass

Every mean-streets kick ass

Every swan caught on the grass

Will draw a Borderline.

Verse 6

You snipe so steady. You snub so snide

So ripe and ready, to diminish and deride

Why are you so quick to condescend

My opinionated friend

All you deface, All you defend

Is just a Borderline

Just a Borderline

Another Borderline.

WORDS BY JONI MITCHELL

FROM THE ALBUM

TURBULENT INDIGO