[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