If the strain proves too much Give up right away If the light hurts your eyes Stay in your room all day When the room fills with smoke Lie down on the floor In the declining years Of the long war Well the blood’s in the water And the shark’s gonna come And we swim in the dark Until our bodies are numb Blind desert rats in the moonlight Too far from shore In the declining years Of the long war Empty room with a lightbulb Where the phone starts to ring Everybody gets nervous Nobody says anything The next day someone’s initials Show up on the door I think I’m gonna crack Can’t live like this anymore Ugly things in the darkness Worse things in store In the declining years Of the long war