Small hands that didn't ask to hold

This ticket to a world so cold

Woke to the sound of a slamming door

A love that was, but is no more

Watched the light in their eyes go dim

A kingdom lost on a childish whim

Just a boy with a question mark

Standing silent in the dark

Oh, the circus came to town

With a painted smile and a thunderous sound

They tried to teach me how to wear the chain

To smile and nod and feel the pain

But the child I was still asks the sky

"Why was I born beneath this sky?"

Then to a prison called a school

They tried to shape me as their tool

To make me fit a little square

To kill the dream and plant despair

They laughed because I walked alone

A different drum, a softer tone

I learned my skin was not the right

In their harsh and blinding light

Oh, the circus came to town

With a painted smile and a thunderous sound

They tried to teach me how to wear the chain

To smile and nod and feel the pain

But the child I was still asks the sky

"Why was I born beneath this sky?"

Then came the hunger for a hand to hold

A story different from the one they told

But the mirror showed a face of flaws

A boy who'd learned to hide because

The ghosts of home were in my veins

The echo of their old refrains

So I found ghosts of my own to keep

In a hazy, numb and dreamless sleep

The world then said it's time to climb

To sell your soul a dime at a time

To wear the mask and play the game

For fortune, status, and for fame

To step upon a brother's hand

To be a king in this barren land

But the boy inside just shook his head

He chose the living instead of the dead

Oh, the circus came to town

With a painted smile and a thunderous sound

They tried to teach me how to wear the chain

To smile and nod and feel the pain

But the child I was still asks the sky

"Why was I born beneath this sky?"

So here I stand beneath the light

With a wooden guitar to sing the night

I am the man that boy became

I cannot play their cruel, sad game

I have no answers for the sky

I only have this lullaby

For the one who didn't ask to be

For the silent child, for you, for me