The Fire Inside

There's a hard moon rising
On the streets tonight
There's a reckless feeling in your heart
As you head out tonight

Through the concrete canyons
To the midtown light
Where the latest neon promises
Are burning bright

Past the open windows
On the darker streets
Where unseen angry voices flash
And children cry

Past the phony posers
With their worn out lines
The tired new money dressed
To the nines

The low life dealers
With their bad designs
And the dilettantes
With their open minds

You're out on the town, safe in the crowd
Ready to go for the ride
Searching the eyes, looking for clues
There's no way you can hide
The fire inside

Well, you've been to the clubs
And the discotheques
Where they deal one another
From the bottom of a deck of promises

Where the cautious loners
And emotional wrecks
Do an acting stretch as a way to hide
The obvious

And the lights go down
And they dance real close
And for one brief instant they pretend
They're safe and warm

Then the beat gets louder
And the mood is gone
The darkness scatters
As the lights flash on

They hold one another
Just a little too long
And they move apart
And then move on

On to the street, on to the next
Safe in the knowledge that they tried
Faking the smile, hiding the pain
Never satisfied
The fire inside, fire inside

Now, the hour is late
And he thinks you're asleep
You listen to him dress
And you listen to him leave
Like you knew he would

You hear his car pull
Away in the street
Then you move to the door
And you lock it when
He's gone for good

Then you walk to the window
And stare at the moon
Riding high and lonesome
Through a starlit sky

And it comes to you
How it all slips away
Youth and beauty
Are gone one day

No matter what you dream
Or feel or say
It ends in dust
And disarray

Like wind on the plains, sand through the glass
Waves rolling in with the tide
Dreams die hard and we watch them erode
But we cannot be denied
The fire inside

Fire inside, fire inside
Burning you up
Burning you up
Fire inside