Coward’s Blues

Maybe I don’t want it enough
I settle for the comfortable B plus
Maybe I can live with knowing I sort of tried

Maybe it’s the force of my ambition
Locked with life in a long war of attrition
And I begin to sense I’m on the losing side

These are the coward’s blues you sing when you got nothing left to lose
But honey, who’s keeping score?
These are the coward’s blues, and if you ain’t gonna pay your dues
Then what’s the use of wanting more?

Maybe everything is just too hard
I’ll go ahead and play the chord unbarred
It never looks as cool as in the glossy photograph
Maybe it was never meant to be
When I find the one that is you’re gonna see
It’ll snap right into place and we’ll all sit back and laugh

These are the coward’s blues you sing when you got nothing left to lose
But honey, who’s keeping score?
These are the coward’s blues, and if you ain’t gonna pay your dues
Then what’s the use of wanting more?

They say these things are won and lost by inches
Well, I’m the one who forfeits in the clinches
It’ll be my turn next, I’m sure, if I’m polite
And I’m still waiting when they sweep up and kill the lights

Maybe this is just the thing I do
I mean: think about that chance I had with you
Stepped right up and whiffed that one too

These are the coward’s blues you sing when you got nothing left to lose
But honey, who’s keeping score?
These are the coward’s blues, and if you ain’t gonna pay your dues
Then what’s the use of wanting more?