Words by Dan Haseltine
Music by Jars of Clay

The marionette has your number
Pulling your arms and legs til you can't stand on your own
Dragging your conscience on the stage and your heart get rearranged
And you cannot tell your mentor from your maker
Look at the crowds bleeding with laughter
Over the way you entertain at beckoned call
They don't see behind the lights or the painted background
They just like to see you fall

But you don't really mind
'Cause you're just wasting time
You don't feel anything
You're a boy on a string

I feel a sadness like Gapetto
Watching the light that he created run away
Seeing the puppeteer's intrusion and holding the remains
Of puppets that had rotted away
One day the curtain will not open
And all of the crowds will go away
Someday those strings will choke you
But until that day

You won't really mind
Cause you're just wasting time
And you won't feel anything
You're a boy on a string