Lyrics Bird On the Wire (Live) - Leonard Cohen

Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in an old midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Like a worm on the hook
Like a knight bent down in some old-fashioned book
It was the shape, the shape of our love that twisted me

If I have been unkind
Oh, if I have beyond kind
I hope you can find the way to let it all go right on by
If I have been untrue, if I have been beyond true
It's just that
I thought a liar as out of lover had to be some kind of liar too

Like a babe stillborn
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me
But I swear by this song
I, I swear by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee

I saw this beggar, he was leaning on his wooden crutch
He says to me, "Leonard, you just can't ask for all that much"
And pretty woman, standing in her darkened door
She cries out to me, "why not ask for just a little bit more"

Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in an old midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free