Harder to Listen

She came in cold off a dead end street
Walked in slow and took a back row seat
She knew she had nothing new to say
So many people look so burned out
She couldn't help feeling bad about
Just having to be there anyway

Some guy in the back stood up and told everybody
How he'd been straight for seven years
She tried to listen until it all turned into babble
Down some braggard's tale of whiskey and beer

It gets harder to listen all of the time
Harder to listen all of the time

Some jerk she knew from work walked in
She never thought too much of him
He'd always seemed so smug and insincere
She never did like the twelve-step crowd
They laugh too much and they talk too loud
They think they know what everyone needs to hear

Still she couldn't help but sit and wonder
Why she ended up in here tonight
There's a liquor store where she could stop on her way home
She keeps thinking that she might

It gets harder to listen all of the time
Harder to listen all of the time
Harder to listen all of the time
It gets harder to listen to people talking all the time

They were talking in a circle
It was coming around to her
She wondered if she could say that word
If she wasn't even sure
Then she wondered if she meant it as it rolled off of her tongue
It seemed like so long since she'd been young and secure

It got harder to handle
Too much down the track
She was leaving early somebody said "Hey, keep coming back."
Keep coming back, that's what they always say
Keep coming back
It gets harder to listen to people taking all the time