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When the Clock Disappoints You
Written by Rob Smith
© Rob Smith, 2025.
All Rights Reserved.
BMI Work #
[Verse 1]
Coffee burns the tongue at five a.m.
Steel toes by the front door once again
Punch that card, hear that whistle cry
Another day traded for overtime
He’d stare at that clock on the warehouse wall
Prayin’ those hands would hurry up and fall
Every minute felt like a mile
Just trying to make it home awhile
[Pre-Chorus]
He used to say
“Man, this old clock just crawls…”
[Chorus]
But when the clock disappoints you
It ain’t always ‘cause it moves too slow
One day you wake up in your work boots
Wonderin’ where the last ten years went goin’
Your babies grow up while you’re breakin’ your back
Dreams get dusty and they don’t come back
Funny thing about time when it finally tells the truth
Sometimes the clock disappoints you
[Verse 2]
First gray hair underneath his hat
His little girl says, “Daddy, when’d you get that?”
Son’s voice deeper on the phone
Half the life he built already gone
Friday nights turned into pills for pain
Sunday mornings just rest for Monday again
He bought that house, paid every bill
But somewhere along the line stood still
[Pre-Chorus]
Now he stares at that clock on the living room wall
And he don’t ask it to move at all
[Chorus]
‘Cause when the clock disappoints you
It ain’t always ‘cause it moves too slow
One day you’re young and countin’ quittin’ time
Next day your hands look just like your old man’s did long ago
Your babies grow up while you’re makin’ a way
And life slips by in little workday breaks
Funny thing about time when it finally tells the truth
Sometimes the clock disappoints you
[Bridge]
He sat out back one evening in the June heat
Watched his wife sway barefoot in the driveway breeze
And he thought
Lord… I spent my whole life
Waiting on time to pass
Never knowin’ it already had
[Final Chorus]
When the clock disappoints you
You finally understand
The thing you begged to hurry up
Was slipping right through your hands
Yeah the years ain’t stolen all at once
They disappear one punch clock at a time
And the hardest part of getting old
Is knowing you were too busy to watch your life go by
[Outro]
Now that old clock keeps ticking
But he don’t hate it like he used to do
‘Cause the clock never really disappointed him
Time just did what time always do