Circle of Life

six hundred years ago we thought the earth was flatter
we can’t yet grasp that we just animated matter
if you’re still reading up, we are not the last chapter
when the end comes we are not what comes after

together we drive, just cruisin’ through the forest
one big caravan of the richest and the poorest
searching for a treeline that we’re never gonna find
since there’s no end to these they are not ordinary pines
for they bear not fruit, but bells
tolling the song so science seductive sells
see, we don’t like the rhythm or the beat
it reminds us we are dust beneath our feet
so the mudmen come pouring out of the hills
fighting for a time when time stands still
but for everything they bring to the table
this is one fight where they are not able
to break the circle, the bind, the ring
nothing works, not syringes, not slings
so the bells, they stay just out of our grasp
singing their song from behind Simba’s mask
one that’s counting tolling keeping time
for the moment when you get yours and I get mine
we might be stardust we might be golden
but we remain to the Circle of Life beholden
we’re fourteen billion year old carbon
we are definitely going back to the garden

still can’t grasp the fact that we just animated matter
if you’re still reading up, we are not the last chapter
when the end comes we are not what comes after

I know I’m sticking needles in dreams of immortality
but what I’m saying you should know so don’t get mad at me
I can hold it down but I’m not holding you down like gravity
you can fume and chuck your stones at the bells
when they hit the ground it’s the reason they fell
you can feel it pulling you too, back to the ground
some hate on it like it’s personally pulling them down
hate that you can see it in the old the way that they slouch
hate feeling finished going nowhere sinking in the couch
hate being pulled, back into the dust
hate being the same as the beasts and such
hate all you want but it’s a natural constant
it’s the song the rhythm of the bells meant
it holds atoms together, so molecules can exist
so we, so life, so you, can exist
that’s the rub, and the twist
why it doesn’t make sense to get pissed
it makes life possible, and it calls you back
uses you to rebuild elsewhere on evolution’s track
new improved models, a step up that ladder
something bigger and better, something nicer and badder
I think we forget that we are not the end of evolution
circles never end there’s no final revolution
though in our dreams we find the keys in our genes
no pill will ever be more than a smokescreen
science pretends to be God and claims clarity
to have found the key to the future
if we part with enough elbow grease and filthy lucre
it’s so hard to admit we’re not alpha or omega
we’re not the beginning or end
and bells will toll for mud mice and men

still can’t grasp the fact that we just animated matter
if you’re still reading up, we are not the last chapter
when the end comes we are not what comes after

so, yeah, Disney skips death in the Circle of Life
Simba’s sunrise is always falled by the night and the knife
we rise and we fall to make something else again
it’s fact that we’re all going to meet our end, my friend
I’m gonna upchuck some Chuck Palahniuk
on a long enough time line,
the life expectancy for everybody drops to zero
realize that none of this is meant to bring fear, so
don’t sit counting your pebbles but find beauty in mountains
in ebb and flow of rivers, waterfalls, and fountains
even mountains walk to the rhythm of moon tide erosion
stars shine with the promise of cosmic explosion
mortals are blessed to avoid eternity’s curse
to have a limited span that counts down from birth
mud and dust that for a time rises from the earth
with a limit granting the sweetness, passion, and worth
for some this knowledge is the apple roasting in hell
snake tongues flicking fire to the rhythm of the bells
but it’s their carol that lets me know all is well
you can’t stay so fill your days with play
put in some work, I eat shit like a fungi
but I let shit slide so I can be a fun guy
I don’t let this circle make me sing the sorrows
I know I don’t need a lot of shit
just love because I came with it
and I want to leave with it
and everything else is just borrowed
in my limited time I just want my light to shine
as I put some words to the grind
while I look for more love to make mine
because we are nothing but carbon
and we are going back to the garden
we’re just animated matter
we are not what comes after