LYRIC: Social Distance

I’ve been self-isolating

Since before it was cool

But now that I have to

What is there to do?

There’s been social distance

Now for far too long

Where better than quarantine

To write a song?

Can we all come together now, alone,

And recognise that when we needed help,

We always had each other to provide? 

While the powers that be

Wrung their hands.

The old way of doing things

Falls to the ground

No shock to the system

Has been more profound

We watch the mask slipping

Beneath it we find

Nothing more was needed

Than just being kind

Can we all come together now, alone,

And recognise that when we needed help,

We always had each other to provide? 

While the powers that be

Wrung their hands.

There’s been social distance

Now for far too long

LYRIC: I Will Look Back on This Fondly

Terrified, I clambered over ancient ruins

Rushing sights

Other people wait a lifetime just to see

Counting down the days

I took photographs 

And wished for home

Always thinking of tomorrow, 

I miss out on today

I will look back on this fondly

Even if now I am crippled by fear

Retrospect: the only joy I’ll ever see

When your own mind is your worst enemy

I miss the live show of the best days of my life 

But catch up with them later, on demand

Viewed from a safe distance

I confront anxiety with its false narrative

But in the amnesia of tomorrow

The lesson fades

I will look back on this fondly

Even if now I am crippled by fear

Retrospect: the only joy I’ll ever see

When my own mind is my worst enemy

That sinking feeling in my stomach instead of butterflies

Instead of looking forward I begin to catastrophize 

Wherever I am I am always locked up trapped inside my head

My fingers reach and brush against the key

This does not have to be my destiny

The airplane is hot with expectation

people breathing out 

Summer hopes into a flying metal box

Reminding us there are some laws of nature 

We can overcome

Even when they seem to be so permanent  

We can overcome

LYRIC: The End of the World (Today)

The people have spoken and I’m feeling sick

Who could imagine things changing this quick

Frustrated, ignorant grasping at straws

These are the things that make people start wars

I tremble as everyday life starts to look

Like the opening chapters of an old history book

These were the dark days that caused Rome to fall

These were the factors that started it all

The end of the world

Comes without warning

The end of the world

Is today

A moment of madness undoing the years

Of progress it’s taken to get us to here

Long battles fought and hard victories won

The evolution of civilization

Enlightenment can’t last without any lights

And now we are facing the darkest of nights

Desperation giving way to despair

The people have spoken and I’m feeling scared

The comfort of thinking it can’t happen here

Is the surest sign that it is already near

Right on your doorstep, right on your street

Amazing how well we can walk in our sleep

Napping our way through this democracy

Uninformed, responsibility-free

Until we awake and blink open our eyes

It’s hard to believe that we’re even surprised

LYRIC: What Happened?

A week in this world’s enough to make all hope go out the door

Racist murders, mass destruction, ignorance and war

Pseudo-democracy that benefits only the elites

While the masses have no voice with which they can speak

Demonstrations ignored, protests dismissed

Popular uprising is just met with fists

Propaganda machines manufacture consent

To make us all tools of a government

Who are tools to corporate CEOs and their cash

Please take this away and give none of it back

What happened?  Reality is so the opposite of how it’s supposed to be

What happened?  Why is no one looking out for each other anymore?

What happened?  Everything thing has been bought or sold, our needs left in the cold

What happened?  What happened to the world?

All of our leisure and pleasure is not what we need

False wants implanted creating consumer greed

No concern for whether we will benefit

Only motivated by their increased profit

The tiny privileged minority

Exploiting a bought-off majority

Clouded so much by PR that we no longer see

What is it we actually need.

What happened?  Why can we not buy food that’s not been chemically abused?

What happened?  Why are there so few people rich and so many very poor?

What happened?  Why do we not see that we are clearly not free?

What happened?  What happened to the world?

What happened to community?  Everyone out for each other’s needs?

Now we’re just out for our wealth.  Don’t give a damn about public health.

All we buy leads to our death.  No-one’s accountable for this mess.

Free trade counts, our lives do not – a public exploited to keep them on top

It’s gotta stop!

This is not the world I want to live in

Violence rules and is fed by this system

I won’t be a puppet for a puppeteer that kills me

I no longer want to be a spectator in my own democracy!

What happened?  Why are we not a part in the running of our lives?

What happened?  Why is life so unlike the life I was promised as a child?

What happened?  Why are we so desensitized to the loss of lives?

What happened?  What happened to the world?