Contrived The whole world is contrived And it’s all because of you You and you and you and I Contrived We’re all just wingin’ it, just monkeys flingin’ shit Tryin’ to find the biggest banana, or the sweetest smelling girl And it’s not a rat race, it’s a fat chase Who can consume the most stuff, take up the most space And find the nicest apex of the word To cuddle up to all their things and find a nice pop song to sing About the state of the irate, and how they wait and wait…and wait…and nothing changes Well, nothing changes ‘cause, nobody’s changing things But they keep complaining, see, they’ve gotta feel involved And somehow they’ve evolved into some kind of cosmic criticS Sitting up there just point out where all us worker bees go wrong Contrived The whole world is contrived And it makes me wanna cry Every time I see that condescending look in their eye Contrived Go on and brand yourself Then when you’re done why don’t you just hand yourself Over to those companies that are really in charge They play the cards that tell you, ultimately, how to express your individuality Though you laugh at that reality – cuz you’re an oxymoron in $500 shoes But here’s the good news, give it a week Or a month, or a year or two And all these trends, they’ll start getting green again And the trendy will be seen in thrift shops and Goodwills across the world And we can rest to be standing on a planet that’s finally worth saving. Contrived The whole world is contrived And it makes me wanna cry Every time I see that condescending look in their eye Contrived

Cling on my friends, nanoo nanoo Don’t let go, no matter what you do You gotta hold it tight, incite a riot A mighty revolution Evolution keeps movin’ for a reason We only have ourselves to believe in Not the day to day data today You see, data these days It’s a smorgasbord There’s more and more And more and more they try To find new lines to weaponize The truth, the lies, and marginalize You and I So why do we let em? We gotta get up, we gotta go out and get em And set em straight. ‘Cause at this rate Our fate will be decided By rivals divided by aisles That somebody else has got to mop We keep playing clean-up over here And I’ve had it clean up to here We keep playing clean-up We keep playing clean-up over here Ok, so check it out, we all have doubts about the truths we tout at sometimes Then shout and whine that out there lies some proof that we only find inside our minds It’s fine, cuz we all do it But it’s also true that we can all see through it And prove it wrong to our throng Our song gives the choir something to get lost in But I’m tired and your exhausted And look what all this bullshit is costin’: Time. And it’s not even a thing. It’s just us humans measuring for wings. Before our delicate minds forget All our dreams and all the regrets We kept that didn’t let us get the things We meant to bring into the ether We keep playing clean-up over here And I’ve had it clean up to here We keep playing clean-up We keep playing clean-up over here

I wanna sing everywhere you are I am gonna build a bridge to your heart Let’s refrain from the pain of singing a final verse And fadeout on a note we don’t rehearse Fade out…lay down and fadeout I can’t get your words out of my ears or hear past the tones in your voice To reason with myself that love is nothing like this Love is never dirty, it’s free but sometimes lifeless You’re singing to be taken with notes not mine to taste if I get close to you I’ll need sustainable restraint Cuz I see your face through a pillowcase That smells like someone else And I’ll be damned if I can help myself I wanna sing everywhere you are I am gonna build a bridge to your heart Let’s refrain from the pain of singing a final verse And fadeout on a note we don’t rehearse Fade out…lay down and fadeout We made it through the first chorus I can’t help but wonder, what else is in store for us? Cuz I’m falling into some place I know I shouldn’t go But it won’t be the first time I’ve lost my self-control I think it’s too much thinking of how to stop this thinking And can’t keep the weight of you from sinking in My heart’s been flappin in the wind And I don’t know if it will set sail again Or tatter me to pieces In some tragic breakdown I wanna sing everywhere you are I am gonna build a bridge to your heart Let’s refrain from the pain of singing a final verse And fadeout on a note we don’t rehearse Fade out…lay down and fadeout

The talking heads they make no sense That they can’t turn to dollars or more followers More likes and shares To keep us unaware Of anything except the pretty pictures. They give em words now and call em “memes” And they’ll say all the things we could ever mean I’ll share this one to prove I believe And just like if you agree All these graphics and lights flashin’ give me spasms I keep grabbin’ for the truth but Comin’ up with bruises I’ve got nothing left to prove if all I can conclude is that the colors are amusing, and the graphics just keep on improving They’ll be talking about how the aftermath is so damned tragic While spinning around some dumbass graphics Causing panic among dramatic masses Not that any of that bullshit matters They took up sides and came to find That it takes time and an open mind to truly understand, And man, it’s easy to deceive em, If you just make em believe in All the pixels that you scatter All these graphics and lights flashin’ give me spasms I keep grabbin’ for the truth but Comin’ up with bruises I’ve got nothing left to prove if all I can conclude is that the colors are amusing, and the graphics just keep on improving They got filters for days And so many ways to take out the lovely And replace it with nothing But something impossible to achieve And you can’t filter ugly from a heart It’s pronounced gif it’s not pronounced not jiff And that’s just one way That they create these rifts See it’s all about The ball of doubt In all of us out here And it’s clear that with it we’re So easily molded And we’re eagerly beholden To the symbols we share And the pictures we care about As long as they don’t allow Alternate perspectives To the arguments erected (Whoa, that’s a big erection) And it’s the one we’ll be lettin’ em use to Infect us come the next election We’ll be the bottom and they’ll be the top And we’ll just keep talking about that gigantic cock It’s all just codependent pillow talk Wake up and take up a cause (not a symbol or picture or a mixture of those) Take up a cause We don’t have to be to belong (so advocate) It’s time to wake up And time to take up….a cause And you can’t filter ulgy from a heart It’s pronounced gif it’s not pronounced not jiff And that’s just one way That they create these rifts See it’s all about The ball of doubt In all of us out here And it’s clear that with it we’re So easily molded And we’re eagerly beholden To the symbols we share And the pictures we care about As long as they don’t allow Alternate perspectives To the arguments erected (Whoa, that’s a big erection) And it’s the one we’ll be lettin’ em use to Infect us come the next election We’ll be the bottom and they’ll be the top And we’ll just keep talking about that gigantic cock It’s all just codependent pillow talk Wake up and take up a cause (not a symbol or picture or a mixture of those) Take up a cause We don’t have to be to belong (so advocate) It’s time to wake up And time to take up….a cause

We are all just systems Of intersecting systems It’s an interesting existence This human entity And we are all a system Of intersecting systems Such an interesting existence This thing that we all be I’ve been unstacking turtles All the way down, and down Not underground, but under our Existence And under the existence Of the concept of existence An interesting persistence That we’ve got it figured out Cuz this place is just a mirror Full of mirrors full of mirrors And if you think it’s getting clearer, don’t And time, as we’ve discussed Is only dreams that turned to dust You know it’s just a gust of wind we humans failed to catch We are all just systems Of intersecting systems It’s an interesting existence This human entity And we are all a system Of intersecting systems Such an interesting existence This thing that we all be We’ve all got a thousand faces Been to a million places Every story every hero Every journey is our own And we can take or leave The things that others might believe Or even go out and weave your own Lit and and sorted tale But as for me, I’ll be here taking breaths And just living my life bereft of the dogmatic mindset And if I ever I find My own peace of mind I’m gonna keep that to myself Or will I? Because after all… We are all…just…. We are all just systems Of intersecting systems It’s an interesting existence This human entity And we are all a system Of intersecting systems Such an interesting existence This thing that we all be We do it out of fear That there’s nothing to this here That it all might disappear But don’t worry cuz it will But don’t worry…because it will All of it Everything you see Everything you don’t see It’s all gonna disappear All the things in your head that tell you can’t be The thing you want to be Those are all temporary, and there’s freedom in that You’re going to take off those chains You’re gonna go out and do those things You’re gonna take a breath Then you’re gonna take over the world And have some tacos

Go listen.