Zookeeper - Seeming

(And I can’t look up and I can’t look down

When the whole wide world reveals its death

And I can’t take a breath 'cause I haven’t escaped

And I haven’t escaped because I can’t take a breath)

Oh zookeeper, we’re gonna help each other through

Zookeeper, I don’t trust anyone but you

Leave the enclosure, lower our gaze

Brace for the crush, here it comes, brace for the craze

(And I can’t buy into the world that’s sold

But I can’t afford to buy a ticket out

And I can’t reply to anything I’m told

But they say they’re just telling me to open my mouth

And I can’t shake the feeling there was something else

There was something I believed in that got me here

But I’m afraid to go back and find what it was

Because the only belief that I held was fear)

Oh zookeeper, all my life through

Zookeeper, it’s been only me and you

We govern the jungle, we scuttle the ark

There go the cameras, here comes the dark

Here comes the dark

(And will you leave me behind because I cry too much?

Well if you do then you know I’ll cry and cry

Or are you leaving 'cause you’ve never known another touch

And you wonder what it’s like on the other side?

And the further you go, the less I care

And the less I care, then the further you go

And the smarter I get, the more I want to learn

But the more that I learn, the less I realize I know)

'Cause there’s

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left but you and me

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

But you and me

(And everything that’s new decays to something old

And «new» is just a word, just an adjective

And every part of speech that I conceive afresh

Will do nothing to change the fact that it’s live

Or die, the two, the irreducible pair

And it’s yes or no, and it’s you or me

And it’s stay or go, and it’s earth or air

And it’s fast or slow, or it’s in between)

Oh zookeeper, d’ya think we’ll pull through?

Zookeeper, and do we really have to?

We could’ve stayed, we could still pretend

But here come the birds of prey

Here comes the end

Here comes the end

(And it’s up or down, and it’s zero or one

And we’re made of ghosts, who’re all keeping score

It’s all in the past or it’s still to come

And I feel like I’m the only one who cries for more

'Cause time is just one way, and a circle’s closed

And everyone I know retains a name

Still I can’t look up and I can’t look down

And for all the change, it’s all the same)

And there’s

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left but you and me

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

But you and me

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left

There’s nobody left but you and me

(And if I stride into the heart of a factory

Walking tall and fast so that no one asks

Could I lay my head down on the iron press?

And could I push the green button and end it fast?

There’s a black hole spiral with no inside

Where nothing escapes and death is just a flash

But to the bear in the cage is there a slowing of time?

Does the split second noise just last and last?)

There’s nobody left in the world

In the place of predator and prey and boys and girls

There’s nobody left in the wild

Ain’t got no use for words like «animal» or «child»

(And does the lion grow love like wings of milk?

And does the meat of my bones rise up and sing?

And does my soul take flight into calcium dust?

And does the map of the world blow apart in the wind?

And does the boat on the water dissolve in tears?

And does clearing in the forest mate intention with math?

Is the emergence of a tumor just a god who tries

To break into our world by the shortest path?)

Zookeeper

Come on, open your heart up, open my cage

Here comes the future

Here comes the rage

(And does the flailing of my body on the foundry floor

Give a scent of honey and a scent of luck

So that the workers and overseer can’t ignore

The little moonglow breeze by which they’re struck?

And will we meet in the morning on the day we die?

Will we chase our shadows like we never grew up?

And will we laugh to the comedy of nuclei?

And will we drink ourselves deep into the holy cup?

And your very first word was your very last choice

If your daughter doesn’t get you then the government will

I’m just hanging onto life for the sake of my cats

And if I were their size, they would probably kill me too)