Listener
I Don’t Want to Live Forever
You've got beet blood in your mouth
And lies in your artichoked heart
Your black eyes stalking through me
With a birdcage for ribs, that vulture's trying to get out
Oh it's scratching your kidney wings
We're no longer feeding ourselves
Oh it's the raccoons that are eating our dreams
Pushing past our feeblery to keep them out
This morning I heard one sing
"There's a whole big world out there my son
Be careful don't believe them
There's a crazy old lady in the sun
She's angry can't you feel it?
If you don’t work hard you're no son of mine
Well I've earned these riverbeds
And I'll drown you out
Until you've made me proud
If you won't learn you're better off dead"
So, I'm digging in this farm yard trying to find the seeds
Forgetting all I have left in this world
Of course that includes me
So I'm digging and I'm learning
And leaving nothing unsaid
All I am is all I have
I'll take this garden for my bed
These are not just words built on a city of dreams
We have no use for this kingdom
I'm proud of you my friends
May your lives be a symphony of freedom
Cause I don't want to live forever
I just want to live for now
But the angel on my doorstep
Keeps pointing me towards that plow
So I'm digging in with both my hands
Keeping one eye on the door
If I go looking I'll probably find it
And get all I've been asking for
I don't want to live forever
I just want to live for me
But your face it just keeps haunting
Sometimes it’s all I see
So I'm working hard at learning all I can
I'm gonna give it all to you
And I'll keep making payments
Until we're all so straight and true
We're all so straight and true [x2]
I want to paint seeds together
And follow you right up to the edge
Filled up and spilling like carried cups
And watch the sun go red
But there's a poison somewhere in the water
And a shark right there in the well
I wanna show you my life
Show me your life and tell me it's not the devil
I guess I feel the way I feel
You make me feel like I'm alive
And I'm alive, am I alive
I am alive so you can live
Please come and live, why don't you live
You can live inside of me
There's a home for you inside me
Inside of me there is a fire
Inside that fire there is more fire
And in that fire there is truth
We take our furnace-chests
And run 'em neck deep into that lake
And let the coals stare us down
One last glare of doubt and hate
But we were wrong, no I was wrong
We'll just be wrong about some things
And it will never be, it can never be
It should never be this easy
To wash away the fire that burns
We wash away our flames
My eyes saw fire, my heart said escape
I said "My eyes saw fire, my heart did escape"
It's the beauty in the struggle
Has me going, keeps me shook
Sometimes I can see it in your face
God, just not in the pages of a book
And there's something in your eye that's asking
I got no answers, just clues for a path to truth
I thought it was you
But yeah, I thought it was me too
I don't want to live forever, I just want to live for us
But this head on my shoulders
Keeps driving me to be careless
Our brains don't want to listen
Ears squinting for some honesty
It gets slippery here, hold on
We are not ourselves probably
I don't want to live forever
I just want to live for you
But the devil round my doorway
Keeps singing me something new
So I'm listening with idle hands
Cupped tight around both ears
My mind's open like a burned down house
I haven't died at all this year
Oh no, I haven't died at all this year (x3)