Before the Water Gets Too High

Seldom have I ever questioned the end Still I grow frost when I'm reminded Euphemisms on a loop interchange Which hands get to turn the final page? In whose throat belongs the swan song Of crisis, warming, denial, change? Stage TV helps the public explain Broadcast beamed into the dry terrain Images of drenched survival Without hope but soaked with pain Consequences of reality felt All conditions of humanity built On the bridges Tent villages waiting for the state to help Glass barely bends before it cracks Embedded down into our path Paved in the crimson of our tracks Without the chance of turning back Before the water gets too high Before the water gets too high If the clock strikes midnight then What becomes of our demonstrations? To which fate have these gatherings fell? Which halls echo all the chants we yelled Into faces on the coins we tossed into the wishing well? Drinking water on which we subsist Mixing into rivers that did not exist Yesterday when all the warning signs were there but sorely missed What's it worth all the money we made Floating idly in a newborn lake? Far above financial centers Cities sink like market rates Glass barely bends before it cracks Embedded down into our path Paved in the crimson of our tracks Without the chance of turning back Before the water gets too high Add up the bribes you take And know time can't be bought By the profits that you make Before the water gets too high To float the powers that be Or is it someone else's job Until the rich are refugees? Before the water gets too high Before the water gets too high Before the water gets too high Before the water gets too high