Land of the Living (feat. Layv) Video (MV)

Even if in the end
It's all the mystery
And every heart beat will dissolve back into the black hole
And every song we ever sang
Becomes a fallen leaf
Stamped into brown soil
Like
My father being carried out on a black gurney by two handsome gentlemen
Hours after his death
A celebratory death
And yet my mother and sister and i are left wondering where he went-
Even if in the end
Every breath will one day be forgotten
And
Every poem
Every song
Every sound
Every howl out into the wild
Returns to silence
Like the sound of my father
Typing on his laptop by the kitchen window
Click clack click clack
Sipping espresso
To the drone of the radio
Complaining about the republicans
Again-
Gone.
Even if in the end
The first time is a mere thread
That carries us only as far as the last
Like the cup of yogurt my father ate the day before he passed
Unfinished
Lemon bar crumbling upon the counter top
By a half-full finger-printed water glass
Even if
In the end
We are only memory
Water contained in bodies
Swimming through space
Re-living mosaic stories
Of our species
Like two souls meeting
Again and again and again
Spiraling into melodies of remembrance
Formless rose pools
And rip tides
Tied with bows of time
Like that movie- you know every line
But you watch it again
Time after time after time
Because it feels like home.
This feels like home.
Earth feels like home...
Even if
In the end
The milky way consumes itself back into dust and smoke
And planet Earth is but a distant legend from galaxies beyond,
We are here
In the land of the living.
We are here,
A wrinkle in time
A spark in the tide pool
Of life
A crack in the ice
A flicker of heat as the fire dies
A tear from god's eyes
A chorus of "but whys?"
Oh, that's right-
We're the salvation of our ancestors cries!
Even if in the end
This life
Is but a mandala in the sand
Artfully crafted by the goddess' hand for hours on end
Then swept away by a thoughtless gust of wind
Even if in the end
The water will harden into rock
And every beautiful thought we ever thought
Will be swallowed up by something greater
And
We humans are nothing more than colorful particles
Spinning through space on a big blue and green crater-
Even if in the end
My body will one day erupt into ash
Like my father's burning in a furnace
At Crippen Mortuary
With no one but two gentlemen to witness his legacy aflame
Or become
A tree like my two grandmas
Buried in the Earth
Next to the decomposing bodies
Of their lovers
Even if in the end
None of it was ever real
And
I am a dreamer dreaming this life
Into living
A mere believer beckoning
My own made-up song into
Singing
A wishful weaver
With spider like whispers
Threading each strand of my web into meaning,
I choose life.
I choose the cauldron of creation
The ceremony of celebration
I say YES yes yes!!!
To the Land of the Living.
It saddens me beyond belief that one day I will die.
That one day my body will crumble into bits of silt and sand-
I will give ALL of me
Back back back
To this rock,
My homeland.
Like my father who
By now
Has surrendered
His flesh to the Earth
Who
Opened his eyes on
The closing window of life
Who
Took his last breath
In bed
At home
Making friends with death
When it was time
And
My mother and sister and I
Are left
3 women
Alive
In the land of the living
So
Even if in the end
We are only DEATH
Gliding through time
Gilded by flesh and bone...
We are ALSO life.
And the breath of one
Would not taste as sweet
Without the promised kiss
Of the other.