Animal

More and more there is this animal Looking out through my eyes At all the traffic on the road to nowhere At all the shiny stuff around to buy At all the wires in the air At all the people shopping For the same blank stare At America the drastic That isolated geographic That's become infested with millionaires When you grow up surrounded By willful ignorance You have to believe Mercy has its own country And that it's round and borderless And then you have to grow wings And rise above it all Like there Where that hawk is circling Above that strip mall More and more there is this animal Looking out through my eyes Seeing that animals only take from this world What they need to survive But she is prowling through all the religions of men Seeing that time and time and time again Their gods have made them Special and above Nature's law And the respect thereof And I think when you grow up surrounded By willful ignorance You have to believe that mercy has its own country And that it's round and borderless And then you just grow wings And rise above it all Like there where that hawk is circling Above that strip mall Ask any eco-system Harm here is harm there And there and there And aggression begets aggression It's a very simple lesson That long preceded any king of heaven And there's this brutal imperial power That my passport says I represent But it will never represent where my heart lives Only vaguely where it went 'cause I know when you grow up surrounded By willful ignorance You learn that mercy has its own country And that it's round and borderless And then you just grow wings And rise above it all Like there Where that hawk is circling Above that strip mall --- Animal - Ani DiFranco