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It Can't Happen Here

by Nancy Babich

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1.
Zeitnot 03:08
Humanity can kill itself with the push of a button In the calculus of human life your life is just a pebble You cannot survive this Zeitnot Zeitnot Zeitnot Zeitnot I can't stand it Feels like civil death What myth would it take to make this pass I can't stand it You're so warmblooded now Don't get me wrong i'm getting used to it Used to love Love and words of love Love and words of love Love and words of love Love and signals of love But of course i knew all along In the back of all my thought Always had that feeling Just a mammal, so alone ZEITNOT ZEITNOT ZEITNOT ZEITNOT The kingdom of god is within you The end of days too The image of god decaying rapid Preying on a dying planet Eat the children to feed the children No one is guilty no one is innocent
2.
Ghosts 04:32
Existing in the shadows between Too hard to connect, too codependent You only feel peace when everyone is asleep Existing in the shadows between I don't want to die but I don't know how to live I've got all the pieces but I can't make them fit Work another job til you're unemployed again and the rent costs extras cos you never pay on time Feeling the shame from your sleep cycles You're never awake when anybody wants you too You're never awake to see anybody else It's too hard to wake up and acknowledge another day Existing in the shadows between Too hard to connect, too codependent You only feel peace when everyone is asleep Existing in the shadows between
3.
Fold it up and do it again Repeat repeat and serve your fellow man Take orders and follow them through Don't ask questions you'll do it for money Universal truth Real phenomenon Spreading progressively You cannot remain immune Fold it up and do it again Repeat repeat and serve your fellow man Take orders and follow them through Don't ask questions you'll do it for money Armageddon Delays itself We pick our own truths Until that day comes Fold it up and do it again Repeat repeat and serve your fellow man Take orders and follow them through Don't ask questions you'll do it for money
4.
Exits 04:18
I choose my days Never mind the consequences Oh what a waste I can't keep up with my own changes So many things Will inhabit our bodies So many fears Will wake us up to bind us I can't sleep in my room It reminds me too much of you I cannot touch my books I'm just waiting to fall through the cracks in the world You are so thoughtful That makes you dangerous I'm trying to understand why I stay We get addicted to anything I'm smoking the same cigarette Over and over again False cigarettes, false burns on false arms Please send help You built these walls But there's no meaning Behind the map Lost in sharp living I really want to know I really want to learn I'm just sitting here Trying to understand before i go I can't sleep in my room It reminds me too much of you I cannot touch my books I'm just waiting to fall through the cracks in the world You are so thoughtful That makes you dangerous I'm trying to understand why i stood and watched the drowning save themselves
5.
I have so many voices They are the parts of me It's too hard to keep track of Which voice does the talking anymore And so everyone will have these voices That they don't want to hear They'll keep on talking without listening Too tired to talk back Just acknowledge and move on I am exhausted by the effort it takes to sleep Don't forget you deserve this so Don't forget you deserve this so Don't forget you deserve this so Don't forget you deserve this so Know that the web that gives us life Traps us for the spider and oxygen burns us from the inside Time lost it's meaning too long ago Stuck in a moment with too many faces Breathe in consuming life Breathe out expel your death Emotional retreat I can't tell if I am sad these days Count down the countless moments Count down till there's none left to give Count down the countless moments Count down till there's none left to give anymore
6.
Living in daytight compartments No one will see your weakness You are the material from which you build There are consequences to living To grasping at strangers' affection The days can't go slower that side of the end The sky is too big, can't contain it Fate from an open void The only future worth speaking of is present When one is starved, the plainest meal is full of flavor Faith, being sure, thinking - it's all relative God and the Devil are just the world's bastards pulling together I pull myself into existence Through things that I have neglected Severed by time, bound by action No way to escape it --- The same gestures of trust Always in the same circumstances Across a thousand different backgrounds From a million points of reference Your intensity's just one variable Don't tell me, tell it to yourself! Just because I am today Won't mean I'll be the same tomorrow Most of life is noise and sorrow Yeah, most of life is noise and sorrow There is no next plateau, is there? Just matter to grind up Your language dissects me And maybe that's right...
7.
Projections 04:56
Take a walk away from yourself Look away and see someone else Our bodies transmit static Minds cannot hold the clarity Take twelve steps back from the program The scripts we've been given and the ones we wrote ourselves are tearing out each other's pages No one else can see this all they see is what you've done Take a walk away from yourself Look away and see someone else Our bodies transmit static Minds cannot hold the clarity You know that everything is wrong Talking Heads will lie to you whenever you want them to Reality is what we make of it No one else can see this all they see is what you've done Take a walk away from yourself Look away and see someone else Our bodies transmit static Minds cannot hold the clarity
8.
A truth calms the breath and calmness is always more useful than the other choice But we're all so human we don't do what is useful no matter what the price We do what we think is right (for ourselves) And then what we fear is right (despite ourselves) Always the other half, always the other half Now what can I do when I feel so threatened, humiliated by your safety? Until you write there's only blankness I can't live on Derealize what you do most, let language flow Ostalas' tol'ko ya, ostalas' tol'ko ty No vot opyat oni - glaza, steklo, ogni! Zachem opyat oni oni oni oni... Ostalsya tol'ko den', ostalas' tol'ko noch I lish' zhelaniye tebe pomoch Ostalas' lish postel, ostalas' lish eda Up against yourself, you're up against yourself Up against yourself This inner peace is murdering you This inner peace is murdering you What good is consciousness if you can't hold your head up? What good is consciousness if you can't hold your head up? What good is freedom when you're conventional as money? What good is freedom when you're conventional as money? Always see yourself as obstacle, something to overcome The joy of giving up on pride's too strong and too short term To lead you anywhere good, like tearing off a scab Too big to contain yourself, too hot and too harsh We're beings living in nothing and everyone's perfection Will play out traumas again and again and again and again Trying to fill the void... fingers prying brain... I never had it in me You had me figured wrong Someday we'll wind up right back where we belong
9.
Burning 05:49
Every layer of love is a labyrinth Plants grow in light, animals move by darkness And if I said all my thoughts I still wouldn't have the answers I'm being caught up with by invasive changes I can't protect you from yourself No matter how much I love you How can I convince you The Fear is worse than the Fall? You don't wanna go there and I don't wanna take you there You don't wanna go there and I don't wanna take you there But I'm crashing, I'm crashing and I don't want you in my flames BURNING BURNING Learn to appreciate, even worship anguish Trade quiet pessimistic faith for prophecies of plague Muddle up revelation and imagination Everything will be redacted in the end What do I do when I already know the answer? Ungrudging tenant with notebooks of vendettas This is, this is the age of the senses We've got a medium, now let's praise it Find our unifying symbol and erase it You don't wanna go there and I don't wanna take you there You don't wanna go there and I don't wanna take you there But I'm crashing, I'm crashing and I don't want you in my flames BURNING BURNING Reality writes words Words rewrite reality A running machine adjusting itself And we all secretly know where it's heading I take on this hollowness gladly
10.
11.
I am the obstacle to a sense of understanding I stare into screens so that my mind's not inside of my head Everything's falling to pieces and I don't know if it's me or everyone in orbit around the drain What forces are keeping me in place? Nothing outside my window Just a red brick facade of my neighbors So perfect So together There is nothing to compare Bowing your head to reason is praying to your god To a sense of understanding I am the obstacle And I don't know who is me Can you tell me who I've been Just tell me what you see and I promise that I'll listen
12.
Fascist waves are crashing And I don't wanna be carried away Lies are more believable when The truth conflicts with our faith Trust in a wartime economy To create a better peace Believe in production, believe in progress And always be moving forward, forward Liberal crisis of conscience won't save us Understanding won't make a dent Where do acts of kindness end And where do acts of war begin? A traitor in every home All terrors accounted for Peace on earth, our peace Your uneasy skies The extreme connotes a threat And all the past is suspect What are the things that we used to remember? What sense did it make? What coherence? We may not always agree But we admire your efficiency
13.
Postscript 04:50
Waking from dreams you wake into dreams, dreams of gold and smoke Shining bring in the night and obscured by morning light You cycle in your cycles, tear away the flesh and remove imperfection Deviation strikes you like a nerve exposed in the wind What's going on inside of my head, I don't know what I should feeling instead Nothing feels right, feels synergetic or compatible with another's dream Nothing started is nothing new Just keep going and keep the status quo No beginnings no endings another chapter in the same serial Losing yourself Losing yourself to the expectations Losing yourself Losing yourself to another reality

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released September 1, 2016

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Nancy Babich Ithaca, New York

(Nancy Babich is a band. It's currently four people.)

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