The Trees Get Wheeled Away

Anchormen spike their blood
Wear masks of mud--
Cucumbers cut to fit their eyes.
So no one would know
How tired they've grown
Of talking and telling their lies.

While your TVs change stations,
Scroll messages
Victims and Christians both drinking blood...
They'll pray for the destruction of all hatred--
More often--
Just those with hate for us.
Cause it hurts when you discover one's worse and one's better
To suffer, or cause others to
And you can live by your conscience--
Now guilt is a concept you're no longer subscribing to.

There's a virgin in my bed
And she's taking off her dress...
And I'm not sure what I am gonna do.
There's a song stuck in my head
And I can't help singing it--
Oh how I hope my singing pleases you...
Cause this is not who I've become
But what you make me into.

Oh, we got no health insurance
No cellular service
No disease they can't cure...
But we need more money to burn
So each person must learn
The dollar amount they are worth.
And those pills make me dizzy
Forgetting my body
I watch as it walks away...
But I just keep drinking the poison
And smoking the cartons,
A pack and a half a day.

So when time comes to claim me
My friends and my family will gather around my grave...
They'll believe that they knew me
And love me and miss me
And all call me by my name.

So imagine what you want
And then hold on to that thought.
Cause that's as close as it will ever come...
And believe you're where you are
Keep acting out the part--
But at the end of the day, the trees all get wheeled away...
And you'll be standing alone in a blank, blank space.


So believe you're who you are,
And stay in character...
But at the end of the play, the audience walks away.
And I'll be shivering cold on a well-lit stage.

-Conor Oberst