An anthem on the occasion / of civilization’s / imminent destruction, /
                         to be sung when someone / discovers nature’s one hundred / and nineteenth element, //

                    by pessimysticism’s / great metaphysicist— / that malcontent of a poet /
                         to his public better / known as Jono Borden, / defiance his science.

          [Hook]

Don’t knock ’em down
     a peg or two,
     pull out the ladder
     from under fools

          [Chorus]

On nights we bleed
     what we wish were just
     dreams, deep beneath
     surface sleep secrets
     too obvious
     for you idiots
     to reach, pieces
     your puzzle still needs

          [Verse One]

I’m not altruistic,
     I’m opportunistic—
     if I can use you
     or your government
     to my advantage
     chances aren’t
     that I will, but that I
     already have

          [Chorus]

          [Verse Two]

I harbour no
     interest in
     blazing trails or
     holding hands, but
     burning bridges
     and poisoning
     rivers over
     which they once spanned

          [Chorus]

          [Verse Three]

It’s as important to be
     reviled and ridiculed
     as it is to be esteemed,
     so you’ll forgive me, please, for
     actively cultivating
     my unpopularity—
     my contempt self-evident
     when I lead what life you won’t

          [Chorus]

          [Hook]

          [Verse Four]

I don’t give a fuck where you’re from
     or what you do for a living,
     I want to know what methods of
     divination you practice and
     which planets sit in the Seventh
     House of your horoscope’s mansions,
     heaven’s position before we
     even consider being friends

          [Chorus]

          [Verse Five]

With calm, I call forth storms
     spitting fulminations
     against helicopter
     parents, smothering kids
     when they hover over
     them, parachuting in
     to teach the importance
     of blind codependence

          [Chorus]

          [Verse Six]

Such spineless wisdom’s lesson
     in general cowardice
     preparing kids for nothing,
     those pathetic little shits
     reeking of cigarettes and
     insignificance, whose stench
     hints at something missing, some
     element eluding them

          [Chorus]

          [Hook]