and if the world took a different turn
and all the things we stopped to learn
were set aflame and left to burn
we would still know ourselves
we do not need the books on our shelves
for the words are settled into us and grown
the birds of our freedom have not yet flown
we will always have the music and the poetry, the prose
the existence of the thorn does not deny the rose
all these hypotheticals they pose
do not represent the kind of life we chose
they represent a world reduced to fear
and fabricated lies we would not hear
and if the world from that direction is to be turned
we must think with what we know and what we’ve learned
we listen to the words about the world in which we live
and reject the lie of the picture they try to give