Earl Grey

Sipping earl grey in a coffee shop
And I imagine myself sitting all alone
In an empty tub and my phone is off

Blue light flashes as I romanticise ceramic on my back bones
I fantasise, they tantalise, they think they’re wise
Little squares bounce back and forth before my eyes
Little wings flutter like butterflies, little words, little buttons
To keep me occupied personalised and hand delivered
My daily newsletter full of terror so we’re terrified
Big fonts compete for my attention
Big brands scramble to grab a mention
An influencer’s influence is only for a second
But fame in the immediate is always gonna beckon

Follow me, she says
I promise you I can help
I can fix your body or your relationship with yourself
Click here to build your wealth
But while you’re still depressed, don’t forget to ring that bell

Your history’s a secret
I promise I won’t tell unless
You used a slur before you learned how to spell
With your private school friends in your private school uniform
That’s why you’re excommunicated from your platform
That’s why you gotta be educated and diligent
'Cause to be complicated is to be complicit
But refusing to participate is to miss it
And if I'm honest I admit that I'm addicted and that’s why I'm

Sipping earl grey in a coffee shop
And I imagine myself sitting all alone
In an empty tub and my phone is off

I underestimate an hour that becomes a day
And now I'm looking at a future in the gutter
But I investigate the ethics every time
I pay to verify the company deserves a dollar
'Cause I’ve been burned before, haven’t we all?
Whenever we ordered a pair of jeans
From that online store that turned out to profit off of child labour
What does it cost to know what your clothes are made of?

But I accept a burden that I shoulder
Because I kept a family inheritance I want to protect
A process of keeping my class in check
But what would change if mr musk operated the same way
And Bezos paid his employees the right pay
And Zuckerberg gave minorities their say?
Maybe it’s not so grey

But I sit on a plane and I pray to stay grounded
But I sit dumbfounded at the big cloud mountains
There are icebergs in the sky and the billionaires sigh
As their private planes pass by and clouds unload themselves
On the waters below and the rivers become lakes
As they overflow and the houses are destroyed
As the floodplains grow but it’s beautiful to watch from the ozone

And I want to do something with the money I’ve got
But the companies are looking for somebody I'm not
And the days are getting warmer and the planet’s hot
But we’re all comfortable frogs in the boiling pot
So I'm still sitting still because I almost forgot
About how tired every choice makes me
It’s a lot and the fire feels fake when it’s tying a knot
Preparing a noose before we all get shot. We’re all paralysed

Sipping earl grey in a coffee shop
And I imagine myself sitting all alone
In an empty tub and my phone is off

Huh, no wonder we’re all so stressed
Our choices committed under future duress
A generational inherited aversion to rest
I confess I write what I cannot attest
I'm always a guest, and never belong
We try our best but keep getting it wrong
Learn to resist but still singing their songs
In between two oceans but the current’s strong
Embedded in the west but my roots wonder, do I belong there?
Where my blood and my skin reside, iI’ve never gone there
Stuck allocate a place to breathe
But never allow enough time and space to grieve
I sit and I bow and listen and receive
But sometimes the work just deepens the fatigue
Going to church and learning to weave
All these threads into theology that I can believe

How do you take your tea?
If you’ve only got bags, don’t give me green
I’ll drink it black if you’ve got full cream
Don’t you think your demands are a little extreme?
IIguess I’ll take it normally then
And keep that in mind for next time when I'm ordering then
'Cause no offence to your palette the next time I vote with your ballot

Sipping earl grey in a coffee shop
And I imagine myself sitting all alone
In an empty tub and my phone is off