Demands of Existence
If I told you to do the impossible
To fight the impossible fight
To pursue the impossible dream
If I told you it was the only thing that would
Make you possible
Would you do it?
If I told you your life was absurd
And unfair and that the cards would be stacked
Ridiculously against you
But that you should live nonetheless
That you must live nonetheless
Would you do it?
If I set wolves at your door and
Snakes in your bed
If I made your neighbors vultures
And your enemies your only friends
If I gave you but a stone for a pillow
And a shack for a home
And told you to awaken each morning
With a plan
To wake each morning
Determined to live
Would you do it?
If I gave you but one hawks feather to pray with
And 7 rocks set in a circle for a temple
If your flock was a ragged and desperate band of thieves
Your children thugs and your own mother addicted to drugs
Would you have the strength to lead them?
Would you have the heart to love them?
Would you have the humility to call yourself one of them?
To claim their faults as your own?
If I colored you black or red and set you down in this white world
If I shaped you woman and set you down in this man’s world
If I fashioned you queer and set you down in this straight world
If I told you to do the impossible
To fight the impossible fight
To pursue the impossible dream
If I told you it was the only thing that would
Make you possible
Would you do it?
