Barnyard Breakout
At breakfast, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. Then someone "complimented" me for being so committed to my job, and it clicked: I was giving my life to something that would happily kill and eat me. I'm not the farmer, so the best road is to be the cow. Give only the surplus you won't miss.
Ham and eggs on a chipped-up plate
Coffee gone cold but it still feels late
You don't ask much, you just eat and go
Someone else set the pace, you know
Bite your tongue in the modern age
Buy the thing and it's off the page
Take what you can
That's what they tell you
The hen did the work, the pig paid in
You call it breakfast, call it discipline
Borrow from later, spend it today
Trust it too hard and it eats you away
One road out, I can see it now
If you can't be the farmer, then be the cow
A milk cow's got it almost made
No alarm clock, no quarterly raid
Grass in the morning, shade by noon
Just chew slow and you'll get by soon
But don't look down at the boots in the dirt
Or the cut of the hide, or the price of the shirt
The hen did the work, the pig paid in
You call it breakfast, call it discipline
Borrow from later, spend it today
Trust it too hard and it eats you away
One road out, I can see it now
If you can't be the farmer, then be the cow
So are you a person or product on tap
Sold by the pound in a paper sack
Keep your head low, keep your feed in line
Count your blessings and lose your spine
Stay sweet, stay still, stay in your stall
While the one with the bucket decides it all
The hen did the work, the pig paid in
You call it breakfast, call it discipline
Borrow from later, spend it today
Trust it too hard and it eats you away
One road out, I can see it now
If you can't be the farmer, then be the cow
Do the work you can
Here and now