The Lyrics of Humanity's Crawl

Humanity’s Crawl 

Lyrics by Mitch Marinello

1. Hunger in the Moonlight

(A baby crying in the sea)

Hunger in the moonlight.
I track it, it puts up a fight.
I kill it and drag it back to the others.
The fire, the bellied beast.
The spirits in everything -
I hear them, I fear them, I feel them
In every stone, in every pool, in every song 
Every time when things wrong,
it’s they who follow and swallow from the sea...

If spirits try to kill me I will fight em back with a mighty attack 
If spirits try to take my son away
I will do whatever that it takes
I am known as Seaborn, worn out from the drudgery. 
Frightened of the dark- for him, my little boy, for the women

His mother had passed away,
I found him in the bush as the others had found on me the shore. 
I took him and gave him warmth; a name too: Settler
By starlight, we navigate and subjugate the beasts we hunt.

If spirits try to kill me I will fight em back with a mighty attack 
If spirits try to take my son away
I will do whatever that it takes.
I am known as Seaborn, worn out from the drudgery. 
Frightened of the dark- for him, my little boy, for the women.

“Son do you see those birds over that breaking line? 
What food do they hide there? Damn greedy birds.
Come now, now don’t you fear the water”, I said,
though fear gripped me as we climbed in... into the raft.....

2. The Wind is Getting Louder

Fighting going farther, the wind is getting louder.
Do you hear it?
Irreverently temperamental, tempt the sea and it will pull you in. 
Son do not lose your grip now.
Stay above the line and do not falter!
Incessant wind is battering and water dances turbulent;
Fallen fog obscuring light; I do not see him fall....
Where is he now?
He’s drowning in the sea
Chokin’ sputtterin’ gaspin’ fightin’ 
It’s all because of me
Where is he now?
Sea foam white and wind beat against my ears and eyes 
and I cannot rescind bringing him here;
his voice I do not hear. 
Unbeknownst to me the sea had struck his heart with fear.

(For days the winds blow me, For days the winds blow me)

(For days, For days, For days the winds take me away)

As my son floats away, I lay wet on a shore

3. The Beasts Lurking in the Forest

Listen... Listen....

Listen to me, there are mighty monsters out there. 
We need shelter, water.
We need to make fire.

Listen to them Listen to them

Listen to them, the beasts lurking in the forest.
They will gobble us up.
Hurry, run to shelter.
Listen, my plan, Listen, my plan

(Listen, my plan)

Make fire! Revenge! Burn the forest!
Kill the megafauna!

4. Leviathan Rises From The Sea, Singing of Land

What is that sound in the distance that I hear now? 
Familiar melody; Yet irking.
Everything is waiting.
All beasts bow .
And louder it grows, ever present.
Calling to me, visions of sea.
Heavens turns red.
A behemoth graces the sky.
As I see it, harmonious cacophony emanates from shadowy trees.
All beasts defer to their master 
Calling, they serve; servile nature.
All beasts defer to their master. 
Calling they serve to their master.

Away it goes. 
The sky darkens. 
Murmurs quiet. 
Exhausted sleep.
Waking to sun.
Gather dry wood.
With fire I set swathes of forest ablaze.
Through the smoke I see a diprotodon. 
Kill the pacifist!!!

5. Kill the Megafauna 
This is called the Holocene
When Sapiens comes on the scene

This is called the Holocene

We may not look it but we’re real mean when we kill the megafauna

This is called the Holocene
When Sapiens comes on the scene
We change the whole ecology when we kill the megafauna
Kill diprotodon
Kill megalania
Kill em fore’ they kill us

Australiasia cannot contain the might that is humanity’s crawl.

(One day to the top of the food chain)

Jurisdiction over them all

(Took my son I'm gonna put them in a lot of pain)

When we hunt ecologies fall

(On the meat of the beasts substain)

As years pass I learn songs of the land

(Navigate like the back of my hand)

One day from the top of a cliff

(Set eyes on the mighty Leviathan on an island's peak)

I will go to swim across
and climb up to the top
and stab its heart
(or whatever it’s got.....)

Now I run on distant planes.
It starts to rain.
And when I kill it, I will have my revenge. 
And now I begin the deadliest ascent

6. The Deadliest Ascent / A Vision

Climbing up to the top I gotta be vigilant
The land is being swallowed by Leviathan
His appendages are bending the world back in; 
back to the sea where it all begins and
Crashing, in violent gulps, the edges of the gulf and
Piece by piece I’m climbing up higher yet
Finally I find myself at the edge and
Heavily I heave myself over it and stare upon nature’s embodiment and
Raise my stone dagger and
Move to thrust downward when
It reaches out to me and touches my chest.

I see a vision now...
I am digging a hole.
I am planting a seed
storing grain for the cold...

Along the Euphrates
In the America’s 
In the Indus Valley
Yams in west Africa

Larger families are raised
I am fermenting drink
Cultivating the maize
Cultivating the wheat

I am pressing a book
I am spinning a loom
Burning coal in a nook
In a fluorescent room

Piloting a spacecraft

Nukes burn the planets face.
New anthropecene in space.
I land on the surface now and observe the corpses around and
see in the mother’s pouches faces I had thought forgotten.
My mother and son are written across the faces of lifeless kittens.
I’m taken by ambivalence

“You may kill me if you must, but if you do I’ll have to kill you”

7. Hunger in the Moonlight (reprise) 

“If spirits try to kill me I will fight em back with a mighty attack
If spirits try to take my son away, I will fight em back if that’s what it takes”.
That is what I said and I meant it when I said it but if that really is my life....
What am I but living strife?

8. As the Final Footing Folds

Back on the island, my daggers raised to the sky
Everything around me shakes.
Should I stab it? Get revenge?
As the final footing folds, my blade meets its fleshy folds.

Water pulls me downward 
What’s that sound that I heard?
Baby crying to me
I cry back to baby
Waves crash all around me
Oceanic drowning
Back to where the sea starts
Back to where the dream starts
Back to where the sea starts
Back to where the dream starts
Back to where the sea starts
Back to where the dream starts
Back to where the sea starts
Back to where the sea gives birth

A baby cries 

(A baby crying in the sea)