The Atheist's Burden

I caught a dawn chorus this morning,

And it was a show-stopper.

I'm rising early again, and it's great.

I took a Hell of a chance,

And it's paid off handsomely.

Now it looks like everything is right.

And the sky was deep blue, and the air was ice-cold.

I look at the sky quite a lot,

Don't you know?

'Cause I don't know what the future's got in store for me,

But it's gotta hold more than the past any day.

Now I don't care if the past has left marks on me

Who can't assess their own damage with their own two eyes?

God knows how we did it,

I guess we're all just scrabbling around in the dirt--

We just aim for the sky.

There's so much pessimism around that it's frightening--

Makes you wonder where it's all gonna end.

But if you get up real early--say 4:30--and look around,

You'll see the world before the cynics have got out of bed.