The Life of a Mouse

I guess it’s normal for me to come up with music first, then start writing words that seem to fit it. Life of a Mouse started that way. A few lines in, the idea for the final song started forming and I ended up rewriting the lines that had come before the idea. File this one under angry hip-hop. Read on for lyrics.

The Life of a Mouse

Lyrics and music by Ahd Child

Verse 1
I see fluorescent white lights and steel in my sleep
I can’t be free from these concrete dreams
As I scream at the bars at the side of my cage
I get no where with my rage
I am a lab rat for experiments
I’m unimportant and irrelevant
The white coats don’t care about my struggle for the cheese
I mean, who stops to listen to a lab rat’s pleas?
I’m stuck walking the maze, always running from the shocks
The turns always change, and I’m always so lost
It’s not even a game, there’s no pleasure that’s gained
They just do what they do, immune to my pain
You see the mice always pay for the scientists’ mistakes
As they fiddle around making changes to our brains
They alter DNA and infect us with disease
And at the end of the day they’re all free to leave

Chorus
I hate the life of a mouse
Constantly trying to sneak around
Always hiding, can’t make a sound
Cuz they hate a mouse

Verse 2
I’m stuck crawling through walls
Finding passage through the gaps
Trying to survive without sticking to a trap
I need to eat to live, but there’s poison in the food
So I starve if I don’t but I’m damned if I do
I chew through their wires and I hope I’m starting fires
But I can do so little before I feel so tired
I spend most my time hiding, the alternative to dieing
I feel so weak, I should be fighting
But I’m so easily damaged, I pose no challenge
I’m just a minor annoyance when I’m doing my damnedest
My bones are so brittle, there is little I can do
Whenever I try something new, they are not fooled
They may scream if they see me running around freely
But they just catch me and lock in my cage with my feces
They say I’m so cute, perfect for a pet
Fuck that!
I’d rather be dead

Chorus

Verse 3
I can’t shake this funny feeling that there’s a cat at my back
Lurking in the shadows, just waiting to attack
I know I might get snatched, but I think I need a snack
You see I’m forced to act when my stomach makes demands
I have basic needs that its dangerous to meet
I’m forced to sneak just to live and to breathe
Cats and traps and hands and feet
Make it hard to exist, hard to just be
Is it worth being free?
This freedom’s so limiting
And the gains of this lifestyle seem to keep diminishing
There’s no time for joy, just running and escaping
With death around the corner constantly waiting
I hate them!
But I can’t change this situation
I could face extermination, give in to experimentation
Or perhaps domestication, but nah, no escaping
No escaping!

Chorus