Why Write a Letter That You'll Never Send Lyrics

We don't write letters anymore
there ain't the time or place
but a friend of mine wrote something like
a letter yesterdayIt was smuggled through my inbox
just this morning, 3am
more impotent than important
but let me read it now, verbatimHe says "i got that same old feeling
the one that turns the birds to brutes
the sky is like a bad dream
and the earth is in cahoots
I don't believe no one no more
I don't care what no one say's
I just wanna make the world
a much less painful placeWe look fonder on the good old days
as they drift further away
but why if everyone feels so homesick
are they always setting sail?'Cause it's all bad news up there on deck
and each headland masks the next

i'd just as soon dive in the ocean
and forego the blood and sweatForego all aspirations
they just put everyone at odds
if idle hands are the devil's work
then where's the time for God's?And why write a letter that you'll never send away
Why won't you stay with me, wait and see
all you need to know
nobody's perfect and their needs are always stark
stay with me, wait you'll see
all you need to know
everybody's hurting and their needs are always starkAnd who cares about wars of choice lands
where states indulge their passions
and all the new shoots just jackbootscoot
all dissent out of fashionLike Fred Astaires at a film premier
that is all about them
it's stirring stuff, transformative
they don't care where they're sentThey're all kiss chasing childish
dreams of privileged masculinity
'till they're spent by shock and discharged
home to small town and big cityThe rest are the type left dying or dead
from trying to be useful
they've been handy in the years gone by
and they'll be handy in the futureAnd who cares for their survival
and who cares about the yanks
who cares if they get overrun
by Chinese nukes and tanksWho cares about the holocaust
man we didn't learn nothing there
and all it's memory does is
keep the History Channel on airWho cares about the Vatican
man everybody knows
and who's surprised they went and
chose a nazi for a pope?Who cares about fakes like anarchists
man they never went to dance
let's mambo Mogadishu
give anarchy a chanceI'm saying life is cruel, you know it's true
but all sides still try and recruit you
for shangri-las as practical
as doing the karma sutraWhy write a letter that you'll never send awayWhy won't you stay with me, wait and see
all you need know
nobody's perfect and their needs are always stark
stay with me, wait you'll see
all you need to know
everybody skirts the fact their needs are always starkAnd who cares if the starving millions
know it's christmas or your birthday
or what movie stars in Africa
or the guy from U2 saysOr all the statesmen never telling
lies as truth or gospel
who cares what true or false
the truth's the world won't go to hospitalBut who needs to live forever
who needs the extra miles
we won't need bees or seed banks
in the Arctic for a whileWe play the game to start again
not to better life for all
it's the appropriate opiate
when a better way's impossibleSome honesty now wouldn't go astray
if not, then what's the use?
we're animals, we can't help doing
what all animals doSo goodbye my friend, i'm hitting send
forgive me talking straight
I'm only trying to make the world
a much less painful placeAnd why write a letter that you'll never send away?"
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