Piles of Sand

Well I’m standing in the sunlight

In a public park in Tennessee

And I know the soft earth below

Has always made room for me

She’s been carryin’ my weight

For 20 some-odd years

And what have I given in return?

I have lived in apartment buildings

Soarin’ high above the ground

I’ve seen clear water flow out

From my tap somehow

But now here I am just taking my time

And taking a walk in the light

When something blocks the sun ahead

I thought it was a mountain

But it was just a pile of sand

Towering so high

A nine to five creation

We try, try, try

To fit that fire in our hands

But what we build up as mountains

Are just piles of sand

Now this old river path

Ain’t quite what it used to be

There’s a job side on my right

And a prison across the street

But through four rounds of barbed wire

I still see it clear as air

No matter what we build around it

This river ain’t goin nowhere

I thought it was a mountain

But it was just a pile of sand

Towering so high

A nine to five creation

We try, try, try

To fit that fire in our hands

But what we build up as mountains

Are just piles of sand

Empires fall

Civilizations fade from view

I see it in the Sphinx’s missing nose

And in cracked roman statues

If I could wake them up

And ask what they believed

I wonder if they’d smile

And say “yeah we know what you mean”

We thought it was a mountain

But it was just a pile of sand

One on top of the other

Through a thousand generations

We try, try, try

As it slips right through our hands

We keep climbing to the highest peak

Just to slide back down again

Because what we build up as mountains

What we build up as mountains

What we build up as mountains

Are just piles of sand