Shoot First (Extended Version)

On a table mountain above the clouds
Ancient voices echo, dew and green enshroud
A forgotten mystery
Far in the cosmos a language emerges
Lnging and fear in pulses and surges
Outliving time and memory
In the dark of the deep colors roll and glow
Life is born in a roiling inferno
Older than speech
You read the wind, cast an eye at the sky
Clouds form like spears, you don't care
What they might teach

If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you shoot first
That's called murder
You're no cowboy
Just a coward
If you have no questions to life's mysteries
You're just a fool
Just a fool

You learned at the foot of the cold raging ocean
Sharpened the point of your white hot emotion
To pry loose some privilege
Reasonable doubt has reason at its core
Thinking from your gut you're someone else's whore
Or a sharp-toothed savage
The lore of your tribe says don't believe your eyes
Swaddle a fragile heart in warm, glowing lies
To ease your conscience
So you rage at those who can do a little math
A knowledge of history incurs your wrath
You mock its provenance

If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you shoot first
That's called murder
You're no cowboy
Just a coward
If you have no questions to life's mysteries
You're just a fool
Just a fool

This fragile contrivance we worship as truth
Was naught but facts in the green of youth
Lost to nostalgia
From the toil of discovery you will refrain
Nothing quite aches like the stabbing pain
Of cracking an enigma
Ignore the scholars in their gleaming tower
Their callous mooing has no power
Your resolve to weaken
Socrates bends your ear, but you don't listen
Ahead lies a trail of tears, but your lip gloss glistens
Like a desperate beacon

If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you want answers
To your questions
You'd better start asking and stop shooting
If you shoot first
That's called murder
You're no cowboy
Just a coward
If you have no questions to life's mysteries
You're just a fool
Just a fool