Mother We Are Listening

[Intro — acoustic guitar / hand percussion / bass]
[Verse 1 — Male vocal]
The river keeps on moving
beneath the bridges we have built.
The forest stands in silence
where the machines have left their scars.
We take the water from the mountains,
we take the trees and call it growth.
Then we look across the empty fields
and wonder where the birds have gone.
[Chorus]
Mother, we are listening,
even if we learned too late.
The earth was never waiting
for permission to create.
Mother, we are listening,
to the river and the rain.
We are part of what we damage,
and we can change again.
[Instrumental — percussion / bass / acoustic guitar]
[Verse 2]
A summer lasts a little longer.
A winter comes and disappears.
The old man watches the seasons
change faster than he remembers.
We speak about the future
as if it belongs to someone else.
But every road we leave behind us
is a road our children walk.
[Chorus]
Mother, we are listening,
even if we learned too late.
The earth was never waiting
for permission to create.
Mother, we are listening,
to the river and the rain.
We are part of what we damage,
and we can change again.
[Instrumental — traditional flute / bass]
[Bridge — Female vocal]
You don't need our promises.
You need us to remember
that we are living here,
not standing above you.
[Male vocal]
I put my hand upon the ground.
I hear something moving underneath.
[Instrumental — drums / percussion / guitar]
[Verse 3]
The forest doesn't ask our language.
The ocean doesn't know our names.
The birds don't understand our borders,
and the wind has never learned to choose.
Maybe that's the lesson
we have been trying not to hear:
Nothing lives alone.
Nothing lives forever.
Everything is connected here.
[Final Chorus]
Mother, we are listening,
and the silence sounds so clear.
The earth was never ours to conquer.
We were always living here.
Mother, we are listening,
to the river and the rain.
We are part of what is broken.
We can be part of the change.
[Outro — natural flute / bass]
The river keeps on moving.
We are listening.