| Happy Birthday to me
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| (to me)
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| 25 years old today
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| (today)
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| It’s my birthday
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| (birthday)
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| Happy Birthday, Vessel
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| (They're not coming back for you)
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| Happy Birthday Dear, dear, dear
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| Vessel
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| Vessel
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| Vessel
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| The first thing I remember brings me 25 years back
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| Overcast morning, the kind that almost looks fake
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| First thing I saw was white walls, and bright light bulbs
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| Blurry pictures and hands holding cans of paint
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| The image used to be clear, but the years were never kind
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| Your past is always playing tricks on your mind
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| Muffled noises slowly became voices
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| Hovering over my body watching God’s miracle happen
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| Life shot through my limbs
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| And they started asking questions
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| But I couldn’t answer with the comprehension
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| Being newborn status
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| Classes don’t start for a while
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| I know I’m not the fastest thinker
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| But I was quickly mobile
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| At an early age my chores started like everyone else
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| My friends don’t speak much
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| But at least they’re there help
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| When there is work to be done, one of three sons, I’ve always been special
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| The others got boring names, but my parents called me Vessel
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| Middle name 1208 and I don’t complicate
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| I keep busy and have no time to waste
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| Careening with the social scene, or playing on sports teams
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| (But now I’ve misunderstood what they meant)
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| See, when teens aren’t supervised, they’ll kill each other
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| AND I KNOW FIRSTHAND FROM WATCHING OVER MY BROTHERS
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| (Watch my brothers)
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| But tonight we celebrate the day that I was born
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| And every year I wait by the window and listen for the horn
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| (Listen for the horn)
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| (They haven’t showed up and I don’t understand why
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| (It's been three hours)
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| And I don’t, I don’t think that they know anything they’ve done
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| (And I don’t understand, why)
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| I’m worried about them
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| I’m wondering if something’s happened
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| («I was sitting…»)
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| («narc»)
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| 3 hours late and usually I wouldn’t complain
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| But their absence today us more than just a little strange
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| Should I be suspicious? |
| My record’s flawless
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| I’ve watched them sleep while my hands cropped the harvest
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| This house is keeping secrets
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| It’s got the worst timing
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| So I’ll force these walls to tell me where my family is hiding
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| Providing light for my search
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| Flipped the switch in the kitchen
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| The windows were open; |
| something stirring caught my vision
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| On the table next to a phone number that I’ve never seen
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| Scattered papers in a folder and a picture of me
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| It was a title of ownership from 1978
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| For a registered machine with the initials of my name
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| And stapled to the title was a receipt for for disposal
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| With today’s date on it
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| And a signature from the owners
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| This can’t be right, I don’t understand what this means
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| These papers say that this machine is me?!
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| (that this machine is me)
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| (But how can she be me?
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| I don’t understand
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| I read all of it but most of it was worthless
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| Except that «your 25 years…
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| Your machine is out of service…»)
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| Let them come for me
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| (LET THEM KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY’RE DOING TO ME)
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| He doesn’t really care for me anymore
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| THEY WANT THIS
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| (This is not their kid)
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| I spent my whole life thinking I was human
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| They tricked me into thinking I was one of them
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| So the chores would be done
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| The laundry would be picked up
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| The house would be clean
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| All I wanted I ever wanted self esteem
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| I wanted respect in a race that was alien to me
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| How could I feel alive and just be machinery?
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| I’m angry at what they’ve done;
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| MY FAMILY IS MY LIFE
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| They’ve left me here tonight by myself to be sacrificed
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| I’ll go to the roof and I’ll give them what they want
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| And if I’m so robotic then the pain was never real
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| Just a program to bind man’s way to my flesh
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| Only after 25 years does it all now make sense?
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| What kind of god leaves you tortured with free thought?
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| Keeps you alive for labor then recycles the spare parts
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| They can have these limbs; |
| then return them to my parents
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| (Tell them Vessel tried to find the truth under her skin)
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| Three stories high, but one story over
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| Metal hits the ground
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| Brain smashes
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| Closure
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| (I'm a narc?)
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| (There's nothing special about you. You’re just an ordinary program.)
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| (How could he be able to do that?)
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| Never thought that I was trapped
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| Never needed an escape
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| Never thought that I was trapped
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| Never needed an escape
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| Never thought that I was trapped
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| Never needed an escape
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| I never thought that I was trapped
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| Never needed an escape
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| I never thought that I was trapped
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| I never needed an escape
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| I never thought that I was trapped
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| I never needed an escape
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| I never thought that I was trapped
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| I never needed the escape
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| I never thought that I was trapped
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| I never needed the escape |