The Gold Rush

We're not here right now
We may seem to be
But we're not

Actually, right now
We're in a restaurant
A Paris restaurant
And we're eating something
We can't pronounce the name of

We may seem present
But we're not
Not at all

. . . . .

There's no gold here

We came
We came from afar
We uprooted
We believed

That's the saddest part
You can hear it in our voice when we say it

We believed

Because when you believe
Whatever it is you believe in
Becomes a part of you

So when you stop believing
Something about you is lost

We have lost something

We came for gold
We believed in gold
We believed gold was here

And it...is not

Maybe it was at some point
Maybe there was a time
When gold was prevalent here
But it certainly isn't now, so...

So where do we go from here?

From this hill, you can see Paradise
Or at least, I believe you can see it
You can see where it will be
In fifty, eighty, two hundred years

Soon, and I say 'soon' while being aware of the rapid pace of time that humans can never truly understand

Soon, this will be California

Now, it's just a place
Where dreams come to die

Oh wait, that'll always be California

But still, people will come
They'll come believing
And slowly, those beliefs will disintegrate
But the people they belonged to will stay
Because...

Well because sometimes the last bit of yourself that you have
Is the fact that you're staying somewhere
Stuck somewhere
Long after your reason for being there
Is gone

It makes you feel...

Loyal
Determined
Proud

You feel proud of yourself
Because the weight of a broken thing
Is so much more
So much heavier
Than that thing when it is whole

Here you are holding the heaviest thing you've ever held
Like Atlas
Like an immortal thing

And all the while
You're sifting through water
Just water
Trying to pretend
There might be something in it

And it's crazy because...

Well because, it's water

You can see through it
Even when it's muddy
You can tell if something's in it

And there never is
And still, you sift
And you stay
And you say you believe
When you don't

And you wait

You wait to feel proud again

You sit on a hill
With your empty bags
And your broken spirit
And you wait

You wait, and you wait, and you wait

Where is it?

Huh?

Where is it?

Where is that golden pride?