Adapt or go

The cactus and the celery
have no history together
They did not co-evolve
They both drink earth and water
air and fire, the light of the sun
But they differ in the measure
in the quality and the amount
This is not a bad thing
this is not a good thing
It’s just a thing that shows a difference
No judgment on anyone
Verse 2
If you force them side by side
one will burn or one will drown
The way is not to blend them
unless the other is locked down
One in a pot — a guest, a foreigner
in the land of the other
Its own climate in a vessel
while the other grows free in the ground
Verse 3
The only way the one in the pot
can live happy in the land of the other
is to become like the host
or change the conditions of that land
Sometimes you are a pioneer
setting the scene for what comes next
raising the life of the whole system
succession, not theft
Sometimes you are invasive
brought by design
or riding in on the heels of another foreigner
crowding out the local clime
This is our land
this is our garden
This is the land of our ancestors
beyond a couple of generations
If you want to stay in this country
adapt to our ways
We will not let you change the growing conditions
to the kind you evolved with
Become like us
or go
Now
before those who tend the garden come
Close
This is not a bad thing
this is not a good thing
It’s just a thing that shows a difference
No judgment on anyone

Female vocals blending 2 different style voices. Intimate, theatrical, slightly unhinged art-folk opening; husky witchy folk-rock chant in the middle; smoky close. Sparse drums, low tom or bodhrán, space and air, no glossy pop production. Slow-building, ritual, garden-as-territory. Ritual folk