Happy Birthday Don't Die

(album: Rhett Miller - 2009)

Call it planet spins
The new unified government sleeps
The tidy pension accrues
She's the sum of the tchotchkes she keeps

She's a hundred years old tonight
In the spring of 2106
In the flickering of video light
Sometimes widow is the word that sticks

Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
As we all go spinning off into the sky
Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
Don't die

The planet is covered in steel
Yeah, the moon goes on wasting its light
While the widow is watching the reel
It won't keep her warmed at night

Her children are light years away
Asleep as the ships hurdle on
Where she once had a reason to stay
But her reason is long gone

Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
As we all go spinning off into the sky
Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
Don't die, don't die

She gave birth to seven grown men
Oh, and then they each had seven more
She would do it all over again
But the soles of her feet are sore

Nightfall is just an idea
It's suppertime when she succumbs
The tiny pension is real
Plays on although she is done

Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
As we all go spinning off into the sky
Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday
Don't die, don't die, don't die