Overwhelmed (Pick Your Battles) [feat. Mikal Khill]

In Western society, it's chill to pile work on
Push yourself to a limit. Who could give it
Y'know, a fuck about your mental health
Oh yeah, that's just some jerk-off
Who can't hold their shit together - System tells ya
That lie and more. Like "go buy some more, you can work off
The debt til your seventy." When I was young, met plenty peeps
Working in the Art industry, used work in Finance
Quit, 'cause they wanted to live beyond some triple-bypass
Heart surgery. Some feel some urgency
To keep up with the Joneses
They're jonesing for respect. Compete wreck
Getting overwhelmed with no assistance, insisting
That they can go the distance on solo missions. A reflex
To just grin and bear it. And shit is buried in cisgender roles
Like: moms handle everything and dads never show
Any weakness. Stress gets released in
Numerous ways - unhealthy, tumorous pain
You wanna lose but it stays

How y'all feel out there!? Overwhelmed 'cause I
Got more problems than time to resolve 'em
And it goes a little something like this quite a lot
Told that I should seek balance - I just want the stress to stop
How y'all feel out there!? Overwhelmed, like these
Chores are creepin' up, and I'm just not keepin' up
And it goes a little something like this just so often
That I think I'm too soft and sensitive and should be stopping

Sure, slide it over, I can take another project
A couple months might pass before I look at it in earnest
I'm good at carrying the burdens. I always wanna learn shit
Until I'm taking my lumpings crushed beneath my heart's furnace
But is it worth this? I want a better house
Better food on the table, and fillings in my mouth
Better AC, I'm in the south, gotta churn it out
Got you covered no doubt, the hook is gonna bang loud
As long as money's green, the smile is a smoke screen
Bleeding out my life force - the American dream
Since I was fifteen, pouring out my heart
Working every week to break my brain into parts
Guess it's a start. I got thirty years to go
Before they take my drained husk and throw my ass in a hole
I'm letting go of the idea of free time
Cause I'm on the clock every day until I fucking die

How y'all feel out there!? Overwhelmed 'cause I
Got more problems than time to resolve 'em
And it goes a little something like this quite a lot
Told that I should seek balance - I just want the stress to stop
How y'all feel out there!? Overwhelmed, like these
Chores are creepin' up, and I'm just not keepin' up
And it goes a little something like this just so often
That I think I'm too soft and sensitive and should be stopping

There are kids that are starving. Animals harmed and
Our environment dying at a rate that's just alarming
As a thinking, capable human, I think my job is
To right all the wrongs, get involved, help with stopping
All this BS I detest. But all too often
Panic starts to build. A manic response is instilled
And installed - pressure-sensitive trigger will set it off
And perceived societal expectations will tell us all
To "Suck it up, buttercup." This is guaranteed to lead to a
Clusterfuck of emotions and actions. Now I'm feeling
Overwhelmed, so I'm packing my bat and
Ball and glove, leaving the game and going home
Just 'cause I can't hit a homer on the first go. So
Switch the metaphor to "war" - I took the idea to "pick my
Battles" as a better strategy. It's just a fallacy
That you can save everything - not a thought that I'd condone
Just leave it alone. Accept select missions
Only impossibility's not willing to be changing your vision
From black and white to when you bend light through a prism