Average Man

Now when I was a young boy,
'bout the age of five
my teachers told me
I could be the greatest man alive
they told me I could change the world
be whatever I wanted to be
there was no one in the world like me
every one of us was so unique

I'd not be an average man
no sir, I'd be no average man

so I had those big dreams
and I had those big skills
had a reason to live
and I had some time to kill
but the world got louder still
yeah the world got louder still
it tried to drown me out
it tried to break down my will

"Get out my way, I ain't no average man"
I was thinking so much bigger than the average man
they flood my feed with all these useless lists
while I was curing cancer with these nonstop hits
so I was bitter towards the average man

then I hit my thirties like a bird against a window
I couldn't reconcile the two disparate versions of me:
on the one hand was this man in search of comfort
and on the other was this meta-superhero I could be

maybe my eyes were never big
maybe my head was small
the man who knows his place
may be the greatest man of all
I found freedom in obscurity
and purity in poverty
why try to be amazing in a world so saturated with amazingness?
it's blazing us
exhausting me,
I wonder what it's costed me,
the price I've paid for baby boomers
propping up my self-esteem,
I should let go of all these scripted, movie-lifted dreams
and seek solace in my species
as an average man
I'll pay admission like an average man
I'll raise a family like the average man
I'll rock the hairline of an average man
I'll binge on Netflix like an average man
I drop a remix like an average man
I crowd-source it like an average man
I'm hyperbolic like an average man

I only iterate like an...