[Verse 1] Billions of stars burning holes in the black, We send out a signal, but nothing comes back, Every bright little world that we measure and scan Looks completely empty from wherever we stand. Great minds keep asking, “How can this be?” All of that heaven and nothing to see? Maybe the answer was under our shoes— Maybe the silence is giving us clues. [Pre-Chorus] What if life is precious? What if life is rare? What if somebody found us And carried us here? [Chorus] WE’RE THE ZOO! Every cage beneath one sky! WE’RE THE ZOO! That’s why nobody replies! Every voice that ever called From the darkness disappeared— We kept asking, “Where are they?” "where are they?"— THEY’RE ALL HERE. [Verse 2] Maybe they gathered them millions of years From dying blue oceans and poisonous spheres, One little sample from every bright sun, Packed up the ark when the harvest was done. Dropped them on Earth where the water was clean, Best little garden that they’d ever seen, Then evolution kept rolling the dice, Grinding the strangers to something like us. [Pre-Chorus] Feathers and fingers, Fur, blood and bone, Millions of bloodlines Forgetting their homes. [Chorus] WE’RE THE ZOO! Every cage beneath one sky! WE’RE THE ZOO! That’s why nobody replies! Every voice that ever called From the darkness disappeared— We kept asking, “Where are they?” "where are they?"— THEY’RE ALL HERE. [Verse 3] Maybe the octopus is from alpha centari, Maybe the crow came from somewhere scary, Maybe our ancestors stared at two moons Before they were carried to somebody’s zoo. Nothing remembers. That’s part of the trick. Give it ten million years and the bloodlines will mix, Fossils get buried, the old language dies, And nobody questions the fence in the sky. [Bridge] And somebody watches. Somebody knows. Somebody catalogs Everything that grows. But they’re only the keepers Making their rounds— The last free creatures For light-years around. [Breakdown] No invasion. No first contact. No silver ships coming down. [Final Chorus] WE’RE THE ZOO! Every species, every kind! WE’RE THE ZOO! Every prisoner thinks they’re fine! Every planet out there silent, Every empty atmosphere— We kept asking, “Where are they?” "where are they?"— THEY’RE ALL HERE. WE’RE THE ZOO! Look above you—there’s the wall! WE’RE THE ZOO! And we never left at all! Life was never missing From the universe we knew— They collected every living thing AND PUT IT IN THE ZOO. [Outro] Billions of stars. Not a sound. Nothing living To be found. Keep looking up. Keep asking why. Something’s looking Back inside.
