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Tough to be a rat down there
Searchlights coming, third rail humming
Concrete and pig iron, awful hard to scratch at
Muck and gunk, hard to smell or taste or see
But there they are, somewhere
And there they go, somehow
It's tough to be a rat down there

Humble, hand-hewn tunnels
Blasted open, overrun and undone
White tiled, twisting cylinders of cindery wind
Mechanised squeals and shrieks and hisses
Nullify all animal sounds
You better run, jump, squeeze in tight
Better tuck your tail in. Better keep your head down
It's tough to be a rat down there

Inside the clattering cabinets
Jerk and buck and rumble
Clacking out swing time as they
Plunge through the subterranean labyrinth
Brisk, efficient, fully automated
Mindless
While another tube squirms through the
Gut of each captive with urgent purpose
Vital, perpetual, headed nowhere
Headed nowhere
Headed nowhere, nowhere

Like sardines with the heads left on
Dead-faced, bloodless, cold
Dirty newspapers scattered across
The floor of each squalid cage
They will not look you in the eye
They count the stops, read the signs
To know how far, and which is next
And where they are

Then bustle importantly out into
The scurrying crowd
Rival porcupines bristling with
Wary distaste
Ruthlessly self-contained
Awful hard to make contact
Callous, careless
Hard to know or feel or love
But there they are, somehow
And there they go, somewhere
It's tough to be a rat down here