Stay cool, learn to swim

I only started learning last year
and now I'm forty two
and if you already know how to swim
good for you
this is for all the people behind you

Stay cool, learn to swim
nah, fam, you're not too heavy
your bones are not too dense
Pennywise was tight
in the end, everyone floats

Stay cool, learn to swim
your skin will thank you
your mind will thank you
and if there is blood in the water
sharks will thank you

Don't swim in the river thames
nobody asked you to do that

Some things will always be true
the sun always sets in the west
right now will always be as good as it gets
Romeo and Juliet is tragic
time is wasted on worry
and everyone is made of pure, unadulterated magic
except for Boris Johnson

Trans men are men
trans women are women
them things by now should be a given
It looks worse when it's online
Facebook is not research
no matter the hours you spent on it
there are no solutions at the bottom of a doomscroll
and you're never at your best when
you're looking at someone else's highlight reel

Time heals all wounds and makes new ones but
a hot shower will cure 99% of bad vibes, truss me

You should be nice to yourself
you should be nice to people
except for nazis.
no one should never be nice to Nazis.

There are so many ways
to be yourself
don't get lost in the options
all the paper straws in the world
won't save a single polar bear
but making Amazon pay their proper taxes could
all your idols will let you down,
except for Keanu Reeves
cuz Keanu Reeves is
perfect

You don't have to like pink Floyd
you don't have to like Prince
none of it is by force

Every elder is a village
but some villages are full of racists
and are not worth the visit

Protect your peace
cherish your joints
eat your fruits and vegetables and mind your business
don't be afraid to dress like an idiot at least once in your life
embrace your cringe, embrace your cringe
New York is nice, but you should try Benin City

If they won't let you join
a union, start a mafia
the means you cannot seize
you should steal

If you love doing a thing, and you're not hurting any one or yourself, do the thing
don't let anyone stop you doing the thing
If you love shoplifting from department stores, do the thing
department stores aren't people

Sometimes the answer is to sleep on it
sometimes you need to face it head on
sometimes it's scarier in your head, and when you stop running, you realise the monster was a shadow all along

Your heart will be broken
and you will break hearts
and when the dust settles
in your spirits, do not forget
to forgive yourself

Call all the friends
you've fallen out with
tell them you miss them
dying right is overrated

But that does not mean
you should down a bottle
of merlot and text your former
lover, nothing good will come from that

Recognise the difference
between alone and lonely

More often than not you won't
resolve all loose ends, your life
isn't that kind of movie, it's more
like a rambling soap opera that'll
eventually run out of budget

I hope you get old
I hope when you get old
compassion is cool again,
if you're lucky, one day you'll
wake up, and you'll be out of
the zeitgeist's eye. You won't
recognise the music, you'd rather
go to bed at ten. Your pleasures
will be gentler, movements slow
goalposts shifted, your former
burdens slightly lifted, and that
would be okay, it happens to
most of us

Maybe By then you'd have stayed cool
maybe you'd could do something else
with your life
Like learn to swim