The Magical Land of Away

La mer de polymère (la mer de polymère)
La mer de merde (la mer de merde)*

If you throw it away, it doesn’t go away
If you’re so disposed, it’s going to stay
In the earth, in the sea, in the atmosphere
The magical land of away is right here

If you buy a take-away, or get a give-away
In this global bubble, we all pay
But some choose to refuse the refuse, it’s clear
The magical land of away is right here

You can’t sweep it away under the carpet
You can’t wash it away down the sink
’Cos that distant place to where you flush it away
Is way closer than you might think

Disposability is a false economy
Sustainability needs high quality
Built to last year after year after year
The magical land of away is right here

Pay peanuts, get monkeys
Buy cheap, buy twice
It’s the price you pay for not paying the price

The cloud isn’t a cloud and streaming’s not a stream
As unearthly as a server might seem
It’s not remotely remote from our spinning sphere
The magical land of away is right here

You can’t tow it away over the horizon
You can’t stow it away behind the shed
’Cos our kids’ kids’ kids’ll still be dealing with this
Long after we’re dead

Stephen Hawking admits near the end of his wits
That even black holes aren’t bottomless pits
Put away relativity, far and near
The magical land of away is right here

You can’t run away from your demons
You can’t lock ’em away behind bars
You can’t hide away, steal away, fly away, any day
Soon to the Moon or Mars
There’s no planet B to send away for
Nor asteroids nor stars DIY
And to renew our greed, mining a lunar sea seems like cheesy pie in the sky

There’s no quick get-away, no “Roman Holiday”
You can’t leave your mind behind, so why stray?
Distant grass isn’t greener, try buying what’s nearby
Hereby the finest array be well nigh, aye, aye, aye

There’s no Superman to say “Up, up and away!”
No deity to swoop and save the day
As we blithely buy and sell the biosphere
Far away in the future’s looming really near
Don’t look away
Mother Nature’s trying to make it kinda clear

The magical land of away
The magical land of away
The magical land of away... is right here

©2020-2024

Inspired by school workshops we ran as Formidable Vegetable, talking to kids about where things go when you throw them away, and Ky and Charlie began referring to the magical land of "Away", I thought it needed a song. I wrote it in 2020 and the last verse went:
And with Coronavirus, there is no "them" and "us"
Mother Nature's take away message is thus
She's a friend to care for, not a foe to fear
Share the planet fairly, don't profiteer
Don't look away, let 2020 be a visionary year...
But in 2024, when I was about to record it, I realised that verse not only felt dated, it didn't quite sum up the concept of the song how wanted it too, hence I wrote the new last verse, above.

*It turns out that our pronunciation of this French is a bit wrong. Our friend Alex Cellier https://www.alexcellier.com tells me that my pronunciation sounds more like "Le mer", which means I'm kind of saying, "The Mayor of Plastic, the Mayor of Shit"... he he! And Kylie's "...du merde" is just wrong. Ooops!


And here's its first ever performance!