As fireworks burst over the land I could've sworn I felt the influence of an unseen hand The ghost of someone else's dream A forgotten god stopping by to survey the scene And the lights were complicated and so we all just Prayed to the spirits above and below That the water would never reach us in time But I had a feeling that we'd never get to two thousand nine Didn't want a wave but a wave was coming, yeah We didn't wanna swim but the cities were sinking Though we wanted to react we were too busy sleeping through The ground that was shaking, the bass was thumping There's a tidal wave coming so you'd better start learning to swim There's a tidal wave coming so you'd better start learning And now's as good as any as a time and place to begin On TV, they said the storms wouldn't last But their answers didn't correlate to the questions we'd asked They said, "A spark that's gone is not a spark to mournYou can't resuscitate a person who was never born" So I climbed to the tallest building in town To see the rain rushing in, to feel my heart breaking down And as the blue sheen drew nearer I saw a window to another world Strange fish I'd never seen and in that moment I realized Didn't want a wave but a wave was coming We didn't wanna swim but the cities were sinking Though we wanted to react we were too busy sleeping through The ground that was shaking, the bass was thumping There's a tidal wave coming so you'd better start learning to swim There's a tidal wave coming so you'd better start learning Now's as good as any as a time and place to begin I should have known this was coming, yeah It could not have been more obvious Like the flood that Noah dreamed about Except bigger and more ominous I should have seen this was unfolding, yeah It could not have been more obvious Like the flood that Noah dreamed about Except bigger and more ominous Every moment lost someone else has won Every time you breathe there's another gone Every passing second is a minute late Every breath can escalate a hurricane And do you think we'd realize just what we'd done Tore down the canvas that held up the sun? We ripped down the canvas hung up above But what if we were created to gaze What if we were created to gaze at the stars up above? Didn't want a wave but a wave was coming, yeah We didn't wanna swim but the cities were sinking Though we wanted to react we were too busy sleeping through The ground that was shaking, the bass was thumping