Sunlight Into Everything

A leaf catches a beam that traveled eight minutes through space Grabs the light, holds it still, gives it a resting place Turns it into sugar, builds a body out of air That's the only trick that matters, and every meal starts there

Sunlight into everything, into the grass, into the grain Sunlight into everything, into your muscle, into your brain Nothing you've ever eaten skipped this first small step A leaf did the impossible, and you inherited the debt

The caterpillar eats the leaf, the bird eats the caterpillar whole The fox eats the bird, and the sunlight keeps rolling Down the line, a little dimmer with every trade But never gone completely, just repackaged, replayed

Sunlight into everything, into the grass, into the grain Sunlight into everything, into your muscle, into your brain Even the oil in the ground was a forest, once, that caught the light Buried, pressed, and burning slower, but still that same sunshine, still bright

You are, right now, a sunbeam that took a very long road Through a hundred other bodies before it found this code That's you, dancing, thinking, arguing, in love Powered by a star that's ninety-three million miles above

Sunlight into everything, into the grass, into the grain Sunlight into everything, into your muscle, into your brain Every dance move tonight is borrowed light, set free That's plain, simple chemistry, nothing more poetic than that