Troll
Shane Koyczan Lyrics

Once upon a time, you and all your kind lived underneath bridges
Long ago, trolls like you dwelled under bridges

had ridges for ribs that dropped off into empty chests as if your hearts were all stolen treasures as if an excavation crew were hired to dig up and remove the part of you that let you feel
Your bodies were bony, with hollow chests and no heart, as if it was stolen

and while the world above you invented the wheel you stayed put knowing that would one day roll over top of you to get to where it's going
While the world evolved, you stayed stagnant, knowing we would eventually pass over you

you had an endlessly flowing supply line of food you began to brood over humanity and made meals of our hope
Feasting on fear, you grew to despise humans and fed off our optimism

as if crushing our spirits would make your mirrors cast better reflections than the ones they gave as if the only way you could save yourselves was to make the world ugly so no one would notice you hided in it
You thought breaking our spirits would help your own self-reflection and hid from the world by making it ugly

you learned to knit pain into a kind of camouflage treated hope like a mirage that you could use to lure in your next meal
You blended in by turning pain into a disguise and used hope as bait for your victims

you lived off our fears, you could taste what we feared and every night, as the moon at bedtime stories on sunlight you took darkness as an invite to head out into the woods
You fed off our fears, and ventured out at night to prey on the vulnerable

you curled your hands into wrecking balls your breath became squalls, you made rocks rumble, you made land shiver, you made boys and girls pray that someone would deliver them from you
You used your power to destroy, causing destruction and making children fear and pray for deliverance

we told them, you aren't real and then one day, the world changed but you all stayed the same
We told children trolls weren't real, but despite the world changing, you remained the same

just migrated from living underneath bridges to living underneath information superhighways days and nights became meaningless, each already deep in chest became an abyss no one would ever find the bottom of
You moved from under bridges to the internet and became even more menacing, causing endless despair and suffering

concepts like love fell into your gravity we turned ourselves into life preservers hoping to save as many as we could but the fathers who guarded closet doors and the mothers who secured the floors under beds all shook their heads not knowing how to deal with you
You dragged love down with you, and we tried to save those caught in your wake, but parents were at a loss for how to keep their children safe

you, who crept into our lives, with tongues like knifes stabbing your words into our skin you began to begin uploading yourselves into our homes you had computer screens for eyes and software for bones
You infiltrated our lives with cruel words, entering our homes through the internet with empty eyes and a robotic nature

you turned your hate into stones and hurled them at beauty, as if you couldn't bear to see anything other than ugly anything different
You turned hatred into weapons and attacked anything beautiful, unable to bear anything different than your own ugliness

you had fingernails like flint and scraped them against decency hoping we would be the ones to all catch fire you all had smiles like one-way barbed wire not meant to keep us out, but to keep us in always like a firing pin, you spoke in explosions
You were filled with malice and used your words and smiles to trap and hurt people, speaking with violence and anger

it isn't cute it isn't funny you talked strangers into death and laughed
Your actions aren't amusing, you convinced strangers to end their lives and found humor in it

and as each family learns to graft skin over the wounds you gave them, you helm yourself into the scar you have coaxed the sober back into bars, handed out cigars at memorials offered nooses, cliffs, and pills to those who unfortunately found you before they found help
You take pleasure in the pain you caused and even go as far as to offer dangerous advice and choices to those at their lowest point

you praised suffering waltzed in between tragedies, gracefully dipping miseries as if we would be somehow impressed by the dexterity of your animosity you cheered on rape dashed through police tape as if it were the finish line in a race on who could be awful first
You reveled in the suffering of others, even cheering on heinous acts like rape and rushing to be the first to cause harm

even now you somehow see this as an invitation to turn your keyboards into catapults wondering which one of you can be the first to hate us best your loathing already dressed in riot gear ready to incite rage as if each message board is a stage who you recite hostility turning freedom of speech into freedom of cruelty
Even with this warning, you continue to use your keyboards to spread hate, eager to see who can be the cruelest, and turning free speech into an excuse for cruelty

we are stuck with you the same way you are stuck with you your mind is glue and it keeps malice fastened there like cheap wallpaper
We are forced to deal with you, just as you are forced to live with your own viciousness, as it becomes ingrained in your persona

we were once upon a time told that none of you exist we dismissed you as make believe or myth, now on only with resolve we can no longer afford to tell ourselves, that you aren't real
We were told trolls weren't real, but now we must acknowledge their presence and work to combat their harmful behavior

we will not let you make your dinners out of the things we feel.
We will not let you feed off our emotions anymore and harm us any further.