Lyrics

Verse
Well I’m standing in the sunlight
In a public park in Tennessee

And I know the soft earth below
Has always made room for me

She’s been carryin’ my weight
For 20 some-odd years
And what have I given in return?

I have lived in apartment buildings
Soarin’ high above the ground

I’ve seen clear water flow out
From my tap somehow

But now here I am just taking my time
And taking a walk in the light
When something blocks the sun ahead

Chorus
I thought it was a mountain
But it was just a pile of sand

Towering so high
A nine to five creation

We try, try, try
To fit that fire in our hands

But what we build up as mountains
Are just piles of sand

Verse
Now this old river path
Ain’t quite what it used to be

There’s a job side on my right
And a prison across the street

But through four rounds of barbed wire
I still see it clear as air

No matter what we build around it
This river ain’t goin nowhere

Chorus
I thought it was a mountain
But it was just a pile of sand

Towering so high
A nine to five creation

We try, try, try
To fit that fire in our hands

But what we build up as mountains
Are just piles of sand

Bridge
Empires fall
Civilizations fade from view
I see it in the Sphinx’s missing nose
And in cracked roman statues

If I could wake them up
And ask what they believed

I wonder if they’d smile
And say “yeah we know what you mean”

Chorus
We thought it was a mountain
But it was just a pile of sand

One on top of the other
Through a thousand generations

We try, try, try
As it slips right through our hands

We keep climbing to the highest peak
Just to slide back down again

Because what we build up as mountains
What we build up as mountains
What we build up as mountains
Are just piles of sand