How Was I to Know - Missy Higgins

When the order came to dig the well

To crack the earth to pull the oil

To take the blood out from my mother’s veins

Well I broke the ground to feed the mouth

I did not here the warning sound

I could not put back in what I took out

How was I to know

How was I to know

I’d be a stepping stone

To the end

The end of everything

How was I to know

On the day I built a house so high

It’s antenna did scrape the sky

Well everyone applauded in my shadow

So my neighbour built a higher one

Then again his neighbour after him

Till racing through the clouds was all that mattered

Up and up the buildings went

Glass and stone and hard cement

Till all the green was left to die below

How was I to know

How was I to know

I’d be a stepping stone

To the end

The end of everything

The end of everything

How was I to know

Long ago I caught a pretty fish

Blue and silver and delicious

And I knew she’d line my pockets green

So I bought a bigger boat that had

A net to scrape the ocean and

I fished until one day that net was empty

How was I to know

How was I to know

I’d be a stepping stone

To the end

The end of everything

How was I to know

And how are we to now

Turn these stepping stones around

Back to everything that matters

Can that place even be found or is it lost

Forever

The end of everything

The end of everything

How was I to know?

How was I to know?