By Order of the Nutritional Authority
[Verse 1]
“This property is non-compliant,”
reads the sign nailed to my gate.
“Unauthorized varietals,”
they say the heirlooms won’t be safe.
The beans I saved from Grandmother's time
now "pose a risk to regulated supply."
They bring their drones, their plastic guards
but still, my soil remembers why.
[Chorus]
By order of the Nutritional Authority,
the gardens must be razed.
By order of the Economic Stability Act,
we eat what’s been appraised.
Don’t trade your seeds, don’t dry your herbs,
don’t plant without the code.
They say they’re keeping us healthy
but they’re paving over gold.
[Verse 2]
“Decentralized growing presents a hazard,”
they said on Channel Five.
“They might spread invasive thinking -”
God forbid we try to thrive.
My compost’s now a crime scene,
my chickens under surveillance.
But a child found a peach pit
and buried it in defiance.
[Bridge]
They patented the weather,
they trademarked the rain,
filed forms against the farmers
who still knew the old grain.
But roots don’t read their briefings,
and weeds ignore decree
I saw basil in a billboard crack
saying, “You’ll never finish me.”
[Chorus]
By order of the Nutritional Authority,
we’re meant to trust the plan.
But the strawberries know better
they grew right through the ban.
So scatter your seeds at midnight,
let the dandelions show.
They can’t audit what’s in the wind
or chain what dares to grow.
[Outro - softly]
So if your law says “not permitted,”
and if your soil says “plant anyway,”
remember:
They regulate the surface
but the roots,
we’ll hide them far away.
