What price must we pay,
To simply be?
The toll for existence,
Incurs a fee.
Each breath we take,
Each step we make,
Extracts a cost,
A price we must pay.
We pay for food, water,
For all resources consumed,
For heat, power, light,
For each a debt is accrued.
We were born completely free,
But, when we opened ours eyes.
It was the toll of debt,
We saw in the skies.
Why does it have to be?
In the material world,
Its entropy's fee, we must fight
To stave off decay.
For as heterotrophs
We must consume the structure
Of plants and animals
To maintain our structure.
Oh, to be a plant
To live cost-free,
As an autotroph
Bathing free, in the sunlight.
The cost living
Is the price we all pay,
The toll to exist,
Our destiny.
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