Rat King Lifecycle

You're gonna begin
The way you will end
Among your brothers

You'll grow low cunning
Stretch scrabbling limbs longer
Twitch your greedy whiskers
Make a friend of your hunger

You'll learn to aspire, eye the climb up the ladder
Master the tunnels, subsisting on refuse
Keep tabs on your rivals, picking off the weakest
Take the old pleasures from flesh that runs slower

Gonna swim deep in the sewers
'Cuz you're built for oiled waters

Sometimes your coarse mind will wonder
Why the spoils ain't sweeter
Why you can't quell your yearning
What's hollow in your nature

Later you're larded, a royal weight-thrower
Nestled in your cortege of suck-ups and betas
Tails tangled up; common filth brings you closer

Gonna go greyer, wonder why you're so tired
Bound to your bootlickers while the flooding creeps higher

No longer seaworthy, the knotted clan's squirming
The rain is coming down, the gutters are bleeding
No crown will spare your kind from what you've got coming
The final instinct will be recursive gnawing
Among your brothers