[Verse 1]
Born in a flood, a billion strong and blind,
half of this crowd won't make it off the line —
programmed to fall, a quiet, built-in call,
apoptosis sweeps the hallway, clears it all.
Not cruelty, just sculpture in the dark,
too many hands all reaching for one spark.
[Chorus]
Sobrevive el que compite,
the one who wins the fight stays alive —
neurotrophic love or you don't make it,
use it or lose it, that's how we thrive.
Winnow the weak threads, mi amor,
pruning's just love with a sharper claw.
[Verse 2]
Target cells dangle a chemical prize,
nerve growth factor caught the hungry eyes
of Levi-Montalcini and Cohen too,
eighty-six Nobel for the bond they grew.
BDNF joins the feast as well,
axons beg for it like a dinner bell —
no handout, no signal, the branch runs dry,
starved of factor, that neuron says goodbye.
[Chorus]
Sobrevive el que compite,
the one who wins the fight stays alive —
neurotrophic love or you don't make it,
use it or lose it, that's how we thrive.
Winnow the weak threads, mi amor,
pruning's just love with a sharper claw.
[Verse 3]
Toddlers' brains are a jungle overgrown,
synapses sprout faster than seeds get sown.
Then childhood turns gardener, slow and keen,
microglia creep in, eating what's between.
Complement proteins tag the frail connection —
"eat this one," a tiny red selection.
Busy synapses, lit up, stay intact;
silent ones vanish, that's the pruning pact.
[Verse 4]
Watch one muscle fiber, newborn, overrun —
five or six axons all wanting to be The One.
They fire, they compete, they twitch for the same prize,
until a single victor claims the exercise.
The losers shrink back, their terminals retreat,
one nerve, one fiber — now the circuit's neat.
Competition carved in living wire,
the body's own appraisal of desire.
[Verse 5]
Even memory prunes what the mind won't keep,
forgetting is pruning while you sleep,
synapses fade that no longer spark delight,
only the strongest echoes survive the night,
dreams edit the archive, trim the excess thread,
keeping what matters, releasing the dead.
[Bridge]
No es crueldad, es diseño,
fewer wires but each one true —
la neurona que no sirve, descansa,
making room for the ones that pull through.
Half are chosen before you're even born,
poda y guerra, that's how minds are sworn.
[Chorus]
Sobrevive el que compite,
the one who wins the fight stays alive —
neurotrophic love or you don't make it,
use it or lose it, that's how we thrive.
Winnow the weak threads, mi amor,
pruning's just love with a sharper claw.
[Outro]
Use it, lose it, win the factor's call,
sobrevive, mi amor, or you don't survive the fall.
One axon, one fiber, the cut that makes you whole —
pruning is the sculptor, and love writes the protocol.