Pocket Blocks & Monsters

Lyrics

[Intro]
Gray box. DMG-01.
Screen flickers on, a rectangle of pond scum green.
Nintendo logo scrolls down.

[Verse 1]
Four AA batteries, warm in the back.
You weigh just enough.
A slight heft of serious play.
My thumb finds the cross of the D-pad.
That soft, satisfying click.
Rubber dome under plastic.
A and B, red buttons, waiting.

[Chorus]
And the blocks fall.
L-block, T-block, the straight line I'm saving.
The world outside the green screen dissolves.
Just the next piece, the next rotation.
Clear the line. Clear the next.
Just one more game.

[Verse 2]
On the train home from Akihabara.
September 1989.
The only light is your light, painting my face green.
The click and the lock-in, a private rhythm.
The smell of hot plastic from the battery compartment.
A low whine from the tiny speaker grill.

[Chorus]
And the blocks keep falling.
L-block, T-block, the straight line I'm praying for.
The world outside the green screen is gone.
Just the next piece, the next perfect rotation.
Clear the line. Clear the next.
Just one more level.

[Bridge]
Gunpei Yokoi's little miracle.
“Withered technology,” he called it.
A simple thought in a simple box.
Alexey Pajitnov's Soviet puzzle,
somehow it jumped the wall,
traveled through contracts signed by a man named Henk,
and landed right here, in my hands.

[Outro]
The red light on the side is dimming.
The music warbles, a dying ghost.
The screen fades.
Black.
The train rattles on.
Tomorrow.