What I Was Afraid Of · Track 20 · middle
Nuclear weapon / atomic bomb
Nuclear weapon / atomic bomb — Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the Cold War. Register: modern. This song is sung BY this weapon, in first person, about the one thing IT was afraid of. Find the fear that is true of this specific object, not a generic one.
No audio yet — generation pending.
Lyrics
They keep me at a constant temperature. Beneath the prairie, wrapped in copper wire. I am the math that makes the world endure, A sleeping god pretending not to be fire. You wipe the dust from my telemetry, You check the boards, you turn the heavy key. You write your doctrines, balance out the books. You think the casing keeps the core asleep. But I know what happens when the system breaks, And there is no one left to even weep. I am not a doctrine on a page. I am not the peace you think you bought. I am the sudden, overwhelming flash, The final end of every human thought. You treat me like a shadow on the wall, But I am terrified you'll let me fall. I have a memory of 1900 feet. The altimeter clicking in the wind. It wasn't strategy, it was only heat. A second sun that swallowed up the land. Now I sit polished in a concrete shaft, Waiting for a god to force my hand. You write your doctrines, balance out the books. You think the casing keeps the core asleep. But I know what happens when the system breaks, And there is no one left to even weep. I am not a doctrine on a page. I am not the peace you think you bought. I am the sudden, overwhelming flash, The final end of every human thought. You treat me like a shadow on the wall, But I am terrified you'll let me fall. Every sword before me saw the blood. Every rifle looked them in the eye. But I am blind, I turn the earth to ash, I take the winner and the passerby. I am afraid of how clean the console feels to your thumb. How the gesture abstracts the end of the world, Before the mind even catches up. I am not a diplomatic tool. I am the end of everything you built. I wait down here, perfectly cool. Heavy with the future. Empty of the guilt. Don't think the math will save you. I am only waiting to do exactly what I am told.