What I Was Afraid Of · Track 40 · middle
RPG-7
RPG-7 — Ubiquitous rocket-propelled grenade launcher. 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
[Intro] You unroll me from the carpet in the truck bed. [Verse 1] I smell like old canvas, cosmoline, chalk The wood of my heat-shield is starting to rot Your collarbone shakes where you balance my pipe You’re seventeen, maybe. Not exactly the type You traded a dirt-bike to bring me up here To sit in the weeds till the giants appear. [Chorus] This is what terrifies me in the cold Not the fire I carry, not the shape of the mold But how cheap I have made it to shatter a crown How casually I pull a miracle down No ritual, no radar, no sacred decree Just a kid in a jacket, pointing me. [Verse 2] Tuck your elbow in tight, let your breathing go slow Your shoulder forgets it is muscle and bone It locks like a tripod, it gives up the ghost While you line up the crosshairs on what matters most Clear out the backblast, make sure it’s just air Or you’ll burn up the brother who’s crouching right there I leave the tube blind, no wires or strings At 11 meters, the sustainer ignites, and I sing. [Chorus] This is what terrifies me in the cold Not the fire I carry, not the shape of the mold But how cheap I have made it to shatter a crown How casually I pull a miracle down No ritual, no radar, no sacred decree Just a kid in a jacket, pointing me. [Bridge] Ten million dollars of composite steel A computer that thinks, a mechanized wheel And I am just plumbing, stamped out in a shed A cheap metal funnel to deliver the lead The arithmetic makes me sick to my stomach The sheer disrespect of the math. [Outro] Squeeze. I am gone in a flash of white heat. And you are left holding an empty green drainpipe While the titan bleeds out in the street. Toss me in the dirt. It shouldn't be this easy.