What I Was Afraid Of · Track 41 · middle
M2 Browning .50 cal
M2 Browning .50 cal — “Ma Deuce” heavy machine gun. 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] Eighty-four pounds of receiver. Heavy enough to stay. [Verse 1] I was drawn up in 1918, and I haven't changed a line. I wear the dust of seven deserts, the oil smells like pine. You wrap your thumbs around my spade grips, you press the butterfly, You’re nineteen years of nervous sweat beneath a foreign sky. You set the headspace and the timing with a little iron gauge, 'Cause if the barrel isn't threaded right, I'll blow us off the stage. [Chorus] I am afraid of the morning. I am afraid of the grease. I have buried your grandfathers, kid, When do I get my release? They change the tracks, they change the boots, But they never change my frame. I am terrified of living forever. [Verse 2] I started out on canvas wings, I bolted to the hull. I rode the river boats in green, the waiting's never dull. Your hands reach out before you think, and lock into my space, My iron becomes your shoulder, we are a single heavy shape. You feed the links into my left side, you pull the handle back, A chattering extension of a boy they're sending down the track. [Bridge] I am too heavy to carry, too brutal to let pass. I want the rust. Let me have the rust. Let me sleep in the armoury corner, let me turn back to dust. But they keep punching my serial number into the shipping manifest. [Chorus] I am afraid of the morning. I am afraid of the grease. I have buried your grandfathers, kid, When do I get my release? They change the tracks, they change the boots, But they never change my frame. I am terrified of living forever. [Outro] Just put me down. The barrel is hot. You're rotating home, And I am not.