We Bought the Flood

I was born with a teacup on my head,
Copper tin and lead, ash and dust.
Sky color: Indiana Red,
Like Kansas, Oklahoma, plus a thousand years of rust.

Examine it carefully before it's set ablaze,
Take it all in before it's gone, gone, gone.
Let's notice everything, I mean every grain of salt.
Let's be thorough to a fault and next time
we'll build it twice as strong.

And all of this will disappear as quickly as it came,
The fire and the rain oxidize and rearrange
Focus on the pain,
Focus on the way to get out.

Virginia, 1902.
There was nothing we could do, cracked bell fell off a train,
Slow walking down Cedar Avenue,
I came to find you, I came to feel urbane.

No more speed, no more direction,
No more push and pull, and no more lessons,
Save it for the afterlife, don't want to hear your confessions,
It's the hammer walking, then it's the hammer down.

And all of this will disappear as quickly as it came,
The fire and the rain oxidize and rearrange
Focus on the pain,
Focus on the way to get out.