"Chain Smoking Blues" and "Silence"

"Chain Smoking Blues"
by Zachary Power

Bus full of bodies heading southeast
Got a pocket full of Geographical photos to hold my grease
Somewhere in the future there's a 7:30 zone
Where I'll be I don't know

Babies shoutin out and it only makes me scream
Got a doorknob that's not turnin
Let my days turn into weeks
Custer could not muster the great dash on the wealthy street
You know you've found the Bank of Holland
When you're sittin on your feet

Got the chain smoking blues, baby
Ain't nothin else like this
Yellow bags and rusty cabs I've seen and still I'm feeling sad
There's no other way around it
Can't you hear that engine crank?
Got the chain smokin blues
I think I'll have another drink

Something was forgotten
When you looked the other way
A spirit from the Rapids of your own belittled thinking tank

Diamonds return to the lobe
While the trees do grasp for green
The remedy is not reserved, it is only looking to the east

The streets call out in silence
The colors are all there
And back again to focus the fire hydrants sing their prayers

If you catch a glimpse of Coldbrook street
You know to comb your hairs
Unless they are all shaved off by the razor, you have the right to stare

Chain smokin blues inside me
And all inside of you
I saw you nod your head and grin while I was playing with my wears
Got the chain smokin blues all around me
And I've got no time to care
Unless you hop on that four-legged shuttle-bug,
There's a chance for neither here nor there
Got the chain smokin blues
I feel this every day
While scratch and sniff luggage speaks down through the fog and grey
Those chain smoking blues will not bother anyone
Come out and dance among us in the winter's setting sun

I met a man without knowing
His name or date of birth
He smiled at me and offered me a handful of his earth
The salty sweet did catch me in a shining golden time
As I witnessed just another one of your good deeds
For the two of us agreed that not a soul among us
Was feeling too complete
I think he was my brother, now waiting for his next street

I coughed because I lied in shock, still weary of my rights
Hermitage memorandums won't steal my life tonight
Yours is safe as well
I know this deeper feeling Joy
So do the TVs on the ceiling
They pick their battles just like boys

Got the chain smokin blues
Uninterrupted yet again
Semi drivers fade into the distance and I can only laugh
It is amazing that you hear this
While you fix your midnight vest
Chain smoking blues in blackened hues
Are pointing me back to the west

In and out of silence
Up and down from the floor
Back and forth between these eyelids
Once again being explored
You tip your cap in silence
I nod my head in trust
We've all been waiting patiently
For someone to show up

Chain smoking blues, I've got your back in mind
Chain smoking blues, in due time you I will find
Thanks for the touch of love, there is no finer kind

(written March 11, 2008)



"Silence"
by Zachary Power

Inside something greater
Than I could ever describe to you
We are circling our conscience
As if it were something new

For all the longing and struggles
There's far to many moments
That sneak by
Feels so empty

Now the need to create
Foundations in word and sound
Compound daily, building interest
Like rain in the clouds

But it's not yet upon us
Only thoughts swirling around
Yesterday is so far away
Feelings being emptied

Where did you go?
Silence before the answer
What's left before me?
The answer is silence

What do we know
About the choices we've made?
There's only silence
To sing the words on this page

Outside our lives
There's no such thing as the future
What I've learned is that
We walk away for a reason

If there's only one reason at all
One reason for it all
It does a good job of changing faces

So tell me what is your danger?
We both seem too scared not to stay strangers
I could be waiting for a signal
We could be waiting here together

Where did you go?
Silence before the answer
What's left before me?
The answer is silence
What do we know
About the choices we have made?
There's only silence
To sing the words on this page

There's only silence
To sing the songs of yesterday
There's only silence
To sing the messages relayed
There's only silence
Only silence

(written 12 October, 2008)