Static Radio

We coincided at the party, music pump loud
And drank ourselves to a dancing state.
As the basslines roped us toward the floor,
The music, it beat hard and steady.
In that weekend-world of fleeting hedonism
it was the most stable thing.
We could brace ourselves on it,
let it carry the weight of the world
for just those few minutes.
So we danced and gyrated through the heat and the sweat and the press
And found ourselves further along than when we started.

The hits set us up like blind dates.
And through it all, the radio played on.

We drove around, just enjoying ourselves
and this point of want tangent to have.
Windows down, music flow out
Proclaiming our gloried state like trumpeters—
Hearken all,
look upon us happy frolicking!
As the road became fluid with the cars with the stores with the houses
And the world ceased to exist,
except to ruffle our hair and to accept those songs
which we thrust upon all.
That dial, it powered our lives.

Those oldies gave us easy laughs.
And through it all, the radio played on.

Well the rough times come to all.
Those rocks in the path
which are just too hard
for some to cross with hands clasped tight.
And so, we had to part.
The music turned down,
we wrapped our spot in words
Against some fitting soft song—
And when it came to breaking point,
the poignant notes bridged the silence.
The door closed on my heart and acoustic.

The notes, they slid like tears.
And through it all, the radio played on.

Now I sit at the bar
with my 80-proof.
The music pumps for others now,
I just use it to lose myself.
My vision fixed fast on the lacquer-starved wood,
The noise buffers me from them all.
Guitars riff and scream, someone turn it up
and I don't even have to think.
For she fills my thoughts ere I do.
And it's only a fleeting reprieve—
but I've never asked for more than that.

And the speakers obliged my request.
And through it all, the radio plays on.

The hits that we have to love,
the soundtrack to memories,
the radio plays them all.
I'll remember you by the songs.