Ashes - Mark Kozelek, Ben Boye, Jim White

As I walk down the hill like I did since I was a twenty-something kid

I thought, «Oh my god, there’s something loose shaking beneath my skin

Oh my god, these are my elbows, these are my wrists

This is my jaw and this is my ribs»

Underneath my skin, yes there is a skeleton

I didn’t think about this when I was twenty or thirty or fourty

All I thought about then was spreading my seed around via my rockstar glory

And at thirty for sure there was an eternity

Of magical days and nights on this planet laying before me

I didn’t think I would slow down when I was twenty or thirty or fourty

But last night I was walking in the rain and suddenly it hit me now that I’m

fifty

My shoulder blades are pointy and my flesh feels less thick and more like

gelatin

Suddenly, my skin something mildly there to protect my skeleton

Some girls were in the restaurant talking about their charmed life

About growing up rich and the many many many many downsides

One of their parents used to punish her when she acted a fool

By making her walk to the bus stop and taking the bus to school

One of them said Chinese food was so much better in China than in the States

I said, «How profound, that wouldn’t have occurred

To the rest of us here enjoying the food on our plates

And Spanish food is better in Spain, wouldn’t you think dimwit?

And Southern food is better in the South, oh you haven’t been there?

Well when you do, compare the grits to the grits they serve in Manhattan

Anyhow young lady, please enjoy your food

Observe the homeless people outside, you’re putting me in a bad mood»

Oh how I wanted to say more to her

And asked what she’d like to say on her tombstone

When her charmed life is over

But I walked back up Pine Street in the rain

Came back to my apartment

Got tucked in bed with my girlfriend’s cat and turned on CNN

59 Tomahawk missiles were sent into Syria

Because Trump saw photos of dead men and women and children

Adding more to the ever-growing pile of skeletons

Skeletons that are no longer protected by skin

Skeletons that are now ashes blowing in the wind

Their ashes, my friend, are your sisters and brothers, friend

And the answer, my friend, is that in war, nobody wins

Their ashes, my friend, are blowing

Their ashes, my friend, are growing

Their ashes, my friend, are blowing

Their ashes, my friend, are growing

As I lay in bed

My skeleton warmed and protected by my aging skin

I can’t see the cat’s skin

The cat is fat, like a big feathery hen

And that girl’s probably out at a bar, gathering with her friends

And I fall asleep tonight to the headline