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Old Faded Flag

from Strange New State by Common Jack

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lyrics

This city has the same name
But is different than the one I left.
The sights and sounds have changed somehow
And I’m struggling to catch my breath.
Maybe I’m just growing older,
Maybe I haven’t grown at all,
But I measured myself on the train tracks
& found I was two feet tall.
The subway prophets who lay in their coffins,
They beg me not to nag.
So I covered all their faces
With an old faded flag.

The brothers & sisters standing,
Unknown to each other there,
Crane their necks to see what’s up
As the landlord pulls up a chair.
He lights a joint he rolled himself
When the times were not so bad;
When all he had to worry ‘bout
Were the tenants that he had.
But now he’s got just an empty lot
Overflowing with garbage bags,
And standing in the middle
Is an old faded flag.

They’ve boarded up the windows
To prepare for the hurricane.
The Colonel never loved his wife
Cause like him, she’s quite insane.
Colonel’s lover, he argues trials,
While Glen torches old receipts
And leads the crowd in protest songs
As the circus council meets.
The doomsday patrol makes them all pay a toll
And dresses them in red name tags
For burning in a fire
Their old faded flag.

I saw Sammy on a tightrope,
Reciting some old Rimbaud -
Trying to feel his heart is real
Instead of a frozen stone -
The people who wandered past him
Asked why Sam was so possessed,
So Dave drove by & said, “I know why!
There’s an anvil on his chest!”
And the good ol’ boys with their rifle toys
Shouted “Sam you’re a sad eyed fag.”
As they went home to keep
Dreaming of their old faded flag.

The symphony is tuning up
For the second Sunday mass
While obedient young followers
Proudly pat themselves on the back.
Outside a homeless mother
Is lost in a photograph
And the poet in the parking lot
Shouts out his epitaph.
I can only stare from the city square
As the phantom figures wag
A condescending finger
At the old faded flag.

Little Red is quite alarming,
The wolf is a stubborn drunk
& grandma’s in the back room
Sorting ancient piles of junk
While the reporters on the barstools
Imagine they have found some dirt
By pointing their flash bomb cameras
Up Little Red’s floral skirt
But by now she’s bored cause she’s been here before
So she lights a Dunhill & takes a drag
& wraps herself discreetly
In her old faded flag.

The politicians are gathering
To set their watches back
To when the slow revolving door
Had frozen in its tracks.
They take a look around themselves –
It feels like the stuff of dreams –
They were so sure the sheep cared more
About collecting likes and memes.
Scrambling I saw them climb the steps
Of a building draped in rags;
Raising their right hands
In salute to their old faded flag.

Well I’m told that no one listens,
I’m told that no one sees,
I’m told my generation’s dead
From a frightful lack of means.
Well I saw my best friends drowning
Where the first responders wept
& my Uncle Sam only sent a note
Saying “son, you better watch your step.”
Now I’m sure this crumbling floor
Was built on our crooked backs,
& planted in our spinal cord
Is an old faded flag.

credits

from Strange New State, released September 9, 2016

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Common Jack New York, New York

Canyons in the Dark EP out now!

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