Playing Some Odd Chords

Each day they see the old rummies
smelling of tobacco and last night's ganja
but almost all are pleasant and smile
they're grateful to find this
in an empty world
which doesn't give a shit about them
only caring about big black SUVs
and who the Kardashians are screwing
but that's a different world
and those old rummies would not want it
even if they could have it
because all of them have seen more


The young wizard said grandly
I have used cocaine on the rim of a volcano
I have flown at one hundred thousand feet
I keep a harem of a dozen women
so I can see, feel, and taste
everything in life
it can give me

But he doesn't study astronomy
and the edge of the observable Universe
is only as far as you can see
for beyond it tells you nothing
of that which is on the other side
of the edge


The old rummies don't care much for young wizards
they have already had their fill of cocaine
and their lives were almost always on volcanoes
filled with women from all around the world
They did see and feel and taste
everything there is
and more you don't ever want to know

There's more beyond the edge of your comfort
beyond the edge of your Universe
and it's not even the same one
It's where people do the things
you cannot imagine yourself ever doing
and neither did they
until you told them to go


It's odd to wake up and find I became one
I smell of tobacco and last night's ganja
but I'm also pleasant and often smile
because I'm as grateful as all the others
and we don't ever see young wizards
but they have nothing useful to say
and they always have
better things to do
because they are quite rich
and are often busy


Some twisted chords came up
even when the synth hasn't talked much
but there's a lot of coolness
in an F minor kind of way
which works the best
because some keys are broken
and do not work

They will cut me again soon
and I won't be able to play from it
which trips my zoom into another planet
because it starts, it stops, it starts
and thinking sucks as a way to travel
I only want to play
It's all I ever wanted
but that isn't work
and it violates the ethic


The more we saw from it all
the more we saw the ethic
must mean something here
when it doesn't mean anything
anywhere else
but that means playing
is a waste of time
so that's a conflict
but conflict makes music
if you let it
or it lets you