From the recording The Ruins of Our Age

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"The future floats by down a dark, empty street, a discarded wrapper from somebody’s dream"

Lyrics

JUST TO KEEP BREATHIN’
© 2020 Michael R. J. Roth

She’s got a steady job down at Probation and Parole
She got it out of high school maybe twenty years ago
The girlfriends she knew then are all married off
Except the one in prison, and one that owns a flower shop
She has a boyfriend she keeps in a photo

The future floats by down a dark, empty street
A discarded wrapper from somebody’s dream
In a world that’s protected by rockets
And comes to an end in the words of the prophets
She can’t believe the things she believes in
And sings just to keep breathin’

At the table in the kitchen, she picks apart some chicken bones
For a vision of the Virgin or some kind of omen
Cottonwood branches beat time on the shutters
A low-rider stalks with the thunder of drummers
She waits for tomorrow, but morning has broken

The future floats by down a dark, empty street
A discarded wrapper from somebody’s dream
In a world that’s protected by rockets
And comes to an end in the words of the prophets
She can’t believe the things she believes in
And sings just to keep breathin’

Her friends and family tell her she is pretty
When she looks in the mirror, it’s cracked and it’s dirty
She sleeps in a bedroom where somebody died once
There’s nothing to fear, according to science
And her lips are the color of violence

The future floats by down a dark, empty street
A discarded wrapper from somebody’s dream
In a world that’s protected by rockets
And comes to an end in the words of the prophets
She can’t believe the things she believes in
And sings just to keep breathin’