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Concrete Texas

by AKODA

supported by
Alan Koda
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gaxophone
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lyrics

Pave it all
Give it away
Knock down our homes
Knock down the trees
Knock down the sky


The arms of a vortex
The nexus of endless highways
That cross us like asphalt knots

The lines of a city
That strangle the friendly townsfolk
Community bends to rot

The breaking of prairie
The taking of every
Remainder of daylight that we had left

The weird and the rednecks
The rural and rejects
Strung up by their paychecks
Devoured by rent

Cuz this concrete Texas
Taxes my health
Miles of fence
Extinguish cactus
This concrete Texas
Breaks my senses
A burning furnace
Of excess & malice



The consignment shops
And the empty lots slouch beside
The old courthouse in old downtown

The unbroken pavement
That bakes all the vacant camp tents
The underpass thunders down

Drown Houston in monsoon
Burn Austin in mid June
And when it all freezes
Just fuck off to Cancún

Let’s outrule and desex
And outzone the duplexes
The poor and the pregnant
Can just stay neglected

This concrete Texas
Taxes my health
Miles of fence
Extinguish cactus
This concrete Texas
Breaks my senses
A smoldering furnace
Of mammon & malice



500 miles
Down 35
On the way
Down the freeway




Fast forward, 2028
The Permian side of the Katy freeway expansion
Three decks full of frightened steel

An unending river of cars
Stretches back to the last mile of failed dykes just outside Conroe
Halogen headlights on rebar and scrub

An alluvial plain of panic and fear
We follow the emergency reflectors alongside
The belly of the Daniel Johnston Memorial Pipeline

Rescue choppers burn holes in the sky
Their silhouettes fade into dying sunlight
Streaked with violet and copper and crimson
And a lost way of life

Up ahead
Some old King Ranch has opened his door
And stares out at the black where no power’s been restored
As the heat cooks the night and the sweat starts to pour down his shirt

He remembers how
We were once neighbors from high plains to shore
Until dark forces broke us by breaking our hope
So now “buckle down and bear y’all” it is what we get told
Cuz now Texas don’t translate to friend anymore
Texas don’t translate to friend anymore
Texas don’t translate to friend anymore
Texas don’t translate to friend anymore
Texas don’t translate to friend anymore


Cerramos los ojos
Sufrimos mañana

credits

released September 3, 2021

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AKODA Austin, Texas

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