The Eighth Street Gambit

[Verse 1]
The Queen on the porch swing on Eighth Street
watches the pawn shop lights blink out for April '27.
The Ohio is playing a quiet opening gambit,
she can feel the check coming, but she hasn't said it.
The screen door sighs shut with a low, heavy pressure.

[Chorus]
One more game on the checkered linoleum floor.
The only move left is the one through the door.
You feel the endgame coming, you pretend you don't know it.
The last quiet night.

[Verse 2]
He's wiping a glass in the yellow kitchen light.
"It's just a high river," he says, "it'll be alright."
But the ground's too soft, the air's too thick to breathe in.
A castling error, this town they believe in.

[Chorus]
One more game on the checkered linoleum floor.
The only move left is the one through the door.
You feel the endgame coming, you pretend you don't know it.
The last quiet night.

[Bridge]
And somewhere a train horn cuts clean through the haze.
A sound like a fork in the coming few days.
The river don't know you, it just knows the board.

[Chorus]
One more game on the checkered linoleum floor. (Countermelody: The silt is rising up)
The only move left is the one through the door. (Countermelody: A sacrifice play)
You feel the endgame coming, you pretend you don't know it. (Countermelody: There's no time left)
The last quiet night.

[Outro]
Eighth Street. April. The last night.