Amnesia Static

[Verse 1]
Walt's staring at the P.O.W. flag by the VFW door
His Olympia is sweating on the pine-knot floor
The air is thick with bleach and ghosts, a hum of failing light
The same static flicker every Tuesday night.

[Chorus]
If you swap the planks and rigging on a ship out on the sea
Is it still the same vessel that left the quay?
And if a man can’t find the wire back to his own wife’s face
Did the person that she loved just get erased?

[Verse 2]
There’s a picture on the wall there, from sometime in ‘73
A kid with Walt’s own smile, holding an M-16
"He just points at it sometimes," the bartender says, wiping down the zinc
"Askin' if I know the guy, then buys another drink."

[Chorus]
If you swap the planks and rigging on a ship out on the sea
Is it still the same vessel that left the quay?
And if a man can’t find the wire back to his own wife’s face
Did the person that she loved just get erased?

[Bridge]
The transformer outside buzzes a low and lonely creed
Like a memory trying to plant a forgotten seed.

[Chorus]
(Main Vocal)
If you swap the planks and rigging on a ship out on the sea
Is it still the same vessel that left the quay?
(Countermelody - high, ethereal)
*The smell of sagebrush after rain...*
(Main Vocal)
And if a man can’t find the wire back to his own wife’s face
Did the person that she loved just get erased?
(Countermelody - high, ethereal)
*Wrote your name on the survey stake...*

[Outro]
The Olympia's gone warm in his hand.
Just static.