Burnt hands pointed at the dashboard
Fingernails torn to shreds
Tapping the dials with anticipation
Almost tasting desperation...
Caught in a downward spiral
She's dropping altitude
Down through the atmosphere
Like night time curtains
At the matinee.
Beads of perspiration
Ran down his face
As he fought the shaking brake handle
To slow his white-knuckle ride to the dirt below.
Gravity was once his friend
Keeping his feet secure
Now it was the enemy it seemed
Even after the chaos he endured...
The trip to Hell and back
Didn't change shit
Didn't amount to a hill of beans.
He'd rather strap in tighter
Than bail and chute out
Go down with the ship they said
That's the way
He wanted to go.
As the outer layers of steel skin peeled away
He threw himself into childhood again
Wrapping his cold burnt body in warm memories
Riding bikes, building forts, climbing trees.
As the wiring sparked and first systems failed
He thought of his first plane ride home
The music that played
The soundtrack of those years
Ringing louder in his ears
Than the alarms
The stressed metal
The popping seams.
Gravity was once his friend
Keeping his feet secure
Now it was the enemy it seemed
Even after the chaos he endured...
The trip to Hell and back
Nothing more than a preflight check to him now...
Everything bright went brighter
Everything dark got darker
The loudness got louder
Then silence.
