A Song in Your Unbeating Heart
24 Feb 2020Today’s prompt: “Write about a song”
Your earworm today has been wild.
You woke up with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony stuck in your head. “Well there ain’t nowhere to run when judgment comes for you” rolls through your head as you stretch and yawn. “See you at tha crossroads crossroads crossroads” echoes in your mind as you grab your toothbrush. When you turn on the shower, it’s “And I’m gonna miss everybody, and I’m gonna miss everybody when I’m gone.” As the water rolls down your neck, you’re hearing the plaintive cries, “Can somebody anybody tell me why we die, we die? I don’t wanna die.”
When you get to work, though, the songs in your head take a hard right turn. Blue Öyster Cult distracts you during a long meeting. The cowbell fades quickly to the lyrics: “All our times have come/Here but now they’re gone/Seasons don’t fear the reaper/Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain/We can be like they are/Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper….”
As you eat your microwaved chicken tikka masala, it’s Dylan’s voice crawling through your brain. “Mama, take this badge off of me/I can’t use it anymore/It’s getting dark, too dark to see/I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door/Knock knock knockin’ on heaven’s door….”
Later in the afternoon, the earworm switches to Metallica’s “Fade to Black.” Over the guitar riff, you can make out the words, “No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late. Now I can’t think, think why I should even try. Yesterday seems as though it never existed. Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye.”
You just do not get your brain today. It’s a pretty weird combo of genres.
You’re just leaving work, and the music gets all ’90s angsty. The Smiths, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.” You’re strolling along the sidewalk, and all you can hear is, “And if a double-decker bus/Crashes into us/To die by your side/Is such a heavenly way to die.” You stride into the crosswalk, the chorus reverberating, “And if a ten-ton truck/Kills the both of us….”
And that’s when the bus’s brakes fail, right while you’re crossing the street.