REAL GONE

words and music by Kasey Anderson

woke up this morning, my blood gone cold
heard the echoes of the dead making their way back home
lately i’ve been feeling just a little bit naïve
or maybe I’m more afraid than I ever wanted to believe
but i can’t stop thinking about the departed and where they go when they leave

outside it’s just scorched earth and ashes as far as i can see
and the voice on the radio is screaming at me,
“there’s nothing you can do now, boy, to turn back fate
you’re a few dollars short and you were born too late
and anybody else trying to slow this thing down is making the same mistake

and it won’t be long
you’ll forget what the world looked like before it all went wrong
and you won’t miss it at all after it’s gone”

well, it wasn’t long ago we weren’t talking about the end
a change was comin’, you could feel it on the wind
so i straightened my wheels out and I tried to chase it down
but i wound up spun out and stranded in some gutless little town
and i figured maybe i could get something started there, i’d might as well stick around

so i unpacked my dreams and arranged them on the shelf
and i started passing out little pieces of myself
well, i learned soon enough there’s only so much you can give away
before your eyes look hollowed out and your nerve starts to decay
but you stare back at yourself long enough, you don’t even see the change

and it doesn’t take long
you’re talking yourself out of a feeling you held so long
like you won’t miss it at all after it’s gone

well after a while, i guess restlessness set in
and i started feeling the breezes of change again
so i stepped outside and joined the voices singing in the street
and we watched the cars rushing by spit the rain back at our feet
but when the sun went down everybody else had somewhere they just had to be

so i settled my debts and headed back down south
no shortage of opinion spilling out of my mouth
proud an unrepentant, and disgusted with all fear,
i raised my voice loud enough so everyone i knew could hear and i said,
“when i die, you can scatter my ashes anywhere but here

and it won’t be long
i’ll confuse your faces and forget your songs
and i won’t miss you at all after i’m gone”

well, of course i met a girl on my way out of town
and i started finding excuses to come back around
and i’m sure you’ve heard this before but she had conquest in her eyes,
she shook my city with a grin and she swept the rubble out with a sigh
and if she wasn’t perfect, she wore a perfect disguise

she said she was selfish but she wasn’t mean
i said i’d settle for something somewhere in between
i called her name out like some sacred verse
and watched her disappear down the alley in somebody else’s hearse
all things considered, i guess it could’ve been worse

and it didn’t take long
found myself wondering where the hell i went wrong
and who’s gonna miss me after she’s gone

so i drifted for a while between the living and the dead
the sorrow drowned out by the static in my head
then the clouds caught fire and i settled back down on the ground
and started digging through the dust for what the storm had kicked around
and when the sky had cleared, i took a look at what i’d found

i found the devil between the firing lines
found hearts corroded by vengeance and time
i found the illusions of faith hidden in the stations of the cross
found the seeds of war buried in the graveyards of the lost
i found a note somebody wrote said, “all this leaving better be worth the cost

because it doesn’t take long
the world keeps spinning and fate keeps rolling right along
but everybody’s got somebody gonna miss ‘em after they’re gone”