The rattling music, the pins and the stops,
all cycling quickly, some symphony pop
Eyes wish to move freely yet glued to the sight,
of movement that’s aimless, so random and bright
The ball dances slowly, a final refrain
behind, leaving silence, allaying the brain
The cowboy’s hand waving, the flashy machine,
him smiling, lights blinking, the ending of things

Reconciling with silence, the game’s finished now,
the scoring’s not high but the colors won’t tell
You check your back pockets, eyes sweeping the floor,
for someone’s lost quarter to play with once more
But the lights simmer off and the timer rewinds,
the retina’s memory scorched deep in the mind
Him smiling, lights blinking, the ending of things,
reconciling with silence, that pinball machine

The cold-showered mornings of quiet farewells,
the silent rebuttal, where sanity dwells
The sundering dawned with the swing of a hand,
and now, thanks to God, we’re not speaking again.
A poison so deep it's a miracle how
you lived, underfed, in the claws of this town
Reconciling with silence, that pinball machine
Your dad’s rotting lungs that wheezed as we leave

A play so bizarre and the characters, too,
this desperate balance, the acting like fools, with
love that's invisible, pumped through a varicose
vein that connect that **** heart to his face
The rattling music, your painstaking grace to so carefully
pull me away from this place
Your dad’s rotting lungs that wheezed as we leave,
to think of the life that you had at fifteen

No powers at mind can conceive of the sight,
him broken, still fighting, those stained teeth, off-white
Trapped behind glass of the game that he plays,
but we “can’t blame him or the choices he made.”
Him smiling, lights blinking, the ending of things,
Reconciling with silence - that pinball machine.
Your dad’s rotting lungs that wheezed as we leave,
to think of the lives we both lived at fifteen.