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the half​-​life of aluminum

from A Prelude Of The Aftermath by Walt Kosty & Ralph Bendel

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If there is a coda for this series of “notes from the aftermath”, it is embodied within the sounds, the music and the words of this song. Even though it does not close the album, this piece speaks most directly to the aftermath; the aftermath of America.

While we continue as a nation, we are far from united. The changes in our communication, our climate, our connection to the land and to one another are severed irrevocably in a way I don’t believe will be stitched back together.

Good Luck to you, to all of us, dancing in the specter of what was and what is.

lyrics

the poem:

the half-life of aluminum isotope 26
is seven hundred and thirty thousand years
give or take but the mean-life
the mean-life of absolution
is being held hostage
by the silver pistol of the anti-evolutionist
a pistol that remains cocked and loaded
outside the birds are silent and nervous
the geese are too fat to fly
the errant lieutenant has
just devised the coverup
to make the way ahead
seems too worthless to try

so i stopped a broken sailor
to ask him where this ship is heading
he just smiled and pointed at the traffic light
said talk to that thing for direction
the maps have all been stolen
and the stars are still in hiding
the land is burning everywhere and me
i’m just a ticking clock
whose seconds have been divided

this memory of place its all that’s left
what was isn’t and what is well
maybe it’s not worth keeping anyway

3d houses made of petroleum and styrofoam
imbeciles zealots and billionaires coveting the earth
i suppose e what you have to do to survive
is to sell your soul to idiots
let them mine your data
constantly planning that you remember
you remember to forget it

the once solemn graveyards
are now full of plastic
and being covered with concrete
and planted with astroturf
a foul green pretend wind
blows through the window
the hurricane opened up
and let that evil come right in

maybe i’m just letting
metaphor get the best of me
but i feel queasy
walking through the landfill
seeing the half eaten sandwiches
our plundering wrought
wrapped in cardboard terabytes
our wandering electronic bodies
looking for the home button
so i wrap my head in aluminum
for protection eat my wheaties
and pray for another election

while i’m still here while i can
i’m gonna continue shouting effervescence
directly into the palm of my hand
i’ll go outside to the rooftop
and wave that caution flag again
because what we once were
what we could be is not what we’ve been
a time for reckoning is upon us
soon our answers gonna come
cause the planet she’s seen the future
and it doesn’t include us none of us

yes maybe i’m just letting

metaphor get the best of me
so right now
i’m gonna crawl
back into my corner
smoke some legal weed
and then make some homemade soap
make some soap
i’m gonna give it away tomorrow
on the street corner
at the intersection
of somewhere else and hope

credits

from A Prelude Of The Aftermath, released May 14, 2022
The Poem was written and recited by Walt Kosty (ASCAP-Studio Magnolia). The Music was composed, arranged and performed by Ralph Bendel (ASCAP-Studio-Magnolia) The "bones" of this piece are the percussive sounds of aluminum cans and broken glass being manipulated in collaborative effort by Ralph and Walt. The cans were stomped on, crinkled, tapped on, and crushed by hand, as a bag of broken glass bottles was dragged over a concrete floor. Ralph used accordion to create the wind-like sound at the very beginning and the breathing-like sounds near the end; the ambient recordings of crows and magpies in New Mexico were recorded by Ralph. Ralph used a Guild Songbird guitar; Godin Nylon string ACS-SA guitar with Boss SY300 and Roland GR55 synthesizers ; and "the Venom" keyboard synthesizer. The image is a USGS high altitude aerial photo of Tulsa from 9-10/1967.

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