Plastic flowers on a cold level splay Cigarettes lay sizzling in your mother f**ing tarred ash tray Forty-six and always sick, my hopes they were all gone Vacuum lips and every bit of smoke is withdrawn A rush of fire burns, I'm in its light Choked up or chained down I burned with it and I burned with you Every time you coughed I feared the very worst Thinking you ate smoke to cure your belly's thirst Like loose change in a coffee can, your throat it would burst And I wanted better for you, strangled your days were cursed Charred lungs and breath that smoldered I just couldn't see it til I got older You spoke through crackles and you walked as if you were shackled And I just watched, I did nothing