By Button Poetry
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Zach Goldberg, performing at Icehouse in Minneapolis, MN.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:01
one dusk a riddle which came first
00:07
my shadow or the bottle one of them
00:11
follows me everywhere and the other
00:13
looks like my father if I squint hard
00:15
enough but which is which when the Sun
00:19
Goes Down everything becomes its own
00:21
shadow I look in the mirror and all I
00:24
see is a silhouette I look at my hands
00:27
and all I see are my father’s hands I
00:30
open a bottle and peer through its event
00:32
horizon the nearly perfect darkness
00:34
there a well-rehearsed tragedy the son
00:37
swallowed by a slowly bruising sky it
00:40
happens every day if you practice
00:42
something enough times it becomes an
00:43
unshakeable part of you the half of you
00:46
turned away from the light in this way
00:48
maybe my shadow is just another
00:49
addiction I give it nicknames so I won’t
00:52
be as frightened to each night partner
00:54
and whine unwavering brother honeyed
00:56
assassin dogging my steps no matter what
00:59
happens I leave the bar with a knife in
01:01
my back yes you can build the ship in a
01:03
bottle but it won’t take you anywhere
01:05
worth going you cannot expect the bottle
01:07
to bring you joy as a condition of its
01:10
emptiness you cannot go into a thing and
01:12
come back out unchanged if this ends the
01:15
same way it began then death will greet
01:17
me with a bottle and a face like my
01:19
father’s
01:19
luckily my people do not believe in
01:22
resurrections
01:23
when you leave you stay gone and I do
01:26
but whether or not I decide to live I
01:29
will still have a shadow to dawn I will
01:35
still have a shadow whether or not I
01:38
decide to live and I do when you leave
01:42
you stay gone my people do not believe
01:46
in resurrections but luckily my father’s
01:48
face is unchanged by the bottle by death
01:51
when it ends he will greet me the same
01:54
way he began you cannot go into a bottle
01:57
and come back out expecting that
01:59
conditional emptiness to bring you joy a
02:01
bottle won’t take you anywhere worth
02:03
going yes you can build a ship you can
02:06
leave the bar tell yourself you won’t be
02:08
back no matter what happens but the
02:10
bottle is a knife a honeyed assassin
02:13
dogging your steps on
02:14
favoring brother partner in wine I give
02:17
it nicknames so I won’t be as frightened
02:18
each night my addiction is just another
02:21
shadow the half of me turned away from
02:23
the light that unshakable part of me but
02:26
I have practiced enough times to see the
02:28
nearly perfect darkness there be
02:30
swallowed by the Sun it happens every
02:32
day
02:33
this well-rehearsed tragedy slides
02:35
across the event horizon of a slowly
02:37
bruising sky I put down the bottle and
02:40
peer through my father’s hands I look at
02:43
my silhouette in the mirror and see how
02:45
everything undoes its own shadow when
02:47
the Sun comes up
02:48
my father follows me everywhere if I
02:51
squint hard enough he asks me a riddle
02:54
which ends first my shadow or the bottle
02:59
thank you very much
03:02
[Applause]
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
