Plastic Flowers from Slowest Roads by Zach Gentry

This song is about grief. Very much following after Wholes from the same album it is about the tendency to bury our troubles and feelings in hiding. It invites one to look to the sky for answers. I keep that vague because to me it's only a metaphor.

But if you can move past your doubt, you may see that there is a brilliant shining crack in the cloudy day of your life. It has the power to burn off your fears if you are willing to face them. People call this many things, God, a higher power, a singularity, the basic ground of being, our source.

Whatever you want to call it, it is beyond name and description. Nothing can do it justice, but it is closer than the very air you breath. And it is accessible to everyone, you just have to practice looking for it. And don't be afraid to ask for help.

The other major theme to address here is the effect of time on the grieving process. In some way it is the only thing that can heal grief. But your holes don't need to be filled. You just have to learn to live with them.

Tracklist

5.	Plastic Flowers	4:07

Lyrics

Picked up a fortune that I found
It was a little paper future someone left lyin' around
Said it's time to put those worries right into the ground
Cause there's just no place for your worries
Like when they're lyin' six feet down

And they're long gone, gone
And they're long gone, gone
And they're long gone, gone
They're gone

But I will visit the burial site
Where the grass now thickly grows
Because all holes can heal with time
And I will leave these plastic flowers
Because they refuse to die

And on the stone we planted here
Engraved there is a sign

It reads: Here they lie, Here they lie
The soldiers of those vacant eyes
The holders of a thousand cries
Have finally found their peace

See the cracks up in the sky
The highways where the angels fly
We'd sewn them shut to keep the light
From finding our disease

But now we see
The monsters we had become
Now we
Can begin to unravel what we had begun
We split the seams
Embrace what was given of the sun
Let it shine for me
And for all the lost parts of everyone

But let's take a step back
And hold off on the metaphors
Cause I've been livin' ways
That ain't worth wakin' for
In the morning
It's nothin' new
I wasn't born into this world just yesterday
Though it wasn't long ago

And if I lived a hundred years
I'm sure I wouldn't know

But I will visit the burial site
Where the grass now thickly grows
Because all holes can heal with time
And I will leave these plastic flowers
Because they refuse to die

And on the stone we planted here
Engraved there is a sign

It reads: Here they lie, Here they lie
The soldiers of those vacant eyes
The holders of a thousand cries
Have finally found their peace

See the cracks up in the sky
The highways where the angels fly
We'd sewn them shut to keep the light
From finding our disease

Here they lie, Here they lie
The soldiers of those vacant eyes
The holders of a thousand cries
Have finally found their peace

Credits

from Slowest Roads, released January 28, 2021
Lyrics and Music by Zach Gentry
Mixed and Mastered by Miles Johnson - linktr.ee/mostlyleg
Album Art by Barry Gentry, Adastra PhotoGraphics
Special thanks to Scott P. Crowley and Jay Padgett

License