Lint Trap Manifesto

[Intro]
[Verse]
Fluorescent hum is quite loud
Standing alone in a crowd
Machine four is out of order
Right on the laundry border
Cold tiles feel like ice
Everything has a price
I watch the water drain
Like a slow-motion train
[Pre-Chorus]
I see a glint of white
In the middle of the night
Tucked behind the dryer vent
Where the lonely money went
[Chorus]
Spin it round and round
Lost and never found
Static in the air
No one seems to care
Just a ghost in the machine
Keeping all the surfaces clean
[Post-Chorus]
Clean and cold
Doing what I’m told
Clean and cold
Watch the story unfold
[Verse]
A half-smoked Lucky Strike
The kind that hikers like
Next to a scrap of yellowed page
Written in a quiet rage
“The sky is a bruised plum”
Stuck under a piece of gum
It’s a very poor metaphor
Dropped on the linoleum floor
[Interlude]
I wonder if they used a ballpoint pen. 
The ink is smudged, possibly by a tear, or perhaps just spilled coffee. 
The price of detergent has gone up again. 
Three dollars for a small box of Tide. 
It seems excessive for a temporary solution to a permanent stain. 
The woman in the raincoat is staring at the broken payphone. 
She’s been there for twenty minutes. 
Nobody calls a payphone anymore.
[Chorus]
Spin it round and round
Lost and never found
Static in the air
No one seems to care
Just a ghost in the machine
Keeping all the surfaces clean
[Bridge]
The payphone is off the hook
Give it a cynical look
Rain slicked on the platform floor
Waiting for an open door
Strangers stare at their own feet
Rhythm of the city beat
Angular lines on the wall
Waiting for the sky to fall
[Verse]
The poem mentions a blue coat
And a very specific boat
Rhyming ‘sorrow’ with ‘tomorrow’
A cliché I’d never borrow
I put the cigarette in my ear
Wishing you were never here
The dryer cycle finally ends
Unlike my list of former friends
[Chorus]
Spin it round and round
Lost and never found
Static in the air
No one seems to care
Just a ghost in the machine
Keeping all the surfaces clean
[Post-Chorus]
Clean and cold
Doing what I’m told
Clean and cold
Watch the story unfold
[Outro]