took my dog out for a walk down to the ballard locks when i chanced upon an econovan of three kids smoking rocks a little further down the road i met a mom and pop we had a couple beers and wondered what to do now that they've closed up shop then i thought about that lady i used to know she lived beneath a bridge and she had two girls of her own the bank had seized her home, c.p.s. took the girls away i'd see them meet in soup kitchens around the holidays down seattle's shipping line i smelled the beachfront fires i sat upon a landfill and i watched the day expire saw market street's foundation pits with no capital to build and $quarter-million$ condominiums vacant since they lost their mass appeal another "notice of a proposed land use action" a person's right to housing supersedes one's right to own land as long as homeless folks are on the street then we are with them don't pretend like you are too busy to notice them

i'm making basic wages at the age of 25 never showing off, never falling far behind i can't stand their attitudes but i keep it to myself if i said what i thought i'd be replaced by someone else grind the axe so long until there's nothing useful left polished til the paint pulls off and scars the craftsmanship the job market's all gone to shit but i get along just fine my home and my community's down highway 99 got tunnel vision at the galway arms grab the bushmills and pass it round the bar time to go but i never get that far grab the bushmills and pass it round the bar the irony's not lost on me you can buy off stress but it feels like fucking dying

On the hills of this city in 1889, a blood-red Olympic sunset just like yours and mine fell through the smoke and ashes high above the bay leaving citizens to gaze at their monuments in flames. From Union to Jackson, all that they had raised lay gutted and exhausted, pyres and ashtrays. Thousands fled, others came to fight. Others stood and watched their city burn into the night as though they knew somewhere inside that there was nothing they could do to save her from her fiery demise. Others walked the streets with those hot ashes at their feet down to the waterfront to watch the sunrise as the night turned into day, a barrel of whiskey and a riotous wake for the town by the Sound that could never be tamed. Twelve decades later, we're so much the same! Cussin' and drinkin' these summer nights away upon the tomb-like ruins of the fires of that day. Should some similarly-grand catastrophe befall us too, let's drink a beer, 'cuz fuck it! There's nothing we can do. I won't fear a thing as long as you're all by my side. Catastrophes, disasters, ye do with us as you like! You can destroy this city any way you damn-well please. Magnificent as you may be you won't keep us from history because amidst the ruins of Seattle in 100,000 years, they'll find our dusty skeletons clutching rusty beers! Until that day, we're off the record. With that in mind, I'll say "old friend, I guess this is the end. Let's raise one final drink to all the summer nights we spent feeling alive beneath skylines and bar room lights and all those winter nights we felt like we would die beneath a starless Northwest sky."