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The Ladder Slipped

from The Warm, Dark Circus by Jack O' The Clock

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lyrics

Brother, would you talk me down?

I’m afraid that if I stop this truck

I will be tempted to reach in between

the seats and feel the heft

of my “just-in-case.”
 


Slick earth and the ladder slipped

and I landed twenty feet below,

a broken back, bruised ribs

and a pool of eggshell white.

So much for pushing brushes.
 


Came out of the hospital so deep in the hole

they were suggesting I climb on my friends—

prescribed enough “ocean” to drown a horse,

my God.
 


Brother, I am so afraid

but not for myself no more.

If I can’t provide, I’m worth more

dead than alive, no man am I.

No man am I.
 


Woke up this morning when the screen door slammed.

Guess the kid was heading off to school.

I started east as soon as I found a box of slugs

behind some paint cans.


I am a descendent of the great William Clark,

if only somebody gave half a crap.

“You’ve had your turn!” is all I hear.

Brother, when was that?
 


There’s a place my father used to go

to shoot off some rounds and howl

as he got drunk off his ass

and shattered all the glass

in a graveyard of old television sets.
 


I’m losing reception, man.

I'm going to lose you.
I’m going.
I’m going.
 


credits

from The Warm, Dark Circus, released October 27, 2023
________________________________________

Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, banjo, hammer dulcimer, tongue drum, mbira, electric taishogoto, 12-string acoustic and baritone electric guitars, glockenspiel, percussion


Emily Packard - violin, viola


Jason Hoopes - bass


Jordan Glenn - drums, synth


Thea Kelley - backing vocals


Victor Reynolds - harmonica, tenor recorder


Karl Evangelista - electric guitar solo

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Jack O' The Clock Oakland, California

JACK O' THE CLOCK "presents a fine lesson on what it means to write songs that are at once approachable and human while simultaneously being incredibly profound in terms of timbre, depth of emotion, and harmonic complexity," Progulator.

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