0:00/???
  1. Radio

From the recording Chiaroscuro

It was one of those nights when I had an “end of my rope” feeling. I honestly can’t remember now what/who prompted it, but I was sad, lonely, and despondent, and I started speaking aloud. Since my childhood, I’ve had the habit of just talking to God in these moments of darkness, but this time was different. “Are you there? If so, do you even care? Because this is starting to get old. Don’t feed me the ‘it is but a moment’ nonsense, because from where I’m sitting, this moment went north of 60 seconds years ago.” I started hearing the words whispered from my mouth as a desperate, broken  radio transmission. Staccato Morse code dashes and dots …---… being sent out into the void as a final attempt and hope that someone would come to the rescue…all I heard was static. My bed became a space station, flung from its projected orbit, and the song started forming around that idea of a marooned space explorer resigning to the fact that he may never get back. He was still signaling, but he did so perfunctorily. I started researching radio terminology to gather lyrical ideas when I came across the Wow! signal. In short, the Wow! signal is a strong narrowband radio signal that was received by a radio telescope during an assignment to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The intensity variation of the radio signal over time is represented by the alphanumeric sequence “6EQUJ5” and originated in the Sagittarius constellation. “Was that You?” I smiled at the coincidence that Sagittarius is the archer who bridges heaven and earth. “Did you hear me?” Perhaps it was a wink from the other side. I think our hapless explorer in the song realizes this connection as he hears the signal, and his plea comes alive with renewed hope and passion.
 
So has mine. 

Lyrics

Agent 0
***paging Radio***
Come in – I’ve made a mistake
“This number’s disconnected, boy,
please try your call again.”
So I did.
Sagittarius
was busy perfecting his aim
while I considered options.
There’s one that still remains.
 
I know you’re trying to break through
I recognize the shape of your sound
I swear that’s your signal
humming on my wave
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Radio?
 
Quite the trick,
televangelist
I almost believed it myself
The violence of past tense
said, “I used to know him well.”
6EQ
So, then was that you calling?
Or somebody else?
All signs point to absolution
As far as I can tell
 
Come in? All I hear is static
Coming from the edge
of my defense – sound the alarm, boy
This is not a test, no,
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Radio?