I-285: The Concrete Embrace

Lyrics

[Intro]
You don’t sleep.
You never have.
Just a low hum under the pines.
A concrete lung, breathing exhaust.

[Verse 1]
They dreamed you up in the fifties.
Poured you hot and black in sixty-nine.
A perfect loop.
A promise made of asphalt and rebar.
To connect, to expand.
To let the city breathe out into the green.
You were the future then.
A clean, wide artery, flowing free.

[Chorus]
Oh, the Perimeter.
Sixty-three miles of concrete embrace.
You’re the lifeline and the chokehold.
You draw the line for all of us.
Inside.
Or out.
A circle of steel and a gasoline prayer.

[Verse 2]
Now the morning finds you clogged.
A river of red taillights flowing west toward the sun.
A million private worlds in metal boxes, all sharing your skin.
We measure our lives by your exits.
By the time it takes to cross your spine.
From Doraville down to the airport junction.
We speak in your shorthand.
ITP. OTP.

[Chorus]
Oh, the Perimeter.
Sixty-three miles of concrete embrace.
You’re the lifeline and the chokehold.
You draw the line for all of us.
Inside.
Or out.
A circle of steel and a gasoline prayer.

[Bridge]
Are you the cage, or are you the key?
This endless loop, this serpent eating its own tail.
You were supposed to set us free.
But we just drive in circles now.
Watching the city rise inside your arms.
Watching the suburbs bloom just beyond your grasp.

[Outro]
The hum never stops.
Around.
And around.
Sixty-three miles.
Inside.
Or out.