In “Chaff in the Sky,” Civic Hush delivers a heavy, rhythmic warning about the atmospheric manipulation choking Sector 8. Her voice serves as a gravelly alarm for a population living under a “poisoned wreath.”
The Metal Sky
Civic describes a sky that has been turned into a battlefield. She rejects the official “vapor” narrative, pointing out the unnatural geometry of the “too straight” lines and the “silver shift” of the gridlock clouds. To her, this isn’t weather; it’s a “silent war” being fought with “silver veils.” The imagery of “sickened leaves and altered corn” serves as a grim reminder that while the official channels play upbeat music, the very foundation of life is being corroded.
A Silent War
The song’s cadence—“Left right left no birds cry”—reinforces the feeling of a population living under occupation. The absence of nature (the lack of birds, the smell of the fog) is replaced by the “hum of wires” and the “line of ash.” Civic highlights the absurdity of the explanations offered to the public—”they used to spray for crops… but I ain’t seen a crop in days”—exposing the reality of a slow-motion assault on the lungs of the survivors.
CHAFF IN THE SKY
by: Civic Hush
Lines above too straight to drift
Gridlock clouds in silver shift
No thunder here no drop to warn
Just sickened leaves and altered corn
They say it’s vapor they say it’s fine
But dust don’t fall in such straight lines
The air went still the static climbed
And someone coughed for the fifth damn time
Chaff in the sky don’t breathe deep
Cover your kids silence don’t sleep
Left right left no birds cry
We walk beneath a metal sky
The trees don’t rustle like they should
The fog smells wrong in the neighborhood
I saw it shimmer too close too near
A line of ash that won’t disappear
The wires hum and the radios fade
The forecast lies with numbers made
They write it off they smile and stall
But I can’t name the clouds at all
They used to spray for crops they say
But I ain’t seen a crop in days
No birds above just crosshatch trails
A silent war in silver veils
Chaff in the sky don’t breathe deep
Cover your mouths silence don’t sleep
Left right left no truth flies
Just trails and lies in a metal sky
We breathe we march we sleep beneath
A sky too straight a poisoned wreath
And Civic Hush keeps singin low
Cause no one warns what we should know