Saturday 13 February 2021

watch America eat itself live on camera

 


watch America
eat itself
live on camera

telegraphically
line by line
crawling chyrons

watch America
eat itself
from the inside

Jake and Jacob,
Colin and Connor,
Logan and Lucas,
Hunter and Tanner

convoys of
flag shaggers
listening to
brain lizards

Amy and Abigail,
Allison, Jenna,
Katie and Caitlin and Katelyn and Kaitlin and Kaitlyn...
Katherine and Kathryn,
Emily, Emma,

and they are
locked and loaded, they are
out on the front lawn, they are
waiting for something, they are

watching a
river of
Black people
march up the
street

Madeline, Molly,
Carly and Claire
Heather and Holly
all of them there

and they are
locked and loaded, they are
out on the front lawn, they are
waiting for something, they are
waiting for a signal...


= = = = = = 

[[ notes ]]


they sing
god save our picket fences
god save our all-white schools
god save our 


watch the soccer moms
watch the bubbas
angry white male
Karen and Kyle guard their picket fences
man the bastions with pop guns

boarding up windows and
erecting fences

rejecting ballots

convoys of
flag shaggers
listening to
brain lizards

at the end of the news

dumb boys
gone boys
wrong boys
with guns



Amy and Abigail,
Allison, Jenna,
Katie and Caitlin,
Emily, Emma,
Katherine and Kathryn,
Carly and Claire
Madeline, Molly,
Heather and Holly
and Hannah were there


Jacob, Jake, Jack
Colin, Cody, Cole,
Connor, Tanner, Hunter
Logan, Lucas, Luke
Brett, Scott, Wyatt, Garrett
Maxwell, Dylan, Dustin, Bradley



Molly
Amy
Claire
Emily
Katie
Madeline
Katelyn
Emma
Abigail
Carly
Jenna
Heather
Katherine
Caitlin
Kaitlin
Holly
Allison
Kaitlyn
Hannah
Kathryn

Jake
Connor
Tanner
Wyatt
Cody
Dustin
Luke
Jack
Scott
Logan
Cole
Lucas
Bradley
Jacob
Garrett
Dylan
Maxwell
Hunter
Brett
Colin

 

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

 

after talking to the cat
after the telephone rings
after snow buries the house
before we all are dead

you settle in a chair
grilled cheese sandwiches
Tarzan or Sherlock Holmes
you could be either one


 

the smell of the fear of being alone



cut a hole right through this air 
watch the world 
fall apart 
for someone
find a place where we can stare
watch the world 
fall apart 
for someone
pull us up a sticky chair
watch the world 
fall apart 
for someone

take a whiff of this night, would ya, kid?
that's not the smell of alone, it's something else

the smell of 
the fear of 
being alone

the smell of 
the fear of
being here
    after everyone's gone

the smell of 
the fear of
being in love

the smell of 
the fear of
being here
    after falling in love 

the smell of 
the fear of 
the sound of
being alone

the taste of
one last beer
the smell of 
the fear of
being here

we formed a religion

 

we formed a religion
out in the woods
with our hands, the religion
the one true religion

we found a religion
out on the road
where the dust whirls skyward
and baffles the eyes

we heard a religion
scream through the walls
from invisible neighbors
a new revelation

each morning we build another religion
and tear it all down at night
we are running in deep dark water
we fly with a will of our own

we wake with a faith
we will not float away, we believe
we will cling to the street, we believe
we will breathe, we will breathe, we believe
we will whirl round this star
we will whirl round this star
we will never never never disappear

it's a wonder

 

let's take a short tour of my long-term memory

there's somebody's car,
they're leaving,
we're left holding
the new door keys
we're moving in,
it's our first home,
and we're already
climbing the trees

we were monkeys
way back then
little monkeys
way back when

how old were we?
how old are we now?
how old will we ever be?
when, oh, oh, never mind comes over the hill
when, oh, oh, never mind comes around the bend

it's a wonder
our bones are still cracking
it's a wonder
our teeth are still clacking
it's a wonder
we can wonder at all
we can wonder at it all

there's the telephone,
it's ringing
we're all talking
on a party line
we're moving on,
it's party time,
and we're already
swinging, swinging, swinging free

there's my memory,
it's fading
I'm forgetting
everyone's name
I'm moving up,
back to the trees
and I'm already
slipping away

anodyne

 


let's go down
the boulevard
to the Seven Seas

bring your cash
and credit card
and buy us a breeze

have a few
umbrella drinks
and pick up a squeeze

share some coconut milk

perfect circle

 

[[ this should be recorded by Toyah and Robert ]]

there is no perfect
circle on the ice

these dusty skates
are hand-me-downs

from aunts and cousins
screwed and glued

and passed on
to the next girl

in the clan who's
grown enough to wobble

out uncertainly
with these dull blades

on ice and scream
back in the arms

of gravity and live
to tell her sister
 

it's not the way i feel

 



it's not the way i feel
i don't know how i feel
it's the things i do
that show my love is real
if any love is real

it's not the things i say
i don't know what to say
it's the things i do
and don't do every day
if love is here today

i couldn't tell you 
if love is here to stay
love is here today
and that's enough 

i've seen enough 
to put much trust 
in the woo of woo
it's only me and you

i throw my love in the deep end 
and teach love to sink or swim

devotion

 

[[ vague thing about aliens or gods or lunacy or some sort of visitations ]]

Devote half an hour 
to UFOs 
every night 
when it's clear         [[ sky when it's clear ]]

Go stand out nights
and learn the sky
off by heart
when it's clear        [[ heart when it's clear ]]

Learn to recognize
the UFOs
in your mind 
when it's clear       [[ mind when it's clear ]]

when all is clear
we will see them all coming
roaring with fire or 
descending with grace
 

 

the tools of oppression

 


the tools of oppression
no longer come 
on metal tracks 
and dragon roars 

the tools of oppression
grow larger and smaller
faster and stronger


swarms of birds that were never birds
things that walk 
something waiting on the floor of the sea
things that whir and never were

on they come on ballet legs with hard sharp toes
they walk up walls and walk through walls
they sink under the lake and hold their breath
they swarm and hum and bite and disappear
they perch on the gutter and look down
they climb a tree and point a gun
they burrow down and wait a hundred years
they think about they way you look around
they think about the places you have been
they think about the people you have met
they think about themselves... 

they carry out their deeds
they carry off their dead
they carry home fingertips and head

the tools of oppression, 
magic stenographers,
transcribe a joke 
you can never untell

the tools of oppression
look at your grocery list
wonder who's coming
tonight after dark

the tools of oppression
better than anyone
would know you a mile away
by how you walk
 

in times like this

 

in times like this
we set a timer
hold our breath and
watch the parade go by

in times like this
we tunnel out
and change our names
and disappear into the crowd

in times like this
we push a knife in
through the temple
and change their minds forever

there is nothing
we will not do
in times like this

the human body 
makes an excellent 
conductor when under stress 

the human body 
bursts into light 
and sound and smell and fire

have you seen the signature lightning leaves on the skin of the people it strikes?

i singe [ sic] the body electric   [[ Whitman + torture ]]

 

Alcatraz

 

[[ maybe partly a quarantine story ]]

When I get out of here
Mr McCartney
I'll take a tour
of the horizon
I've memorized

in my dreams I am 
already knocking a hole through this wall 
somebody's picture of nothing at all
just a girl with ambition, a bottle of pills
and a number to call

I'll run my hands over 
every building of this awful town
turn it all upside down, 
shake it and see
-- that's what you fear most most of all

I'll run my hands over 
every woman in this awful town
turn them all upside down, 
shake em and see
-- that's what you fear most most of all

I can see Alcatraz
myth on a hard bay
from out the window
of this cable car
I'm mesmerized


 

oh, my word

 

 

oh, my word
trying to be so hard
trying so hard to be 
that pretty thing
with muscles of steel

oh, my word
trying to be so hard
trying so hard to be 
somebody else
with nothing to feel

it gets so cold 
the ice forms
at these heights
the terrifying physics 
of falling down
the terrifying gravity 
of everything
stop for a minute, 
forget about dying
hold up for awhile

listen to this record

 


listen to this record
her ghost is in the crackle

listen to her crackle
all up and down Chicago

listen to Chicago
the crackle of a record you've heard before

she ain't asking no one in particular
she is questioning the air
the crunch of thunder
the clarity of lightning
so we never forget

the old days 
when real men was
would listen to jazz

what it is 
what it is 
what it was 

stay up till dawn
then walk out of this place 
believing in ghosts

American ghosts outlasting 
their ramshackle castles
American ghosts out standing 
where their cities used to be

Thursday 11 June 2020

nothing but this

[[ 
Someone regrets life and contemplates running away from the current situation, but it seems like this is not the first time the singer has run away. Always between things, always nowhere, geographically and on the radio dial: white noise, static, lightning.
And it's about escaping this desert and finding the sea, but maybe just a fantasy.
]]


nighttime's a real thing
crackles like lightning 
up all the bones of my spine

how did I ever
land in this desert
with nothing left that was mine?

between radio stations
there's nothing but static and hiss 
there's nothing but nothing but this
when you're so far between

a room in an attic
listening to static
feeling the sun coming down

I'll send a letter
out of this desert
baby please let me come home    [[ or baby please come take me home ]]

I'm going down
where the rivers run down
I'm going down 
to the sea

doctor told me

[[ standard blues form, kind of an old couple blues:

In the verses, the doctor says it looks like something's wrong with the singer's heart, brain, and blood in a literal/physical sense, and then the singer's partner says they could have told you that, with more figurative implications about the singer's heart, mind, and family/ancestry.

In the bridge, the singer checks the medicine cabinet, where you look in the mirror (examine yourself) and of course keep your medicine.

In the chorus, the singer says what all those pills are for, what they do in a literal or figurative sense.

]]

verses:

doctor told me
you've got a bad bad heart
doctor told me
you've got a bad bad heart
[[woman/baby/?]] told me
baby
I could have told you that from the start

doctor told me
nothing but trouble in your blood
doctor told me
nothing but trouble in your blood
[[woman/baby/?]] told me
baby
before you were born you were no damn good

doctor told me
there's a dark spot in your brain
doctor told me
there's a dark spot in your brain
[[woman/baby/?]] told me
baby
It's like I told you again and again

bridge:
let's check the medicine cabinet
let's check the medicine cabinet
first the mirror
then look inside

chorus:
I take
a pill
to make
my heart
beat slower
a pill
to make
my blood
run colder
a pill
to bring
me back
from the dead

I take
a pill
to make
the pres-
sure lower
a pill
to make
me one
day older
a pill
to get
[[me/her/him/you]] out
of my head

tidying up

[[ This pervy fellow is obsessed with razing civilization. ]]


this place would look better
burned to the ground
I love the sound of 
a crackling fire

this place would look better
blown to the sky
Can't tell you why I 
love bricks in the air

all this place needs is
a fuse and a match
pssst goes the secret fire 
stand back and watch

maybe a time bomb
some sticks and a clock
wait for the sound while I'm 
stroking my cock

this place would look better
strewn in the street
under my feet the 
hard crunching of glass

this place would look better
all washed away
into the bay when 
I blow up the dam

oh, damn
oh, damn

all this place needs is
a fuse and a match
pssst goes the secret fire 
stand back and watch

maybe a time bomb
some sticks and a clock
wait for the sound while I'm 
stroking my cock

air brakes

I was falling 
far from home

I was falling 
through a storm

cloud by cloud
from sun to sea

leaving holes that 
looked like me

so many miles high
going down from down

I was falling
till I stopped

Friday 17 January 2020

don't look up to the stars



heaven protect 
children and sailors
sailors and drunken men

somewhere past the Kuiper belt
past the ring of babies unbaptized
where a star is just any star
that's where you'll see her
curled in smoke

don't look up to the stars
this nothing is permanent

this one is burning
(this one is burning so bright)
this one is glowing
(this one will not last the night)

the only forever is 
a nothing about nothingness

but that was all
before your time

this one's a baby
(this one is burning so bright)
this one is dying
(this one will not last the night)

the light in your eyes is
a prehistoric instinct

but that was all
before your time

this one exploded
(this one is burning so bright)
this one's forever
(this one will not last the night)

that star was extinguished
a million years ago

but that was all
before your time

heaven protect 
children and sailors 
sailors and drunken men 






under the pictures


[[ "they" is someone undefined, indefinite, unlikely, impossible, discovering the remains of the last of humanity huddled in our tunnels/caves ]] 


if they come for us
they will come for us
down in the tunnels

maybe they'll find us
what is left of us
under the pictures

we drew on the walls
pictures of animals
running for their lives
from us 

if they come on us
bones and dust of us
down in the tunnels

let them laugh at us
all that's left of us
under the pictures

we drew on the walls
pictures of animals
running for their lives
from us