monsters at night

beware the ladies' tea on Sundays

beware the patrol car on the prowl

beware the crowd of good white people

beware the cowl beneath the scowl 

there are monsters at night

monsters stand round your bed

monsters in the daylight

monsters in the little things they said

beware the quota and the red line

beware the diminisher of dreams

beware the doubt beneath the surface

beware the is beneath the seems

beware the simple routine questioning 

beware the lineup at the fence

beware the cameras malfunctioning

beware the miraculous evidence 

the day the spacemen came to town

[[ Perhaps despite surface appearances, this one is actually about the black civil rights movement in America. And refugees. Yeah. ]]

the day the spacemen
came to town
we shot them down
we shot them down

and up they sprang
to walk again
straight into town
to settle down

[[I'm not fumbling for words here - this stanza is purposely left spare, floating. It needs pause, space, room to wonder in musically.  ]]
their hair was like...
electric...
crackling...
in our afternoon

their skin was of
an unknown
color shifting in
the sun, the moon,

they looked and walked
and talked from far, [sic -- just because ]
they made an
unexpected sound

like something
half suspected
we could never
get our tongues around

And, oh, but they
were beautiful
space men and women
every one,

but not like us:
we shot them down
we shot them down
we shot them down

we hid them in
our shallow earth
(God damn our souls,
God damn our birth)

but up they sprang
to walk again
across the bridge
and into town.

car going nowhere

At the side of the road,
alone at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

Hands at ten and two,
don't move a muscle,
in a car going nowhere.

Let you bleed
at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

A man in the lights,
spinning reds, spinning blues,
in the glare of the whites.

We see a silhouette,
the back of his head,
from a dashboard camera.

At the side of the road,
alone at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

[[ a single image -- a man at the wheel of his car. he's been pulled over, the hint is that he's black, and if he twitches the wrong way the cops will kill him. Or maybe he is already dead. ]]