DECLINE OF MANKIND In a dream I walk the streets of a city that always sleeps Buildings tumble from the sky flames shoot from my feet I've got a bluebird on my shoulder a lucky rabbit on my head The bluebird is of Chinese descent the rabbit has long been dead Night falls crawls to the river Day softly breaks This crazy lazy city never ever wakes The pharmacists insist that sleeping pills will cure my ills But don't they know about the reaper and the midnight creeper and the robots who patrol the sky with eyes of fire And don't they know that when I sleep the trees whisper and conspire This city where night is abundant where arriving is redundant Because when you get here you're already there and when you get there you're already here Crumbled on the couch with a bottle of wine I fastidiously monitor the decline of mankind And I'm the kind of man who tried to be good And if I have failed I hope that's understood in my backyard I dug up a bone I use it now to touch my phone The birds the bees the digital feed I never knew life could be this good to me CELEBRITY WEDDING A YouTube beheading at the celebrity wedding Paris Hilton bore witness she spoke on the news Eloquently in a nice pair of Italian shoes Behind the nuptials in a field of bluebells Flaming planes fell exploded and burned And the gay chatter slowly turned to concern There were smoldering bones upon a cracked laptop Paramedics smoked cigarettes they joked and talked shop And the limbs of the stars were protruding from cars floating down a molten highway Deer like plague rats twitched then leapt While an army of beetles had crept and now slept curled in the chests of tiny birds who long ago had departed this world The pariah dog lay upon a blackened field savouring the fragrance of a wound that would not heal And everybody felt blessed when the Pope confessed he'd been impressed by the grandeur of the spectacle A YouTube beheading At the celebrity wedding Paris Hilton bore witness she spoke on the news Eloquently in a nice pair of Italian shoes DEATH CAME TO TOWN Death came to town in his corduroy slippers padded softly and silently through the streets through schoolyards past sandboxes and swingsets Little fanfare No entourage No press And the baby next door kept crying and crying The baby next door would not stop crying The birds knew well enough to cease their flying They fell from the sky to the street with a delicate snap of bones and a soft thump of meat And the sun toppled from the sky like a head rolls off an executioner's platform And the moon demurely gave way to the passage of an oncoming storm And Death illuminated in the lobby of an ATM remembering when Death illuminated in the lobby of an ATM remembering Death stands alone who would've guessed it he's got problems of his own illuminated in the lobby of an ATM remembering when SHITEATERS AND CLOCKWATCHERS They were running 120 man when the shit hit the fan and they fled like fleas leaping from a cooling carcass They assembled on the street corners in their filthy tattered uniforms Cloudchuckers Dogfuckers Cloudchuckers Dogfuckers Talking TV shows FM radio bumming smokes trading jokes shovelling shit down their throats Gaunt chainsmokers Tubby slobs Shrouded in great tobacco fogs E-JUICE CABLE NEWS E-JUICE CABLE NEWS The shit-eaters and the clockwatchers eating shit and watching clocks The shit-eaters and the clockwatchers eating shit and watching clocks The shit-eaters and the clockwatchers eating shit and watching clocks GHOSTS Time in slow motion this town's a sleeping potion the days sadly float by Cadavers in a river of dreams amongst the flotsam and the jetsam of our schemes A ghost I created then tried to destroy returned through my back door He joined me for dinner and he flickered like a film damaged by heat light and time And there was another ghost on the floor in a burlap sack and there was another ghost out the window lying on a train track there was another ghost like a monkey clinging to my back whispering poisonous secrets in my ear And one ghost departed far too early and another ghost lingered much too long And one ghost remained one ghost never left and inhabited a song DRINKLESSLY The richy-rich people are crying tonight tears slither from their eyes Jetliners overhead in silent flight slender seals silver in star-speckled skies And drinklessly I stood and watched the city burning Drinklessly shifted my weight and slowly turning I watched the sky turn from blue to red to black then back to blue and drinklessly I was missing you The killer cops are sad they're crying tonight hot tears squirt from their eyes Bleeding booger-boo shot down in bonded flight skeletons spinning doing slow dancercise And drinklessly I surveyed the cum-filled condoms In the gutters rainbow coloured like sad party balloons And drinklessly I watched mirrored buildings eclipse the moon and drinklessly I was missing you Who spilled this sack of eels across the living room floor how the hell I supposed to make it to the door with my diseases my attitude my blue blue mood And drinklessly I travel between midnight and dawn skipping 'cross the surface of sleep like a perfect stone across a pond Now a stillborn dream trembles upon dawn's rosy harpoon and drinklessly I was missing you The little babies are crying they're crying tonight fat flies drink saltwater from their eyes The King of Shit Mountain captures geese in flight instead of going south they fly into his mouth and drinklessly I pivoted to face the television scanning available programming with remarkable precision and the war whores on war horses pursue their bloody courses and the babies all turn blue and drinklessly I was missing you The night fell black the rain fell blue and drinklessly I was missing you