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