easter sunday

 let’s drink to resurrection      and poor boys coming home      to triumph over life and death     the second time around     you’ll believe what you want to       there ain’t no sin in that     but words are what men live by      and words were meant to count       some things linger on      in the universal mind      they’re neither fact nor fiction      but something in-between    jesus was a poet      and he’s alright by me        

outside women

another outside woman     is borrowing my clothes        she’s got my name and number       that’s about all she knows         she doesn’t bother to feed me      and I don’t really care       coz we’re only buying time       while her man’s not there       it’s become the well-worn ritual       we don’t talk that much       we keep it nice and simple     and communicate by touch      it’s a temporary arrangement      we can always walk away     but she likes to keep me stashed nearby    for a rainy day

problems

 I’m no slave to silence      I have the words     but I don’t use them all      you said I had a great face    the kind that’s been lived in        well it is      lived in  that is    died in too     but that’s another story       you said I was gifted      but that’s just a lie     I’m experienced      that’s what you bought      no social experiment     you bought a man      a man of flesh and blood     I fought the law     but I never did no time    they caged me in a hospital     they said I’d lost my mind       but minds are ten a penny     they’re not so hard to find     I’ve had problems      we’ve all had problems      but I used my imagination     to finally cut loose     what on earth did you do    when hard times came around?

good friday

was that love?     was it ever love?     transmitted from a distance      cloaked in the mysterious     it was a far greater thing…      and all that signifies    to sacrifice yourself     and the love the act implies    I said I’d give my life for you       but that was not enough    I had to forsake my family    and purchase your affections       with promissory notes…

pyrite

don’t mind me    I’m just a basic guy     with extravagant needs     but a man’s got to live      as he sees fit     there’s no secret ambition     burning holes in my pockets     I’ve got natural medicine      to spell me some cheer       they say it’s a weakness       but I don’t really care      some diversions are sacred       like words from the bible     so don’t shoot me down       until you hear what the deal is      your complete satisfaction     could be moments away

heavy arithmetic

it’s a heavy arithmetic       that measures out the hours     and subtracts the days      time spent more in hope than reason        our rusted factory eyes lack lustre     they’re fixed on horizons far away       where our dreams now live in exile      and yesterday’s tomorrows accumulate decay       is it true what I heard you say?       you made a binding promise       that you would wait forever     forever and a day

lizards

another billionaire turned out to be a lizard     but it didn’t really matter     he’s chairman of the board     coz money is good    when you earn enough     to buy a small planet     he’ll buy your affections      and swing your elections      coz your aspirations      are shaped by his ambition

screwfaces

sometimes      often     I don’t want to go out      I don’t want to go out     mixing with them screwfaces      don’t get me wrong      I’ve worn faces      we’ve all worn faces     but you know faces     you can’t rely on faces     any more than words      they make you look       and you don’t want to look      but they make you look     and then you see      that faces conceal      and faces mislead      no, you can’t trust the faces      in this neighbourhood  

weirdo

 I’m a rocket    totally psychiatric    but I’m authentic     a genuine individual      I count it a privilege      to play the local freak     it’s not like I really care    coz I was never normal        but sometimes I’ve been free      I can fly in the face of reason     that might sometimes seem eccentric       but I’ve been wired    rewired    and strung out on the limbs of some unfamiliar trees     it suits me that I’m a weirdo     I don’t care what anyone says      I’ve never worn the shackles of social conformity

liquid energy

she said I had potential      in the form of liquid energy      the kind that runs right over      to saturate the page      in a red hot flush of synergy      she loved the cut       of my druggy cliché mystery       and though that stuff is history       she said it all so sexily      that I didn’t really mind        and we made love      in the shadow of the gallows       on a bed of poisoned arrows     they say that lust is blind      of that there is no doubt      she poured my head       into a bowl of wild piranha        she peeled back my banana       smiled once for the camera        and snuffed my candle out

 

treasures

those memories    that echo sunlight forever held within your mind worth more than gold or tea from China these are the treasures of your life

stupid

 people are stupid     that’s my defence     external forces      motivate my actions      I’m one of the masses       singularly  thick      collectively crazy       I don’t sweat it    I drown my sorrows       you won’t catch me      with native intelligence      and you can’t pin me down      with your phony logic     I’ll keep the council     of my blind      and foolish heart    I say we press on    and dance with the devil      he has credentials    that ensure his success    we don’t have to think      we just have to follow      we don’t have to march      while he makes us run

frankenstein

 there’s an air of quiet death about this house     there are ghosts in every corner     there are shadows      there are doubts      I’m being scrutinised by the inner eye     I’m naked and alone      with nowhere left to hide    I murdered you     to resurrect you once more    in the laboratory of my mind      you’re a stain that still needs scrubbing     in the life I left behind      I buried you deep     and hid the shovel     but you’re back again      and causing trouble       it’s a curse to have a conscience       I thought that we were quits     I don’t need to hear you crying     I counted every tear you shed    don’t make me relive this shit    just get the fuck away from here      get out of my fucking head

tribal

did you scan the broken icons?     the debris of heroic purpose?     the fetishes of pain?   here's another dismal harvest of broken bodies and perished dreams       security through violence      no world without us      we kill to live     and live to kill   I'm in awe of the awful symmetry in that design    I understand the tribal imprint      the allure of us and them      but I'm a little older now      and no longer play the game     that doesn't mean I'm safe      it simply means I'm sane

feline

 older now     but clearly no wiser     I showed a little interest     lapped it right up    the cat that stole the cream     but I won’t be neutered     by sympathetic vibrations      ‘no one fucks like that – unless they really mean it’    was that an accusation?      was it a compliment?      I showed a little interest      for a moment you were everything     but you murdered that moment       when you put it under the microscope       you murdered that moment      and I’m over it now…

entangled

it takes two to tangle     in the dog eat dog      but I’m resting my voice      before I take another pounding    my opening gambit       was all cotton candy      but my final word      meant nothing at all     I’ll ease on out      on my magic pillow     to take a repast    that’s at least free of sorrow     I might be back     I might not bother     but if I do change my mind     you’ll see me tomorrow

money

 money has power     if you choose to believe it     some people just don’t care about money       other’s care about nothing else    here I am sitting in my bed     reading my I.O.U’s   I don’t care much for anything    because beauty is a whore     and money is her pimp    I have no taste for poverty     nor for honest labour    that’s why I’m a thief   I will not serve a master     but I will not want for money    I’ll take what I’ve got coming     I’ll steal before I earn    

cyclops

there are no flies on you     coz you’re the dog’s bollocks      and the sun shines out of your arse     you’re quicker than the devil     but more grounded in reality      you’re so single minded in your every conceit       and brother you can talk      you can talk yourself blue     chew my fucking ears off   go on, demonstrate the folly of your words      you hate this      you hate that       the world pisses you off...      truth is a matter of ingenuity    we are what we pretend to be      and you pretend to be wise      but your wisdom is a ticket to hell     coz shit gets under your skin     there’s no defect in your vision     you’re just selectively blind    you’re so busy with the wrong      you refuse to see the light     that the good outweighs the bad      to anyone with sight

 

 

torquemada

questions circle like vultures    but I’m not running away    I’m running towards   I changed my face to fit the frame      you could say I’m in disguise     I don’t forget the things I’ve done      man, I nearly choked on them     but I got over it    and now I’m on the gravy train     but I had to give it up     you know what I mean?      I had to give it up        pack it in and snuff it out     no embers left to fan      but there are questions    always questions      I’m not afraid of questions    I have one for you    what the fuck do you want?     you don’t have to answer    you might not know the answer     some questions can’t be answered     and some answers can’t be questioned      is love always the answer?      or is love sometimes the question?     I suppose it makes no difference to me      because I keep my own secrets     and bear my stripes without complaint