road kill

it was hard to tell what it had been      just a pool of blood and gore    plastered to the side of the road    another failed crossing?     or perhaps a suicide?       success or failure    are often hard to divine      is that my destiny?      it seems pretty bleak    that’s the stuff I’m made of    animated flesh and bone     spilled and spoiled     all dreams and aspirations      flattened by a truck     

I’m stumbling from crisis to crisis      with no clear outcome in sight       but I’m not defined by my problems     I rise against the wind      and swim against the tide      I rail against my fate    I will not be denied through inertia     or assuaged by momentary pleasures      I refuse to be another sudden impact       I want to leave something more than a stain in the road behind           

plastic gods

more than sometimes      during a powerful lunar phase     I get the spiritual impulse     to make my own bible      and live by its verses     to blow my own trumpet       till the walls come tumbling down      I am alive and always changing      the crown of creation adorns my brow     I’m truly living the human experience     the high of all highs     the most holy of holies     the revelation of incarnation    has lit me up     a beacon of truth      in the fog of ignorance

I’m getting into the world     and everything in it      riding the waves of existence    through the ever expanding now      where  everything ever imagined is real      we create ourselves from that mosaic of fancy      but we’ve evolved into plastic gods     makers and breakers of private worlds      each is imperfectly cast in their own distorted image   we are the graven idols in the temples of babylon    the worship of self is the religion of hubris     and hubris precedes disgrace     sure as the ebb and flow of every lunar phase

solipsist

it was written in the stars       that we were doomed from day one     life has called the tune and beckons us to dance     the universe will unfold as we always knew it would      no one can change the past        we can’t even change the future       I curry favours in the here and now       planting seeds in adjacent lots    I glimmed for a moment there    and exercised the will      to fancy myself something special        at the centre of the whole enchilada       but I was lonely in the universal    and  I wondered     has our god deserted us?       or were we always all alone?

heroes

 

they say a hero is partially courageous   but mostly foolish     that maybe a hero is just a regular guy   who made an honest mistake   a guy who wants to run like everybody else     but doesn’t    what’s he afraid of do you think?

maybe there are no heroes    maybe we are all driven by fear    maybe we’re just a pack of dogs     marking our territories with piss   perhaps the real heroes know this    because they’ve been paying attention   and they know that this life just a childish game

just who is and who isn’t a hero?    that would depend who’s side you are on   one man’s hero is another man’s villain    we are all heroes in our own minds     few ever see themselves as villainous    until it’s too late    and the villainy is done

for some a hero is someone willing to die for a cause    maybe heroism isn’t about dying for something   but living for something    in truth the common notion of heroism is a fiction    an entertainment      our prisons are full of heroes     but nobody cares  about them

I’m told there is a hero within each of us     but there are more tyrants than heroes within us    I pity anyone who needs a hero    because heroes are thin on the ground   villainy is much more common     you can always count on villains to show up on time

*Image: ‘The Death Of Achilles’  Corfu, Greece

society

 

they tell us man was made   in the image of his creator    but society was forged    in the image of the beast    I’ll have no truck with society     society is a killer driven by hatred and greed    we gave power to our demons     and we’ll never get it back    from inside the prison of society

nothing ever changes   within existent reality   it will take a brand new paradigm     to really shake things loose    to keep your hands clean   you must live outside society   you cannot claim your freedom   while on your bended knees   

we’ve ignored the potential of love     to raise us above savagery    we’ve  embraced a machine        that celebrates conformity    and crushes individuality   in this bloody system    there’s little room for sentiment   we define our cultural history    as a record of atrocities

I once believed that to be human    was our highest attainment    now I see that to claim our humanity    is to admit that we are monsters    I reject the callous mechanism we call society    I never belonged to society    and it never belonged to me

Janus

 

stem your tears and dry your eyes      they are trying to steal your name   they want to modify your temperament      to make you feel ashamed    you ain’t been cutting the mustard     at the image factory     and they can delete your profile     any time they choose

get a hold of your sunshine    learn how to play the game     the benefits are obvious     there is no other way    don’t be yesterday’s hero    when you could eat this whole world raw      don’t tell them you’re a nobody     they pegged you for a star     just make your ego porous    and try to enjoy the ride

you’ll need two faces now     one for them and one for you    be careful who you trust with yours    because some would sell you out     they’ll imitate your action   even your mistakes      they’ve got no imagination     and no creative juice     they have to feed off you    you’re the only show in town

try not to worry too much     no-one sees your pain     they want you to be glamorous      and  maybe just a little flawed   that way you make good copy    when they nail you to the cross     they say the greater the exposure   the deeper runs the doubt    don’t bend yourself all out of shape    trying to work it out

the villain

I hear that you never tire     of spreading the bad news       and I’ll happily play your villain     on any day you choose       I heard what you’ve been saying      and some of it is true    but I never put down anyone     in the cowardly way you do    

I’ve nearly always done     just what I wanted to      while you’ve relied on others     to tell you what to do      of course I have regrets     but they are so very few    I’ve lived to be free     that was never true of you

you are so deeply pious      but you haven’t got a clue     and I refuse to be consigned     to live the way you do     we were once good friends      but you possessed a jealous heart     you wanted what I had     and that’s why we had to part

you’ve been casting stones      but always from afar      you know deep in your bones       that’s the kind of man you are      you talk behind my back    but never to my face      is it courage that you lack?      or just any sense of grace?    

big dog

 he looked like a big dog

he barked like a big dog

I was suitably unimpressed

I’d forgotten to be afraid

 

somewhere along the line

I had shed that fear

and the air of casual violence

that once served to mask it

 

strange how we forget our chains

only to recall their chaffing

in the occasional moment

of ritual confrontation

 

how could I ever have dismissed

the memory of bondage

and a lifetime of enslavement

to my petty tyranny?

emperor of dystopia

disinfect me a postcard         issue me a missive        I can’t reach you           on this line           and I have no means of transportation            venomous snipers      nest in my shoes   but I have other shoes    and sometimes   I walk         and sometimes      I crawl        and sometimes      I don’t do anything at all             I’m not elastic enough       for a life in limbo       treading  water      dreading  time     I’m cutting out    for an alternative reality   where I’m the emperor of dystopia        the last living giant    on a planet filled with pygmies        our world is dying now       please help us knit a new one       before we run out of wool

listen the the Creature EP

obey

 

acid flashback   piranha guts   I got the fear on   I’m all body quake   and adrenal expulsion   it’s that weary old fight or flight paradigm   but I go by the numbers   it’s just a question of time    before I shake it off

 

the margins are minuscule   In this cruel season   It’s hard enough to raise a smile    never mind a buck   I rise when the sun sets   and bathe in the dark   scant reward    for all the bareback adventures   and romantic misdemeanours    that blot my copy book  

 

my chapped lips and a caffeine smile   reveal the morbidity in my inner ape   my silver tongue and leaden heels    have me hobbled in the starting blocks    those softer metals conduct static to the brain pan   and my blood impurities leave a tell-tale stain on the deep inside    but there’s no point in concealment      no-one gives a fuck what’s written there anyway

 

fear is the prime motivator    fear is the reflex action    it’s fear that makes the world go round    fear binds our colonies of fragile exiles   and legions of patient coffin fillers    macabre in our fleshy fascinations    nauseated by the differences of being   hungry for the blood of innocents    but fearful of the shock of discovery    and the blinding light of reason

 

there shall be no moment of rapture   the usual terms and conditions apply  there is only one enemy and it shows no mercy   fear knows the darkest secrets that occupy our hearts   and births the tiny demons that tear our lives apart   there is but one commandment   it was forged here in the dark

dig it out (again)

I’m well versed in my A B C’s   but my motor function is heavy   and there are days on end    when my head just feels empty   so I’ll make for my special stash   where I keep a shovel ready   you have to dig it out    if you want to spread it thick   you have to spread it thick    if you want to dig it out

you’re in the control group   and they’re feeding you placebos   we’re getting high and getting there often   we tweak our brainstems in idle curiosity    drugs are the relentless engines of our creativity   and the universal panacea for many untold maladies

I’m not trying to steer anyone here   but if you’re dragging the low end   those state sponsored solutions   will only bring you down   I’ve got portable ecstasies     burning holes in my pockets    I think that it’s time for a simple benediction    so I’m taking solace from my favourite instrument    it’s so clean    it’s obscene     and it works like a tonic   it’s those pastures green   in the kingdom euphoric 

god must die

 god is dead     long live god   the god of mercy   that sacrificial lamb    paved the way for the church of sex and violence    we are all subscribers now     to the show that never stops    

we kill god again   and again    every time we murder innocence    when we kill for killings sake   when we make children enemies of the state   we doubled up on that shit   we never tire of killing gods

happiness is fleeting   but your pain will always be attended   god whispers to us in our joy     and screams at us in our pain     I murder god in my sleep   in my very dreams   I murder god for breakfast   before I start the day   

our prayers are an admission of our weakness     ours is a hunger that cannot be satisfied   we were meant for some other world    some world of eternal love    because of what remains for us    faith    and hope    and love    the latter is sovereign in our hearts   they say the darker the night    the brighter the stars    the deeper the despair    the closer to god    and that is why god must die

listen to the Creature EP

mendacious

 

there are things you never forget     especially things that didn’t happen    the past is what we remember    or pretend to remember   it’s purely subjective    there is no past really    just shady memories   and stories we tell ourselves

there’s no real distinction between the true and false   most things are neither   most of what people say is evasion   to expose the poverty within ourselves   is a frightening possibility    best to make something up   do a little dance   and hope no-one is watching

I don’t remember you    I remember me    and what I thought of you    I had you pegged as a liar    but we are all liars   our lives are one big lie   and our lies are beautiful   they help us perfect who we are

don’t all lies lead inexorably to the truth?   is there not a kernel of truth in every lie?   all stories    true or false   lead to the same conclusions    sometimes lies are easier to swallow than truths   the truth can blind    but lies merely illuminate

we are all actors in our lives    we just pretend to be who we want people to think we are     as actors each must play their part as if it were real    but we are all of us works of fiction     in this world of monstrous truths    it’s probably just as well

 

listen to the Creature EP