Candles

I’ve seen people dying

incrementally

believe me

folk are soluble

and they can fade away

sometimes people die

very suddenly

believe me

folk are fragile

and can break so easily

and people simply vanish

unexpectedly

believe me

folk can disappear

without a bye or leave

Societal Disease

I started on the razzle

out of my fucking head

stumbling blindly onward

where angels feared to tread

but I didn’t fade away

I hung on by a thread

while the ladies of the parish

furnished me with bread

I had bills I couldn’t pay

and a monkey to appease

but that kind of generosity

meant I didn’t freeze

the truth is I was crawling

on my bloody knees

I was just another victim

of societal disease

Solitary Confinement

unscheduled hallucinations
and psychotic interludes
plagued my formative
and shaped my destination
my beat bastard subscription
lapsed before endorsement
but I wish I could lie down
take a fucking telling
I’m so tired right now
I could drag the world with me
through dark corridors
to the great panopticon
where elastic promises
and suicidal compacts
are made by strange bedfellows
there are no
casual acquaintances
in solitary confinement

Blood Rite

I’m all jelly bone

and knee tremble

my brothel creepers

and crepe soul

slick with anticipation

tomorrow

is another

creosote sundae

but tonight

is a total eclipse

of reason

I bide my time

spilling my oats

on barren ground

to be washed away

in the menstrual cycle

my instruments

calculate trouble

word gets around

there are no secrets

in monkey town

Sundowners

don’t kid yourself
you know these people
just cause they button up
the same way you do
they got secrets to cash
and monkeys to feed
by day they hone
their grievances
forge alliances
and swear their oaths
as playground innocents
but at night
they are a different
species of stupid
when their kamikaze hearts
spur them to perform
localised atrocities
of obscene and banal
dimensions