the taj mahal

when I get low     I get high       I’m not gambling for salvation       indifference is my prize       when the sun sets on the good and clean       the geeks and freaks and junkies      join the medicine show      our bankrupt ideals      and crooked jungle rules     weave loathsome pinprick tapestries     that stain us to the soul           and the wonders of the world      dissolve on our dirty spoons     to be regurgitated     in an idiot geometry      in the catch as catch can        where our flight is stunted       with leaden wings           in another shabby paradise        not the advertised      cool blue nile      or the taj mahal     with the lover of our dreams       but instead the squalid nightmare        of endlessly repetitious junkydom          and the eventual release        of that fatal final dose

 

radio rental

they say everyday is a school day      and that knowledge is power        so why are we ruled by apes?     am I evolving?       being?    becoming?     what the fuck am I becoming?  

I’ve been playing hooky          they say I’m radio rental              but I never burned a book      I’m just a well intentioned idiot       trying to carve   an identity from bars of soap      I’m none the wiser       but at least I’m clean      some of the time        we’re all filthy now       our carbon footprints      lead straight to the gates of hell      

 if we’re lucky we’ll end up in a museum        but no-one here gets lucky        unless by accident      I played the hand they dealt me       it kept me in the game        but I’m on a losing streak       the whole world feels the same       the world has gone radio rental        we’re all of us insane

brown paper bag

 

most ain’t got no freedom         some have just enough        we are all prisoners here      of our own devices       me        I need an outside woman        someone who won’t steal my clothes        I don’t want to play house         just give me something pure        I only want the medicine         I don’t expect a cure         so if she saw my pain        she’d just spoon me out a dose         so wrap me up in clover        stick me in a brown paper bag          we’ll know the party’s over       when the hours begin to drag

hooked

 

ain’t this life just precious?      and doesn’t the world agree?      the world says I’m your hook up       that doesn’t bother me        love me or loathe me        I’ve never  been strung out        or lost my shape for love       I don’t sing the blues       I just show the way        you may have disgraced me      with a dirty back hander      but I don’t seem to care       what am I?        some kinda wet leg?        an insect you brushed off?         are you still hooked up with your TV set?        have you  seen me yet?          let’s avoid the inevitable         and fix some drinks        I’ll have a long one       death on the rocks         I’m there in a heartbeat         you’ll have me buckled down         behind your baby blues        so join me now       young hearts beat fast          but old hearts know what’s going on

sugar

 

call me an ambulance         tell them it’s old flat face again       I took a  tumble      from the wrong side of my bed       I dreamed I was dying           but I wasn’t afraid        I was merely disappointed         see, I’ve been nowhere        since they cancelled the lights        all my chores are only half done       and my papers are out of order        but I’ll dust myself down         start all over       one more time      ‘cause time is all I have left        you can think what you want          just wait until I’ve gone        before you pass judgement       meanwhile, lend me your bosom       let’s make like lovers         and play it for laughs         I had the blues for breakfast          don’t worry though         I won’t implicate you        I’m not blinded by tears        I just need a little sugar       to help the medicine go down