Old Woman
There’s an old woman on my bus
She chews like a nutcracker
Up, down, up, down
Jaw detached from head
Two seperate pieces
Chewing nuts to shreds
When she stands she stops feeding
Stops breaking seeds and eating
Still her mouth
Goes up and down
Her jaw goes up
Up and down
Her cheeks go chubby
Her eyes squint tight
Every time
Her jaw goes up
She goes to leave
Walk off the bus
She stops and turns
Stops and chews
Confederate Brit
The angry English futbol fan, with Confederate flag tattoo
The African mother and son, dressed in colorful garments
The French couple speak, sweet and full of love
Spanish girls on holiday, full of lust for life
We watch Italian countryside, together on italo
His vicious eyes connect with mine, I hope he hasn’t got a knife
A table stands between us, and happiness surrounds us
Still I fear, and still I pray, that he will stay the hell away
It’s shouting from his eyes
It’s written on his arms
He’d love to do me harm
Oh, he’d love to do me harm!
Slowly I look up from my pen
His eyes connect with mine again
Hatred so fierce, I can feel it pierce
I know he wants to murder me
He dives over the table, grabs me by the throat
Pulls a knife from beneath his coat, stabs it down into my hand
I scream bloody murder, his grip on my throat grows tight
The train car peace is shattered, chaos and screams of abject horror
My hand stabbed fast to the table
He beats my face with fist after fist
With my throat in his grasp, he’s able to squeeze
The life out of my lungs
The son of the African woman
Across the aisle in majestic, colored robes
Attacks the Confederate Brit
Pops him and blood spurts out of his nose
His hand off my throat, I fall to the floor
Gasping for air, still stabbed to the table
The African youth and Confederate Brit
Grapple while blood drips off of the table
The passengers scream and flee from the scene
I gather my thoughts and get to my knees
I pull the knife slowly, out of my hand
Screaming, diving forward, and stabbing the man
Slowly, he sits, with the knife in his chest
Has a short coughing fit, then fades into death
Calm is restored on the train back to Rome
The passengers sit and reminisce about home
My African savior isn’t too badly hurt
I tell him again, “Man, that’s a really nice shirt.”
Spider in Your Tip Jar
Something in the money
Black and white with evil eyes
Is it scary? Is it funny?
A bite is what your kindness buys
Buried down beneath the bills
She watches from the shade they give
On the 5, on Lincoln’s eye
Dead presidents, forever still
Feeling trapped and all alone
She needs to sink her teeth in deep
Dark blue glass becomes her home
Till a hand can set her free
She’s seen your eyes, watching her
She climbs the walls, but can’t get far
When she escapes, she’ll make you bleed
Beware the spider in your tip jar
Mad Scientist
Math equations and court reports
Wild thoughts and pinpoint pupils
Box of papers that prove he’s right
Passin’ em in through my window
Tries to explain, make me understand
He struggles to find the right words
Somewhere between despair and elation
Oblivious to the birds
They steal his papers, peck at his arms
Sell off his land in Hawaii
His head’s in the clouds, talking so loud
I believe he’s looking right through me
A raven claps his hands behind his back
I pour him a last sip of beer
A dove whispers charming words in his ear
And carts him away, far, far, from here
Lost in the Funhouse
Faces are faces, gazeless and mazeless
Illusion enhanced by artificial means
Necessary distortion, reality your home
Be on the safe side, maintain control
Everyone shares everyone else’s
Operate the senses, operate the senses
Physical appearance, mannequins! amusement!
Some extra fun! Some extra fun!
Stay unaware, grouped in a bunch
Bananas! Bananas! Bananas for lunch!
Short, husky stature. Tall, lean n mean
Reassemble, reassemble, all chairs are a seat!
Fasten or shorten, use a small safety pin
Choose sometimes the one, sometimes the other
Shade for the driver, passenger gets sun
Some extra fun! Some extra fun!
Lurching and urging, whispers surging
Pins and needles, limping and shaking
It’s driving you forward calling, “Love! Love!”
Get all you can with me on the run
Go off the high dive, in-vain! in-vain!
Get up your nerve! Keep on! Keep on!
Jackknife! Cannonball! Shake yourself up!
Lost in the Funhouse! The Funhouse! The Funhouse!
The girl on the box, I’ll never forget her
World famous whatever, the mind’s apple pie!
Amusement! Use it! Let the merries go round!
Lose yourself! Exhaust yourself! Have some extra fun!
A family of four smiles for a picture
Their laughter carries out, out from the funhouse
Everyone shares everyone else’s
They’re lost in the Funhouse! The Funhouse! The Funhouse!
Half smoked Spirit, relevant events
Delay the climax, so scarce, so scarce
Mason jar of dust, the silence, the silence
Lost in the Funhouse, the funhouse, the funhouse.
Spend the sum quickly, pay with the left
Explode in a groan, explode with a moan
Most go quickly, a few lose their way
Rock on your heels, scream how you feel!
Stay unaware, grouped in a bunch!
Bananas! Bananas! Bananas for lunch!
Perspire in dark passages, under the walk
The Funhouse, the funhouse, lost in the funhouse…
Hear it and laugh aloud to yourself
Chuckle, wheeze, catch your breath and weep
Pins and needles, voice is cracking
Retreat into yourself, Posture! Posture!
Everyone shares everyone else’s
They’re lost in The Funhouse. the funhouse. the funhouse.
Crooked Lamps
Heroes on the walls, thrashing in the halls
Candle wicks are burnt, empty wax can’t be lit
Organized and clean, emptier it seems
Chaos fills the space, unnerves the human race
I borrowed it to use it, keep forgetting to put it back
They always end up missing it
They always notice that it’s gone
Street sign stolen, radio broken
Cheaply, plainly, stacked alone
Broken guns still need a trigger
Crooked lamps still need a home
It came to me in the mail
I saved it just to send it back
The color is off putting
It seems to lack a certain flair
Not like what was left to me
By the previous occupants of my small, square room
Now that possession I’d have kept
I’d have valued, held onto forever
Maybe they’ll remember
Maybe they’ll want it back
If they come to get it
I’ll say all nonchalant
I borrowed it to use it
Keep forgetting to put it back
I didn’t think you’d miss it
I’m surprised you noticed that it’s gone
It’s tilting off the edge, see
I’m tilting off with it
Searching like a man obsessed
Pouring over it inch by inch
Trying to find satisfaction
A shred will do, a tiny pinch
For a second or two, move down, continue
A ship in a bottle, confuzes, bewilders
Obsidian stones, amaze and catch light
An old souvenir tells a sad little story
And crooked lamps still need a home
Appendectomy
Oh sweet relief to my soul
Where finally you found me
Alone and pale and twisted and gaunt
How pleasurably you delivered me
But more I beg of you
More and more
Nectar of Venus, Laudanum of the poets
Bring me sweet, endurable bliss
For the hours that you can grant me this
Ease my mind and soothe my pain
To you I beg again and again
Please ease my mind and soothe my pain
My organs twist
They take each other’s place
Vying for position
Where the old brother once stood
In the wee morning hours
I feel their race
To lay claim to new land
Now open and coveted
Bring me sweet
Endurable dreams
Of damsels and rivers
And hemlock and dew
Strawberries and cream
I eat to dissolve you
Please bring me a dream
I beg of you
Ease my mind and soothe my pain
To you I beg again and again
Please ease my mind and soothe my pain
Rubber Rings
Green skies rain drenching heat
Surrounded by castles on a marble street
The chessboard pattern changes and shifts
A knight in the distance listens to this
I’m not sighing, nor am I a sire
I’m here to teach and learn and maybe eat fire
At a circus with a million-dollar hairpiece
Juggling pennies, listening to the sound feast
Rubber Rings on my fingers, so I
Bounce on my knuckles, give it a try
Rubber Rings on my fingers, so I
Bounce on my knuckles, give it a try
Scissor kick and balance
Just to earn a few chuckles
Eat the attention and drink the laughter
Till I’m back on the marble street
And the knight’s moving faster
He pulls up close to tell of a lost love, disaster
“That girl,” he said. “Let me tell you, you’ll see.”
The reason that I’m lonely on this shabby marble street
“A wicked wonder, she twists up my mind
She opened my eyes, and sent me through time
Showed me magic, showed me what’s real
Ripped off the bars on the windows I feel.”
I dunk my head in molasses just to muddy my thoughts
They’re too still to keep going, too clear to get lost
Music is the savior of my fears from the past
So when I fall from my soapbox, I land like a cat
I wake up dizzy and I want more sleep
Take me back to the dream world where I can feel
When your eyes are opened, a door is closed
To the life you want, but you can’t afford
The dreams are exciting and you miss the thrill
But the people who visit are a lonely pill
Which takes effect when your eyelids crack
You wish only to find them and take them back
But you know they’re on a life all their own
Each with a pill to stay happy and warm
I miss the touch, I miss the soft-hearted smiles
So I pile my loneliness on a funeral pyre
Some I may see, and some I may never
But I wish I could keep us all together forever
Rubber Rings on my fingers, so I
Bounce on my knuckles, give it a try
Lanterns of Saturn
Day and night and dark and light
City streets and forest pines
Rushing rivers, blazing heat
Billy goats, female sheep
All reflect and make a pattern
Solar flares and rings on Saturn
Shed less light than Chinese Lanterns
Adrift at sea on a moonlit night
The moon casts some light but Saturn’s more bright
It’s piercing gaze relieves terror and fright
The night has no power to quicken your heart
Unless that be your choice and you run to the dark
My dear you see the Lanterns of Saturn
Are the balance of nature, projecting a pattern
Don’t fear, my dear, the Lantern’s two lights
For one creates the other and destroys the night