Gilbert and the Queen
Thaw
Enkidu
Squidsong
Strange Attractors
The Ballad of Hector O’Malley
Smiling Nihilist
House of Tomorrow
Aphelion
Cure For Sleep
Dancing Grandma
Pray, a word, your magesty,
This ferrous sphere,
Holds in its volume subtle virtues
That some might fear
They do coitate and attract
Court and interact,
See in the circular arrangement of iron shards
How we collapse their house of cards, down on their heads
See in the gently scribed gyrations of needle threads,
While the philosophers digress, the true shapes coalesce
Go, see for yourself, the amber calls
Why split these hairs at all
Please, Elizabeth
One by one, by tottering crumbling toehold we pull ourselves
One staggered century enfolding another century
Go, see for yourself, the amber calls
Why split these hairs at all
Please, Elizabeth
How do you propose to explain all these
Mysteries, cascading complexities?
They defy the genius of godhood and
We are merely daughters and sons of man
How the plague blushes your cheeks
Flowing, florid, complete
How I wish I could see,
Please bury these magnets with me
You’re so fragile
I’m afraid to breathe on you
You’re still fragile, in your
Origami glass typhoon
You will shatter
If your crystal psychic resonance detunes
Your energy
All built on crumpled math you refuse
Cold and damp up here
On the top of this bell
But at least it’s not so crowded
As you are down there in hell
Say hello to this your newest prisoner
How the hell do you manage to breathe down here?
I should not be so merciful
But you’re just so insufferable
I’m just one among
Many frozen and still
But quick, I’ll force the thaw
Knuckle the fear without the pills
Say hello to this your newest prisoner
How the hell do you manage to breathe down here?
We’ll put shoes on your feet,
A hat on your head
Just come back to bed
Polish your calluses,
Clean and neat
The mightiest of servants
Or the lowliest of kings
The green kingdom eternal
Its soil is beckoning
The mightiest of servants
Or the lowliest of kings
The green kingdom eternal
Its soil is beckoning
Still her body brings you in
Leaves you weak again
And she calls to you by name
Come in from the rain
It’s a struggle to stay awake,
Keep my thinking straight -
It’s so boring, this finery, fakery, and taste
The fashion of your clothes
The larval Diptera in my nose
Just sex and death, greed and pride
Give me the forest, cast the rest aside
You’re alone in there, aren’t you?
All alone in there, confused
Sometimes I wonder how you can make it through a day
Me? I have a patron, steering me straight
I slip beneath the waves
And open my eyes
It stares back at me
Reflecting sunken skies
Consumed in ocean as
Waves are to tides
I slip beneath the waves
And suffer no more lies
You are my ten tentacled councillor,
Pupils obsidian
Packaged in cubicles and ill-ironed shirts
I know you have your ways of pulling me from the earth
Preserve me in blessed nonuniformity
I know you have your ways of pulling me back to sea
I enfold your sweeping glances, watching them with guile
Got plans, yes, we’ve all got plans, all running underneath this house
It’s got me conspiring
It’s got me wondering,
How much do you know?
And how much do you suspect?
How much will you force out
When I become your object
There’s a reek of lustful machinations soaking in this air
These spiteful machiavellianations, reflecting off your hair
And I’m one with this twisted crew,
My hands are unclean too,
I’ve got fingerprints in the blood on my best friend’s leather shoes
I want you in twisted sheets
I want you in the spasm of defeat
I want you as a grief scented token
I won’t give up until you’ve folded and broken
How much do you know?
And how much do you suspect?
How much will you force out
When I become your object
Wooooo
He was a minor functionary
And he worked so conscientiously
Yes Hector was always on time
And he’d sit in the traffic and take stock of his mind
In his cubicle he read the news
And he pondered the meaning of brushed leather shoes
When upon the industrial carpet appeared
A man most assuredly not employed near
He was dressed in galoshes, waistcoat and cravat,
And suspiciously voluminous black tophat
“Good morning” he said, “I’ve an offer to make:
A corner office on a fiery lake.”
Here Hector paused and considered his words
Said “You’ll be expecting something in return”
“Indeed,” said the man with the queer mode of dress
“One soul, at standard list prices no less”
“A novel idea” Hector did decree
“To broach this transaction so transparently”
“Agreed” said he, “I’ll trade mine gladly.
One soul at the current MSRP”
Now flourishing pen with ampoule and dirk
The visitor furnished new hire paperwork
Hector O’Malley, he signed in his blood,
Shook hands with the devil, and departed this world
And as they descended to the spires of Dis,
Hector, he smiled, his career was worth this
One worthy payment, although in arrears,
His soul had been dead these past twenty five years
I walk about with a smile on my face
I’m seeing red and I’m waiting for the end
I look around at this shitstorm rat race
Counting the days until the mountains of the dead
Spill into the streets
It puts the bounce into my feet
No saint, but I’ve got spirits to spare
Come have a drink, I’m into generosity
I’m all alone in a Jesuit nightmare
Counting sheep, not even trying to sleep
Tell all your friends
There’s a bible in the opium den
I know it’s odd, you’ve got a damn good point, son
But I have to laugh when I see how your cross is strung
Sure, every man deserves a lie to lean on
And every lie deserves some blood to catch the sun
Tell all your friends, hey
They’re selling coke at the end of days
In the house we’ll have tomorrow
Just sit back with your drink
You’ll teleport to work tomorrow
And you won’t have to think
Flying cars and open bars
And dogs that bark in binary
Yes, we’ll be like royalty
In gallium arsenide luxury
Don’t
Lift
A finger to choose
We solved
That
Problem too
So glad it’s all falling down
Around you
In the house we’ll have tomorrow
We’ll party all night long
Never mind the starving faces
In their flooded throngs
So depressingly human
These stories we read
So distressingly deluded
This fate we conceive
This hope we believe
Don’t
Lift
A finger to choose
We solved
That
Problem too
So glad it’s all falling down
Around you
Where have you gone
My lovely star
You slipped away in the dark
Can’t see where you are
Are you mislaid
Wayward in the night
Or are you hiding
Fleeing from my sight?
You’re blinding, brilliant
Can’t see through your glare
Arcs of magnetic flames
Wrapped up in your hair
Confined in your orbit
Consigned to your shadow
Still this satellite
Could see the dirt in your halo
Believe me when I say that this is not personal
It’s just a matter of orbital mechanics, mathematical
Comes round again, sweet coma
Plunge into your corona
So you can see we aren’t really free to pick and choose our way
We’re just acting out Newtonian dynamics, you could say
So you can see we aren’t really free to pick and choose our way
We’re always spinning round the barycenter where your heart is nailed
Comes round again, sweet coma
Plunge into your corona
Comes round again, sweet coma
Plunge into your corona
I’ll hide outside among the comets and the stars until I miss this cold hell
You’ll pull me back just like you always have I know you far too well
Comes round again, sweet coma
Plunge into your corona
Dissolve and hold me nearer
Leave me behind, now colder
Tell the host at the door to wait til it’s over
Tell the army that waits, each starving soldier
I’m not moving an inch until you reach and touch
The fire in your eyes slowly
Glazing over
How will you rest
With your life
Spent in bed
Wrap your corneas/ We will all die
In plastic hysteria/ The slowest of deaths
I’m through groping on/ Rot away while you smile
Through this myopia/ Go ahead, just leave me and melt
Saw myself in a tomb, just like this one
They cannot wait for the end and they know we’re starving
Hunger’s a matter of mind, you can get used to anything
You know I’m sure everything will
Be all right
How will you rest
With your life
Spent in bed
Wrap your tibias
In fiberglass trivia
I’m through wading on/ Just see if I care
Through this miasma/ Go ahead, just lay down and die
The siege has become your life
Teeth stuck through cinderblocks
Rebar and stressed concrete
The month hand is stuck on the clock
Please please wake up
It’s no fun if you can’t play
The morning is colder still
If you cannot help to wish
Us away
Getting set to hit the town
Knocking one back and tooling around
I sprayed my axe and I gelled my hair
Tangled up like I just don’t care
But then my grandma stormed right in
Holding a glass of tonic and gin
She said if I went out looking like this
I’d get no girl, I’d get no kiss
Dancing Grandma, show me those tricks
You broke your back out in 1986
Bringing back those funky moves
I guess at your age you’ve got nothing to lose
Well I helped my grandma up the stairs
And she gave me some classy threads to wear
Pinstripe suit and kicking slacks
Roaring twenties fedora hat
At that point we jumped into the car
Headed downtown to hit up the bar
Spinning some tunes by good old James Brown
Grandma’s rocking her evening gown
Dancing Grandma, get out on the floor
Your lost your last tooth in 1994
Bringing back those funky moves
I guess at your age you’ve got nothing to lose
Dancing Grandma, help me decide
Who am I bringing home tonight
I hear it’s said, for the wicked no rest
It’s only true if you learn from the best
