a screaming comes down the sky, to bury you

the numbers were scattered wide by the blast

ever the wounded fly, you retreat

blaming the atmosphere for the heat

 

you’re never nakeder than when you’re wrong

and who would ever take you on, tongue versus eye

 

back when the tide was low, and shells revealed

you had the will to row, but not the means

since going underground, you contrive

to bide for the prime moment, to be alive

 

a screaming came down the sky, to bury you

numbers were scattered wide by the blast

ever the wounded fly, you withdraw 

blaming the clock for time, and crime for law

 

no sooner chained to the railings you dread the escape 

pawing at the lock like a sleeper, just awake

now with a faulty antenna and a book of names 

the part of you that moves overruling the part that’s sane

 

leave before time can clean you out before your eyes 

long touch good bye, it makes us proud

 

i’m drawing spirals on your skin while you contemplate 

the comic opera that brought you here months too late

the future and the game with no pieces on which it depends 

crumble in a single fit of feeling all’s well that ends

 

now we end up in the same ship as we began 

floating on and containing the ocean beyond the sands

 

Fall, climb the walls, lick your wounds explore, beg for more, 

liars say you’re mine, while you pine for another

 

No concerned citizen could get near

Keep official distance, taste it in the air

It’s no concern of the idle tier, move on

 

When will you learn to endure your own blood and bone, 

frail and bruised machine, all you’ve been wiped away clean

 

Fall, climb the walls, lick your wounds explore, beg for more, 

liars say you’re mine while you pine to go north where

 

No concerned citizen could get near 

Keep official distance, taste it in the air

Like burnoff from a well of new fear

Palms spread in submission, brighter than a flare

It’s no concern of the idle tier, move on

 

find a lost absolution behind seldom used furniture. 

meet misfortune with joy

knock yourself out

time, empty or full, drags its own weight in medicine. 

fake, fraud or misrule, just come

knock yourself out

be an overnight failure, crawl beneath the glass 

or say ‘nothing is simple’ and come

knock yourself out

 

I've been having these dreams where we never met

 

A study in resolve

Haven't I done enough to you?

When the fire went out

We huddled around the embers

for warmth

But the echo's not the sound

 

When the hunger cools

We see food we ate

for wax and plastic

And phony though it is

You'd do the same

if you could do it over

Oh my body needs the rest

 

Torchlights in the gloom

Walls without a room

 

Quiet as a grave

Must not summon back 

Familiar revenants

Frozen to the spot

Afraid that if I move,

you will too

And the clocks will start again

 

Torchlights in the gloom

Walls without a room

Disengage your grasp

The only way to last

 

First I damage you

Then you carry me

Initial here and here

That's fine

When you finally slept

The fraud revealed itself

Unless you voice a doubt

You're bound

 

Plant your feet in warm soil 

Feel close to god 

Like a coward recoils 

Play the part 

Know full well

These crafty thrills 

Are a pricy farewell 

 

Fear won’t sever the rope 

Won’t offer the hope somebody comes

Wire won’t cut back the reeds love sits among 

 

Find a goal in the search 

We’ve come to rest

At the edge of the earth

 

I'll walk the winding path

And the moonlight as milk

Will splash on the stone

When the dawn crowds in

We glow on our own

We're a going concern

From Heaven Street to the end

All shorn in cold estate

The core is still warm

The riot goes on

From Heaven Street

To Earth Mound Square

(Poem written by John Herschel in 1840 to commemorate the dismantling of his father William Herschel's 40-foot telescope.)