BIRDS birds fly up it doesn’t mean much birds get scared they fly up in the air PREMONITION We’re all servants to the things we know We’re all slaves to our knowledge But I hope no more women end up in prison For passing on disturbing premonitions For the most part she was like any other Loving wife and mother Working in the bleach factory Raising spirits on the side But the dead knowledge you let your clients see Was a threat to national security I never heard so many lies in all my life We’re all servants to the things we know We’re all slaves to our knowledge But I hope no more women end up in prison For passing on disturbing premonitions All the time that you were inside The prison wardens refused to lock your cell And even when you had served your time They wouldn’t leave you alone The too fast dispersal of ectoplasm Caused second degree burns And you died in weeks We’re all servants to the things we know We’re all slaves to our knowledge But I hope no more men or women End up dead or in prison For passing on disturbing premonitions WAYS BEST LEFT UNTRAVELLED Made my way to The Other Gateway This thing only happens in dreams Hold the hands of the things on the other side Pushing through the barrier the wrong way Every wasted egg comes back as a zombie They fly in clouds of flesh Every little cell with a tail to propel it Moves sideways in the air All the time that goes While you wonder where time goes Piles up as the time you have to wait For a train The dust piles up But it never comes back the same That’s why you think its one way Or a mistake FIND ME IN THE GARDEN Maybe you’ll find me in the garden With leaves in my hair Slumped amongst the daisies But don’t shed a tear If you come closer Look, it was only a husk The thing has hatched and its out to get you You better run DARLING darling don’t leave me so i tell you i’m not lying darling don’t leave me so no trick no lie if you can’t be the barrier you can’t be the bones you’re not the arms so you can’t be the hands if you can’t be the barrier you can’t be the bones you’re not the hands and you won’t be the arms DEAD LETTER sifting through the void of the dead letters never going to put it back try to pull it through its never going to get to who it was never meant to get to moving through the void where the dead letters go drifting in the space where you never put them down they’re hidden in time and space HEADBONE My headbone My headbone It floats on the surface Bubbles up in the mud My headbone My headbone Somebody put the boot in Push that yellow brown skullbone Down Its useless Its useless My eyes are two goldfish My hands are two silver ferns growing in the woods I said it I did it Then watched it fall down Fold it up in paper And I fall asleep My headbone My headbone It won’t let me go down Under the ground where I belong Maybe this time gonna break in or out of life AFTERLIFE TELEPHONE the invention of one living person but with some help its something longed for by many known by few used by fewer the universe is head-shaped It has many layers if you peel back the skin it goes septic and putrefies one hand to the receiver you dial for a connection one mouth mouths “are you alright?” one ear the strangeness comes its a turbulent area the line is full of noise when you don’t know the significance any sound can be a voice GHOST There is a ghost Hanging over my bed Gonna slip inside My sleeping head And when I wake up I won’t be able to move With one white eye Turn the mirrors to face the wall I shave my palms And listen to the radio When I see What I can’t see Even in the light My brain Strange grey fruit for the ghost It cracks the shell And fills its mouth Plumbing deeper depths Than death BLACK ANTS so scared that the brain will solidify so scared that the mind will solidify so scared that the brain will solidify it doesn’t exist you do what you can to understand with a book and a head full of gunge spend all day scraping chunks of the brain from the back of the washing machine do no harm the flaccid organ thinks it knows thinks it has control the grumpy lazy bastard does no moving at all so scared that the brain will solidify so scared that the mind will solidify so scared that the brain will solidify so scared that the mind will solidify take a little time to find piece of mind its gone the brain forgot don’t try too hard see all the lines you have crossed in the mean time looking back it all adds up so scared that the brain will solidify so scared that the mind will solidify so scared that the brain will solidify so scared that the mind will solidify GREY SKULL on a closed circuit time to resuscitate the dead hear that smell they’re trying to tell you to shut up so shut up the glowing green head above your bed put up your hand open its face and pull out the grey skull tastes like chocolate tastes like nothing on earth grey skull grey skull fucked my hand up smashing the grey skull but now i can see through walls SPIKE Spike Spike the skin tight the hand held be be alive gets you in the dark night huh huh better dance it out back behind time time in one line banging on the ceiling dead are coming out your door Spike Spike in black light bad bones and broken out do the dance with cardboard tear it into what you need you in the front you in the front wait to break it wait to bang Ghost is in the blackness hit it with the monkey wrench caught your foot bad luck raise the light raise the light drooling in the doorway huh huh have to use your head Spike spike spike spike that’s the hook the hook they’re gonna catch on they’re gonna catch on you in the back you in the back rising up up up up no no no time time time in one hard line one blackout eye ball sees it all night night night time after time goes down down the world is waiting THE B-STARRED PHANTOM This is the voice of The B-Starred Phantom Coming through to illuminate limbo This is the voice of The B-Starred Phantom Coming through the membrane We don’t want to prove them Don’t want to recruit them Give them the rights to be left alone Don’t make use the dead to make your living You’ve got the black silk blindfold And ice in your mouth Your hair hangs down Till your eyes roll out This is the voice of The B-Starred Phantom A guiding hand to illuminate limbo This is the voice of The B-Starred Phantom Coming through the membrane Don’t use the dead to make your living Don’t use the dead DEADARM Pleased to meet you I’ve been dying to I stole the ship As the vessel To pass through the channel The place we go The gap between And now I’m so close I could lick your face This is your worldly address To the things you can’t forget I build a conversation As an act of conservation That’s the fence around it ON SANSKRIT AND FIBREGLASS 25 years on woven mats To read the sentence that is Nothing lasts But its not from man Its the words they heard And that is the power of that Your bare feet in the gathering dust He tells you the shapes But he leaves the form And the tiny groove on your forehead is worn From his thumb print there And your confusion Its a long time since you made the hollow girls Of fibreglass and chicken bones Their wings held together with glue, you said But who needs to know about that? And right before you shuffle off this mortal coil You’ll pull the chord and slip between The pools where life’s force springs Swap it for the vacuum that you saved under the bell jar And the head and the world you left inside Maybe this brief spark of existence Was futile but well-meaning But who needs to know about that? Who need to know about that? TRIANGLE Step through the triangle And into the light What are they doing on the other side? Make the shapes They put it on the outside This is the place where the animals go Drop to ground The fleshy fruit softens Mushed in the leaves and grass Leave the soil To cover it over This is another chance Step through the triangle And into the light What are they doing on the other side? Blue lips And iridescent eyeballs Sitting in the garden for a long time Think once You won’t look back Think once Then you can go again Don’t waste more time Trying to remember dreams Goosebumps now and you run Step through the triangle And into the light What are they doing on the other side? MILK TOAST Dubious host beckons milk toast Dubious host beckons milk toast Lay your head on the table Palm back sprinkle salt The hungry ghosts Will eat milk toast The last indignity They didn’t use their cutlery A taste so bland They spat it out No thanks, milk toast Even for the hungry ghosts They dragged warm matter Into the garden BIRDS AND THE BEES Here is the truth about the birds and the bees Its not new life its the other one Tiny little creatures working in swarms To take them all away In heavy pots and roast them down Sometimes metal, sometimes clay Don’t be the ones in the box made of wood They burn up straight away Its why the dog eats the bumblebee Gets stung on his tongue But crunch the honeycomb body up Its aerodynamically impossible That’s the clue that it doesn’t exist Its why the cat eats the bird Why the cat kills the bird and gives it to you Says I won’t die, you won’t die One more time One more time This is the truth about the birds and the bees This is the truth about the birds and the bees THE WHITE PLACE You are going to the white place That pale ceramic island On high Look here they come Ready with your white dress And even you Won’t make a mess In the white place NUMBER Vegetable or mineral The cloud destroyer Gelatinous and mean What is the number To start it again Thumbprint blank space No more time No more lines to cut Tell them the number And make it start again In the line Of the slides I don’t exist In the line Jump on the wheel Out Tell them the number And make it start again