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


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