Laps In the Sleep Saloon

USA,
I wanna lick your cancers,
I’ll wear
five inch heels and be your private dancer
you are sick and I want sickness
I’ll pull your tongue and love your tonsils

Put down your guns we’re in love
Handshakes and hugs, baby, we’re in love

USA,
Ronald Reagan couldn’t beat my answer
Yes and yes a million times over
You could have a happy ending
Take my hand I’ll walk you through the park
Take my hand I’ll walk you through the park

Once upon a time
There was a dirty blanket and a TV in an alley.
Once upon a time
There was the sound of seagulls,
Fighting over a bag of fast food leftovers
In a fenced in parking lot.

And they lived happily ever after.
I cough and convince you that we are not
Killing this world, we’re killing ourselves.

Once upon a time
There was a parking meter.
Once upon a time
There was a big crack in the sidewalk
Caused by giant tree roots
Pushing at the concrete.

And they lived happily ever after
I cough and convince you that we are not
Killing this world, we’re killing ourselves.
And priests are falling to their knees
To pray that god won’t smell their sin,
While well-groomed men in short pants
Walk yellow labs that pant.

Once upon a time
There was a coffee shop where two or three men hung out
And read the paper, and from time to time
Discussed religion and the desert.
Once upon a time
The woman with the bleached teeth
Had been a smoker and a drinker since she was ten years old
And you too would fall in love with her.

And they lived happily ever after.
I cough and convince you that we are not
Killing this world, we’re killing ourselves.
And nuclear families start endless wars
By sitting on their couches to watch all
The horror of this world.

Once upon a time
I picked out a wedding dress the day we went to war
And covered myself in blood
And marched through suburbia.
Once upon a time
All the men sitting at the strip club hating life at that moment
Jumped up on the bar
And straddled the pole
And cried.

And they lived happily ever after
I cough and convince you that we are not
Killing this world, we’re killing ourselves.
No, we’re not killing ourselves
We’re just killing time
We’re just killing time.

another car wreck wrapped up in chainlink and magistrates come swinging their eyepieces cutting through the petroleum haze while doe-eyed girls bathed in sunlight lie face up
and the cypress bend and stretch their bows to shade this flaxen skin as the blood flows and eddys on sidewalks and playgrounds and the sun beats down on sidewalks and playgrounds

(“seaward is forward”, says the glacier through the hills, you’re always coming down, the stars at noon still shine on you and you are a sunbeam)

1/2 these minds are celibate (he thinks)—the lights come on at six to show the floors buffed to a shine that follows along these symmetries—a rhombus, a spiral, a pyramid toppling down
you’ll hear the hum of the universe just underneath the scherzo screeching through the loudspeakers overhead and the slate grey blah of November screeching through loudspeakers overhead

(freedom is backwards thinking, a pill caught in your throat, you’re always calming down, and the stars at noon still shine on you, you are sunbeam)

My friends tell me it’s all about the math
The shiny factory edges on the raindrops
The shadows moving around beneath the rocks
The lights flickering from the tv late at night

I'm calculating out the speed of darkness
I'm searching for another line

My friends tell me it’s all about the madness
The shinny factory edges on the teardrops
The shadows moving around beneath the moonlight
The lights flickering from the sky late at night

I’m calculating out the speed of darkness
I’m searching for another lie

What a cold, cold, cold, cold summer it was.
The nights were blinding
And the days were spent asleep.
A fleet of race cars
Was speeding through my veins.
My bones were clanking
And my limbs were heavy and weak.

I want to sweat you out like a fever.
I want to sweat you out of me.

Because my head has been clogged
With swarming images of you.
The violence negates the love,
The violence negates the love.
But the memories rule a country
Of their own.

I want to sweat you out like a fever.
I want to sweat you out of me.

Is it possible to sever everything?
Is it possible to move on,
When the heart drag, drag, drag,
Drags itself
Slowly along?

I want to sweat you out like a fever.
I want to sweat you out of me.

Tell us another joke!
You must have heard them all,
straight from the sailor’s mouth,
straight from the sea!
(Your clothes are slack around your wrists
and bunched around your wrists)
And, buddy, the sap and lush is crusting at the corners of your mouth!

And we’ll loose peals of laughter
(Clapping out over salty breaks),
when you’re lying there stiff among the reeds!
And we’ll loose peals of laughter
(Pulled straight up to the sky),
when they fish another body from the water!

Give us another tale!
Of how you lured sirens to the shore
and we’ll stare wide eyed in wonderment
(Even though it’s useless)!
(Your gaze stuck ever skyward
and your jaw hung ajar)
And, buddy, the sap and lush is crusting at the corners of your mouth!

And we’ll loose peals of laughter
(Clapping out over salty breaks),
when you’re lying there stiff among the reeds!
And we’ll loose peals of laughter
(Pulled straight up to the sky),
when they fish another body from the water!

A rote request for absolution
a tip of my hat to you sir
from the lawn above your bed
and the clouds move lazy across the hills

I will never be forgiven

A cock would crow
a grain of sand would shift, shift
these mouths stay closed
and not a word should slip
and the sky weighs heavy upon my head

I should never be forgiven

What is the use of a push through this dirt

A move I made toward you in the soil
my eyes blood red and shining
as I raised my voice
and heaven is a grey slate wet with tears

I will never be forgiven

A fall through fire
a thimble full of sea salt
and I would cry,
lay next to the fencepost
and the rains come finally (wash my sins)

I can never be forgiven

I will place my hands deep inside the earth
I will crush my bones and offer them to you

we’re dreaming too small
to fill up the gaps in between
numbers and axioms won’t help
clever words won’t do

all the churches become empty
the air inside falling still
the means are more
beautiful than the end

all traditions fail
hearts that burn will turn to ash
a bell that tolls will ring between us
a fervent hand is pulled away

all the churches come to silence
a hymnal placed upon the steps
words are sung and incomplete
like numbers spinning in your eyes

the bones beneath my skin
pulled up taut
break a stillness
and all the while
mom in the corner
pulling her hair out

and I won’t stop laughing

sister, I’m just
a gene away
from beautiful
my hair pulled
tight into curls
just like yours

I can’t stop laughing

your fist pulled tight, white over mine
flash, flash, the camera goes off, oh, and
I roll my eyes just so like I’m choking

and I won’t stop laughing

we burnt up their faces and nickels went rolling down sidewalks and gutters past windows and feet and we’re stacking our shoes into pillars and pyramids inhaling plastic and writhing in sheets while white men in white labcoats retool a grand downfall and every revival is twenty years dead
we all know all we know