Gun sight and cordite
hot dang,
boom bang
pistols at dawn, all
echoes from before
I was born.

In the Wild West untamed
well named,
staking claims
California
meeting dames,
sarsaparilla,
only one of them
will **** ya.

Gun sight and boot hill,
Tombstone
where they ****
bad men
and
preachers.

Feeling her fingertips,
I fall like
casino chips,
love is the contract we make.

The wheel that we spin
win or lose
always stops at the person
we choose.

Eyes shine like stars in
the theatre bars,
at the interval
time for a gin.

It feels like a win,
feeling her fingertips,
falling casino chips
fall as they will.

Alarm bells ring
are you listening?
the policemen come and
catch someone *******.
It's Saturday night
the beer was alright
walking through the
West End wonderland.

In the doorway,
there's a stranger sleeping,
toes are peeping out from his old shoes,
a card that says he's homeless and he's hungry
he's just another person to abuse.

...chorus.

I am torn

between cookies and cream

or raisin and ***

   you have plumped
   for a vivid blue creation

it’s bubblegum
   you say

as it begins to
drip

   down your fingers

and I’m dawdling

so it’s raisin and *** then

two magnolia spheres
   glittering in the sun

and we walk down the street

with cold tongues

I'm at the very edge of myself.
The night has arrived, my body
shocked numb, a cold
I am now accustomed to.

My reflection shows a forlorn face -
I tell it I wish I could whisper
flowers, each one delicate and white,
so they could float on a river

of dreams I made real.

My handwriting gives
me a headache to read.
My mind wanders with
memories I can't repeat.

So worried about tomorrow,
but stuck in the past,
that even a single good day
doesn't seem to last.

No one to love.
No one to hold.
No one to share secrets
and let my fears unfold.

There's crime in the streets,
there's past pain in these sheets,
there are scars a lot deeper
than me.

I sing to escape,
I take what I need for the pain,
and I wait out my days.

And just like that, I fade away.

through a bruised eye
there’s little to see
but the scratches on my arms
and the rows of teeth
in your jagged grin.
i can’t move
from one side of the room
to the other
without your needle.
you nurse me back to health
in your ****** arms
and tear me down again,
stitch me up like a doll
and drag me home.
what can I say?
i guess I'm a sucker
for all that romantic crap.

Each heavy breath

falling in and out of time

with the hollow stroking of the clock

ticking endlessly into the dark distant unknown.

Your limbs

carelessly strewn amongst the ever­building clutter

provides a careful serenity;

A calm that dangles precariously,

waiting to fall into the surrounding chaos.

Tense and untouched,

my eyes will keep you safe.

The water in the sea
In my eyes
Stinging but clear
Maybe you were the first and last
To see me
As I am
To race me down the beach
The first and last
I would have run to
I would have wrapped
My life around.
Stinging but clear,
It was always you, my dear