Ghosts of past icons hung on the walls,
echoes of music whispering through halls

of stained chequered linoleum floors,
incarnadine crimson curtains and dead applause

welcome to Tranquility Lane Hotel
where all you see is broken
welcome to the devourer of dreams, where
you can buy shame with one chipped casino token

when all you fear is real, and all you wish is perished

when all the world around is charred, here we have everything you ever cherished

*****, drugs, fights and ***
money, food, water and insects

the mutant hounds of the apocalypse screech and howl
as you sit back in a freshly perfumed bath towel
watching old TV adverts of a world gone by
an era decimated in the blink of an eye

stretch back and sip that brilliant post-war champagne
please ignore the screams and mysterious stains

no one ever leaves, no one ever tells,

welcome traveller to

Tranquility Lane Hotel.

Strangers in the morning dawn
I saw your face against the morning sun
you kiss me though my lips are cut
loving me though my heart was shut

you drove a wedge between my tortured mind
you let me leave my nagging demons behind
those crystalline eyes of pure truth
never in all my time, never in all my youth

would I have thought
I'd have found the most perfect girl in you.

A man is not a man without a heart 

but a shell, wherein loneliness rips apart 

every morsel of truth, infecting with lies 

bitterness and longing buzzing about like flies 


there was a time a few years back where I could not see past the wall

a mental structure I built to crawl away from all

I grew cold, I grew callous, I did not care 

at the corpse in the mirror at which I stared 


the days were black and the hours mundane 

with each setting sun my lust for life waned 

I was broken, devoid of strength, seemingly through 

then everything changed the second I met you 


you know I care not for expressing feelings or emotion 

or should I say, expressing is something which I struggle 

but our stupid jokes, the little quips and kisses 

are something I've so long been missing


you're perfect to me, and that's the truth 

and I just wanted to say I love you

I can feel him clawing at my insides
a Swan blackened and broken -

lurking, he does hide

a figment of my deranged imagination

volatile, bruised, tortured, shattered

the altar of self pity, on which 
dead Angels wings are splattered 

help me, 
for I cannot think right 

help me, 
for all that is true hides in sight 

help me, 
I don't know who I am 

oh friend, where is thy former man?

Sorrow gnawing holes in these summer days 
nights passing trains, thoughts meaningless haze 
it itches my skin, contracting like muscle sinew 
the ***** dilapidated and cold from which he grew 

they wanted beauty, perfection, so I will giveth it 
the outside glitters like gold, but the inside stinks like **** 

who am I to stop the man that wants to come forth
for is it not true life will be better -

and so, if not?

To all you paranoid schizophrenic eclectics out there;
the Cranklatches are real
hiding 'neath your stairs 

dwelling under your sorry beds
creeping while you're sleeping
stealing your distorted heads 

who am I to obtain self control 
wish for just some clarity 
for thoughts non-hazy and whole 

It's not the drugs I think 
nor the ****** fluids in my 
ex-friends sink 

It's not the smell of decaying 
trust 
nor the world outside my wall
that fall, it must

It's the Cranklatches, yes the Cranklatches
spreading lies and hovering like flies 
polluting my ideas with fascist intentions

poisoning my days
with perverse hallucinations 

But I know of
yes I have seen

Their plots, their plans
their visions of a bloated and resolute future

watch out
they inhale your whispers

even here, are they with us?

Like the greying skin of a dying hand 

my sanity has diminished

alas had I not planned -

to lose touch with the outside world
to build a wall to protect from all that's rotten, curled?

[Mother made all your fears come true 
even absent Mother shadows what is true]

The days now pass distorted and hazed
pleading in the eyes that I gaze 
thus the jurors bicker, snicker, connive and remark 
passing judgement deep within thy dark;

"Evening Pale God, my good sir, my dire honour 
here we have the source of all the horror;

feelings. 

Feelings of emptiness and fury.
A concoction of illness and insecurity."

It's all in my mind, it's all in my head 
fascist ideologies and guilt dripping red 
am I not worthy of mercy -
not worthy of forgiveness -
oh how do I cure this volatile mental sickness?! 

"Never in all my time 
have I come across one so willing to die
but too fearful to pull the trigger.

You think the world laughs at your sorry state 
alas you're the one that sniggers."

Money money, greed's sweet honey 
buying all but honesty, and truth -
If only I could take that old revered gun 
point and shoot -

AHHHH!!!

Insane, deranged, perverted, vile 

I'm all and none

I've ran out of places to hide 

from the voices that contradict this depression 
finally rising to the top with blistering aggression


"It's time to **** the snake that mutated into disease
**** the snake of pain you try to appease.

Young sir, it's time to uncorrupt them all

It's time to bring down the wall.

- - -

The time has come to let things pass 
to not allow the loneliness to last

'Tis time to sing songs of peace 
and caring

and ignore the nothingness at which I have been staring.

A serious stare behind broken eyes 
half the man I was, wounded a thousand times

Who am I now?

Life chewed me up and spat me out 
ignorant to my pleas, to my juvenile shouts
stability refreshing in the ever-shifting sands 
happiness short-lived, greying like the skin of a dying hand 

I opened old wounds with the razor of disdain 
to feel alive I had to feel my own pain 
times change, I will not be 21 forever 
my youth as beautiful, yet fragile, as that of a feather 

a hundred times heartbreak I have cherished 
when the promise of hope constantly perished 
throughout my existence my dreams have evaded me 
nightmares forging the person I'm destined to be 

for now I have lost silver, yet gained gold 
lost my job but still my heart is sold 
a weary warrior of a war within myself 
forever anticipating losing it all, 
losing love
losing wealth 

Who am I now?
What have I become?

Who is that tired man?
Where has the old one gone?