I need a picture on the wall of my coffin of stone
Put on a pedestal
Put on a shelf
A thousand years crusting tears on my self

Paint me immortal
Paint me a Saint
Or paint me the nightmare that everyone claims

Cause I am a paradox
A knife’s bloodless blade
A faceless body in the mirror
I can’t wipe away

Sinking on land
Quicksilver sand

Poison on lips
Drowning the tips of my
Sanity
Profanity

The sting of a bee hurts less
Than the thought of you leaving
Cause I dance the fine line
Of empathy and tragedy

Oh the church bells will ring for
Dancers and fools
Pantheon of Justice
Your name’s just a tool

Oh the road ahead is dusty
And the trees are barren fruit
But my back is to your hangman love
And I’m sorry I’m leaving
So soon

Mmm, tempting fate
Standing above storm clouds
Icarus bled silver regret
So he could be his own sun

And the audience behind the
Heavy blue curtains weep
And the sound effects team take thunder
From their giving hands

Oh, heroic, ironic
tragedy

he burned under the gaze
of our eyes

hello, stranger
i see we meet again
between book pages
within art hedges

the paths to immortality are
storylines and ballad chimes
i’ll see you in the epigraphs
i’ll read you in the skies

first law of
thermodynamics
no energy created
no energy destroyed

over and over
blood born blood lost
arms carved from fireflies
breath fossils in northern lights

hello, stranger
decaying and beating heart
chubby hands clinging to heaven
or trading final death-cards

the clock ticks to the rhythm of
supernovas far, far away
and prophecies printed on
abandoned beach sands

and you, stranger
walk the plank between the waking
and the beyond
my question to you is
Which direction are you heading?

You stand there in a field
Of gentle grass and daffodil

The butterflies gossip in dances
The breeze sweet as honey
Haloed sun on your head

And I feel you smile at me
So soft, so wanted
Cradling in your hands
My heart

A gory mass of muscle and tissue
Pulsating and twitching
like a nightmare struggling
To tear it’s desperate fingers through its
******, oozing womb

And I lay under you
skin gorged, ribs cracked
Wheezing through smoker’s lungs
clinging on by a few dripping strands
of fleshy tubing

And my hands claw the earth
nails mangled and nerves ragged
But my eyes fix
Enraptured
despite these things scrabbling
at my irises
As I strain
To catch a glimpse
of
your


face

I thought if I could swallow the stars
I’d be as beautiful as the evening sky
I tried one night    with fireflies
They burned my throat
Their legs striking at soft flesh
But my skin did not glow
No moon crawled from my eye sockets
I was left with corpses in my stomach
I soon learned I would only ever be
A cemetery

Sunday on the school grounds
Wiping off the lead crowns
Beds set up in oyster shells
Weren’t we meant to breathe in
Sheriff’s silver casings
That fall out of the sky

And I say
Little red lies on your teeth,
your teeth,
Grinning at church bells
Atop your Van Gogh
window sill

Screams pinned on jackets and
conspiracies sprayed on knees
Black diamonds on the rocks,
the rocks,
This whisper ain’t got any
real privacy

Cutting your hands on dreams
Losing your last memory
Of white rabbits, door habits
Writhing like a royal trapped in
Big cash ins
Flayed for the prize to see

But it’s all
A
Feel
of your
Masterpiece

So meet me, meet me
My sidewalk’s got salt line
Fish in a hunting ring
Leaf in an arctic breeze
I’ve got time I’ve got time
I’ve got cigarettes and lime
Come put this fire out
And take a shot to you