A long cortege of shadows Slipping past like water In that groove of purpose Blind and deaf and dumb to all save gold Pawns to its deceptive power Nursed into existence Tunes of decadence A brittle dream, a wilful violation of the actual Streamed into the midnight currents of culture Membranes of memories Pathways between ages Rotating on the planet Life - Mankind Nothing but an editorial cartoon Bouquets Of Barbed Wire Dazzled by lithium Cheap chemical tricks, its secret melancholy Attempts to outwit mortality A haunted, vengeful lover Spent the night in my bones Simply spoke with her skin Feasting on the void Beneath this sand shroud An incubus upon the heart A shadow upon the brain Stung the tongue like poisoned air Burned the lungs without fire Revelled in its own illusory nature Doomed to choose When to choose and when not to choose A wild impulse To protest, To demand Innocence