Blister

I have been picking at my skin
digging with my dirty nails
down through layers
of meat
somewhere underneath there
the itch
is growing
inch by inch
and I can't get there
fast enough

you are a blister
pus filled
and oozing
I see
that green blood streaked
fluid
sloshing behind your eyes
I want to cut you open
and watch your juices run out

you have infected me
with all your vile
slimy
swamp toad ways
warts and all

if I kiss you
I won't get a prince
I'll get a mouthful
of sick
and ulcerated tissue
you are the acid kiss
that eats away at my gums
and breaks my teeth

 I've been digging away
at my skin for years now
ripping the scabs off
poking at the sore spots
watching the bruises bloom
deepest purple black
and still all I taste
is acid

you are a blister
more putrid than pure
and where your flaking skin falls
fungus grows
to mark the spot
where your soul
started to fester

your fetid love
is a boil
on my ass
and when I sit upon it
I can feel
all the pain you wished upon me
and still I find myself
gagging on
your ever searching
swamp water tongue
and I beg for more

The Dead City

her body in the woods
naked and filthy
new flies unfurling
their iridescent wings
flicking to flight
in the green heat
stars catching all the hate
in her flat black eyes
her mouth is empty
soil where her tongue
once settle against her teeth

they call this place
Dead City
The Axe Handle Burroughs
Blood Smear Avenue
12 Gauge Park

hey, down here
we got this thing
called the psychopathic checklist
you score high
and you got a job for life
with the city council
hope you like the taste of
gun oil and brass

the ditch just outside
the fences
final resting place
the belt still tight
against strained muscles
Petechiae smiles
and knife wound kisses
they named her
the Ditch Water Bride
never able to close her eyes
with her eyelids all gone

Yeah, down here in Dead City
babes in the woods
are a common site
and shotguns
grow like weeds
buried in the forest
wrapped in burlap fertilizer
they sprout up
if you know where to dig

lily bones
decorate the bridges
down here
never mind the names
feet wash up on the beaches
rotted and stinking
children play with them
like footballs
the ghosts chatter
in the distant hills
spitting their indifference
down to the Native villages
our murderous ancestors
thought were theirs to take

brains on the railway tracks
two bodies for the price of one
facts and lies
are all the same around here
that sound you hear
that's the sound of the L train
going straight to Hell
yeah, down here
God has crooked teeth
and chews on raw bone sinew
red streaks in the pavement
we call meat love
and we all know the dark places to avoid

we don't want no tourists around here
so go on to your safe little homes
and shut your eyes tight
behind your gated communities
and white bread security raids
go on, pretend everything is all right

down here in Dead City
there's a skull-cracking good time to be had
and the Devil
let's us know he's still around
he's got that big old grin
and when his mouth falls open
terror seeps into the world
and all us murderers and thieves
we know we still got a place
to call Home

Apocalypse Right Now

I sat in quiet contemplation
of the futility of human existance
our great weapons
pointed right down our throats
a brand new way
to kill ourselves

when I moved to the city
I lost the stars
so I couldn't watch dead light
invade my eyes
I had to meditate to
dull grey walls
and rain beating down
on broken sidewalks

sometimes,
just sometimes,
cities empty out
all the people leave
the windows are boarded up
the buildings crumble
a church of pointlessness
a shrine to vanity

no stars shine
up from under those broken skulls
empty eyes
walk the road to Hell
holding hands
shaking in the face
of an Angry god
called Pointlessness

clasp your hands
try to convince me that this is better
that you have the fucking answers
just under your fucking tongue
you are just as desolate
but somehow you convinced yourself
that you were still alive

I want you to know
I saw how you die
I saw just how fucking stupid you are
tin men all lined up
under the great firing sky
burning in the name of peace
I saw how you die
and licked my lips
at the thought of it

in sickness
I know the answers
closer in pain
to the reality
of our ineffectiveness
sold to the raw deal
convinced of their importace
but we are a gutter
for all things in us perish
God lives and he hates you
the world coughs up black clouds
and chews us down
with blood red teeth

and will be reborn
without us
to get in the way

Down at the Cannibal Cafe

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
they're serving up
racks of Leroy
and eyeball soup

The sauce is as red as congealed blood
and sticks to the roof of your mouth
you can get a tomato and accountant
sandwich for the price
of a cup of coffee from the fancy place
down the street

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
they make sure you never go hungry
they fill your plate with
liver and brain
and something gelatinous
slopping over the edges

 you never go hungry
Down at the Cannibal Cafe

where the musicians
play nightly
on drums made of tattooed skin
and bang on old hollow skulls
with shin bones
they get a little raucous
when the whisky runs out
and have been known to
throw the grill through
the front window
on special occasions

but you never go hungry
down at the Cannibal Cafe
the waitresses with something red
and dead
smeared down the front of
their aprons
always make sure your glass is full
even if you find the occasional finger bone
in your punch

the chef has a whole wall
of the biggest, shiniest meat cleavers
you ever did see
down at the Cannibal Cafe

he likes to finger them
while taking your order
and once threw one
through a uppity yuppie's
brain pan
and the porridge had a lot
of weird clumps in it
the next morning

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
there are chickens running free in the kitchen
and rats paying checkers in the back
the cashier's cigarette dangles
between his greasy lips
with a full inch of ash
perpetually threatening to fall
in your plate of eggs and scrambled kidneys
delivery men tend to disappear
Down at the Cannibal Cafe
and nobody knows why

There's pelvic bones hanging from the ceiling
There's fingernails in the coffee
There's lipstick on the cups
and sometimes you even find the lips
still attached
There's something lumpy
and unidentifiable in the chili
The chef has be adding arsenic
to the ice cream lately
but if you hang around long enough
you get used to it

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
you never go hungry
but you have to be awful careful
you don't end up on the menu
and I suggest staying away
from the tuna surprise

The Poisoned Summer

what is this that clings to me
clear and sticky
honeyed poison
for honeyed eyes
face nestled in my breasts
sweat beading across my skin
the summer is my poison
so pretty
your hair in your face
you poison me with your fingertips
you desire me
until better things come along
I am the burden
put me out to graze
beastly to look at
crazy to feel
locked away inside my own brain
begging for love
begging for soap to copy the keys
food is poisoned
but I am not sure which plates are safe
I am fumbling
with my own skin
tripping down
off of high horse
and glass buildings
I see myself
in every reflection
unsure of what side of the glass I am on
unsure of what side of your eyes I am on
the arrows embedded in my side
are poison tipped
and growing over
in rough red scars
shove your fingers in the holes
feel for bits of steel left behind
by your hardened words
your forgetfulness
that I was here
waiting for you to find me
waiting
for the poison
to take me down to my knees
I have nothing to give you
no poison left on my lips
no kiss dying under my eyes
I gave you all the pieces of my heart
to glue back together
you swept them under the rug
placed them in a box under your bed
you'll find that box full of dead rats
the next time you look
as each glistening jewelled fragment
was poisoned long before
you got here
and I died under the weight
a thousand fists ago