Cells Of The Marsh

The boys drive the cars their mother's drove
They have emasculated them, hardened them
Sawdust settles on the lips of the men
As their hair falls from their parts and gets blown back
Tradition is a venture for the economically wise
Everyone knows heaven comes at a price
Fashion is an art that happens when no one is watching
To judge our nature is to wish we were born in a future age
Lost in a desiderata amongst words unfound
The problem has solutions as we know and all medicines expire
In my coma I saw the way to the long, long death- in waves
The abandoned clothes were left for the cramping limbs
As we watched the flames strangle the feeling, we pulled glances up from the ground
And all the crowd gathered to take pictures of the black night
No one could have stopped the recollections of the youth
We realised nothing had changed in the tenses
Nothing could have stopped those birds from roosting on the ledge
The marshes are drying and the houses can now be built
The prison can be built in the centre, name them CELLS OF THE MARSH
Keep the men amused, keep the builders employed
You were once a king with filthy glasses
Once in charge of a room full of pianos all being destroyed
The madness of the chaos was nothing you couldn't control
You could ripen the decay of fruit, turn moth back to grub
Everyone agreed that when you fell naked from your window it ended
Everyone agreed that dreaming of you was an omen of summer's false surrender
Those teeth of yours that started to recede back into your skull
They were the precursors of your madness
That glance from sky to ground that you turned into a twitch
You thought you had it hidden since your days of learning of the philosophers
You thought you could keep those baby mice hidden in your pocket
You declared that every mouse was to have his birthday on yours
Several people fell into deep sleep, only to awaken surrounded by sand and sea
Somewhere someone dived off a ship on his back to the clockwise hemisphere
Too much scotch and too much love and no one to share it with
He never seemed to feel the cold, never seemed to care for the song of the Crane

The walls were double brick
                        The mice had decided to chew through the wooden roof
Two little thieves stood on the river bank pissing into the water
The stars flickered like televisions of the modern age
                                I touched you as you passed
                                                   because you stood for everything I wrote about
                                                                        You used to be a Rosemary boy
And I thought I could still smell it on your clothes
You pleased me then and you please me still

It's good to know you are walking without watching where you are going
It's how I know you are my true love