Black Song

This is a song/poem I wrote called "black song."

amongst newspaper clippings of giants that crush
all the paths for our children all lost in the rush
for glory & sex & magic & fame
but all the stars are dead in their mansions

and I know dear sir that your price is steep
but my blood's a-boilin' & my eyes do weep
for the stuff you're selling unjust & outright
but please oh please can I have some

and did you see him the man from the west
with his blue steel pistols, with the hair on his chest
and in the whip of thunder, a hellhound calls out
glory praise be my lord is risen

so dear boy don't pick the dirt from yer mouth
don't speak outta turn, you're headin' down south
so just pile that slop up's high it'll go
boy, this ain't just a grave that you're digging

the sun is rising
the sun is rising

and applaud my death with hubris and spite
and never mention my hummingbird life
just coil me up, put me back on the shelf
and consume all the good left within me

our ovations rise with your downfall
inhaling the dusk, that soothing pall
of greasy black smoke so thick in your lungs
just for the gilded facade of freedom

launch me to the moon in my exquisite corpse
and scream like the raven, scream till you're hoarse
and i'm howling back, meaner than before
for my god does not want to know me

do you see my knife as it comes down with a shake
to sever all the limbs we're too hesitant to break
oh c'mon now baby it's just a little blood
to bind us here in synchronicity

call out for mercy
call out for mercy

you know i love it here I don't think I could ever go
away from this land of drunken carnival shows
planted here, right here in the big top showcase
the oracle of delphi is naked

bone cages rattle inside your battered tomb
as birds of solid chrome born from your womb
are plucked and gutted and put on the spit
as i lay cold upon the lakebed

and here I am among serpents and swine
just wastin my life, just biding my time
for that one tiny insignificant chance
to clear my soul of any feeling

and so now that I'm clean I can lay here with you
and wrap myself in ether and black voodoo
and fall blooddrunk deep into your arms
as your dress falls down toward the ceiling

my wounds are healing
my wounds are healing

oh I see the fawn with her brown hair let down
traipsing through the forest with the wind in her gown
i call out a name I heard somewhere before
Ophelia Ma-Beth Johannson

now drop your chains and slack my noose a while
and consume the desert's flesh, all darkened with bile
babe it's better than nothin', so don't you complain
just listen for the falcons' call in tandem

but how i wish to have you, so soft and bereft
with whitewash orchids draped upon your breasts,
and a curve edge dagger held tight 'tween your teeth
so that every word you spoke could kill me

and now as I watch you sleeping so sound
upon a bed of shadows I mistook for the ground
you will stir only slightly, and open your eyes
and whisper in a voice soft and lonely

tell me are we free
tell me are we free

now in the sunlight I can see from your back
grow two mottled wings feathered evanescent black
that shudder and shake and seethe in the cold
my babe you're such a thing of beauty

so now we ride on the wind's ebbing curl
I sleep in the talons of my calico girl
she sings ballroom romp and old cabaret
to tempt my every taste and fancy

the milk of human kindness now mixes in
with the rich red liquor of deviance and sin
and oh how we drink it down cup after cup
cause your soul is always cheaper than whiskey

and now we've landed, press my ear to the ground
but gone far away is that dear heart sound
of the sweet sweet earth run so afoul
as her black hands wrap about me

i feel them run through me
i feel them run through me