For polished chrome bats and sultry Canada
1
The chemicals on TV are as good
As the sauce
The phosphorescence and the little pills
They advertise
With the war commercials and blue jeans
Rules speaking to other rules
Speaking to codes
I can somewhat relate
I see smoke and cinder
I see Barney Rubble
The virtues are all twisted
I think I have suffered inside
Despite the barca-lounger
And the open can of diet coke
My brain is hurt
I need a new prescription
When I hear about the orange
And blue pills
My toe starts to shake
And I move my lamp
The termites jump in the foundation
I see a man on TV eat a scorpion
2
I see you clad in a red dress
And I think that the fake trees of
Bermuda are flowering
Maybe they are
Maybe so, maybe kings are sometimes
Knighted in the churchyard
Maybe that’s the way
A bunch of your friends
You go out in your black gown
And the minister sings
Out with your back pain
But for me, no, not really
I need more armor
Need to be more armed
I think of your protection
And it’s something I need
Like a word
Like a splash or baptism or branch or OK
*
The postcards are on the edge
Of the freeway
I know what this means
I have to pick them up
In my previous dream they were
Pills or prostitutes
But I get hung up on beginnings equally
As endings
I need them
One by one I call them
Juggernaut, I call them head-in-space
(This is what I would say to you
If I had you)
I’m not so sure that I’m convalescing
But maybe
I’ll wear a white robe
I’ll wear a white robe
And try it
3
Therapists are looking in keyholes
Looking for more notes
Looking to put more rain
On the cerebrum
Looking at us more and more
They know that things are always
Wet in the basin
And always too slick/shiny
We have an adult razor
And an immense bar of soap
Grocery list with supplies
And this porno/doggy
They want us to be really really real
Etc
To me this translates as dry oats
As endless heartache
As tooth sickness
They admonish us
To drop out the details
To assassinate
It’s like they were teaching us
The secret ceremony
The private handshake
And I don’t know it
I don’t know if I want to know it
I was out on the ice
I was put there
With my beer cans and my litter
My TV and my radio
My empty refrigerator
I found a broken party telephone
I was so happy to call you