1.
Sweat seeping from open pores,
tossing and turning
in indeterminable pain,
thinking about death,
the antithesis of life,
not to see another sunset,
not to drink another drink,
not to love another woman,
phlegm stuck in my throat
choking me with horror,
I defy death to take me away,
I want to live
even with all the shit
surrounding me.
2.
Haunted, spooked,
insanity looms,
the Blackbird is calling me
with an open beak full of worms,
slimy, disgusting…
I watch television
until the dawn’s rising,
bleak pictures
foretelling the future,
the Blackbird is calling me
with an open beak
full of McChicken
while commercials caress my wallet,
leaving me broke
and without writing paper.
3.
I stole some paper from a blind man
who looked the other way,
I’ve been vomiting in the sewer
since the break of day,
I lost my sanity to a beggar
who swore like a philosopher,
I talked to a Blackbird
who was a slave to the master,
I saw a leopard attack a dog
who was howling in pain,
I played poker with a penguin
who was a little insane,
I saw a flash of lightning
strike a grandma holding groceries,
I saw an ambulance
speed away from all emergencies,
I saw, I stole, I lost,
I sighed, I walked, I died.
4.
Foreign sirens screeched in dismay
as Satan cast his lot in a hotter place,
God sold his son to a bank for a loan,
unwittingly, he stands in jail
while a smelly old man sings the blues
and hip whites sing out of tune,
all around / there’s too much sound,
bleating and babbling,
we wave a new banner,
spitting in the sea, we lose the spittle,
surrounded by millions
who will die,
…like me.
5.
I want to live,
with the insanity, with the noise,
with the sadness, with the joy,
different emotions prodding me on
towards new knowledge,
technologically unbelievable,
one man can destroy us
with his madness,
and the Blackbird is calling me,
back to my roots,
back to my life,
back to responsibility,
with my back up against the wall,
observing, sensing,
searching for new obscurities,
previously unknown.
6.
The sweat stopped seeping
and I breathed
with the freedom of life,
I promise a new beginning,
to be continued,
for one more day.
1984