Confusion Boats

My bed was floating in the ocean,
Swarming jellyfish pulled us over the surface.
The sun, the sun was crying diamonds
For every broken masthead and scotch-taped sail
That passed us by.
We hung on, we hung on two orphan monkeys,
All we said and all we did left me feeling
Like a little kid.

Confuse, confuse, confusion boats bumping
Against, against slowly bleeding wanting eels.
If you dream of dolphins,
Of tattooed fish in milky seas,
If you dream of levitating
There is a word you should be saying to me.

Speed Lab

Speed lab,
on the edge of
an artichoke farm,
we worked through harm
tweaked and well-paid,
we forgave
what the chemicals did
to our hands, lungs and face,
clearly marking our fall from grace.

Speed lab,
sun sang through eucalyptus,
we sang along!
Angela,
I met her there,
sweating out the San Francisco run
every hotel on the five
was our very own pleasure dive.

Speed lab
givith and taketh away,
the love, tender loving, money, money spending
was before the fire, the DEA.
Those who survived the fire fled alone,
I know that God hates alchemical work,
I loved him lonely, but in the end
what else to do but begin again…
Speed lab

Bill Gates Must Die

teeny, tiny little teens
keep pouring out of my machine
I just typed a word,
I just pressed return,
someone made this easy,
someone made this inevitable,

so for bringing me here:
bill gates must die

people stray, people stray
just don’t say I’ll never make it back, intact

teeny, tiny little teens
keep pouring out of my machine
backdoors, passwords galore
only the hackers, only the feds know
teeny, tiny little teens
keep pouring out of my screen

so for bringing me here:
bill gates must die

people stray, people stray
just don’t say I’ll never make it back, intact

Ambition

forget about suzanne
she’s with another man
don’t worry about your boy,
he’s got a computer

forget about the role,
it went to some other bloke,
so what you’ll never meet
sharon stone

you need to lose
you need to lose
ambition

open up your mouth
we’ll watch the dropper empty out
I made it myself
I call it sexy sadie
The world was waiting just for you

walk down the street
where pine and heather meet
and fluttering of birds
are stronger than words

you need to lose
you need to lose
ambition

Gruesome Details

leave the tv on,
and tell me again
why you left your dad in portland
without a word
is it what I expect?
I won’t even guess

everybody’s got screwed up stories
everybody’s got gruesome details
but you’ll never get mine
cuz it’s not that bad
it could never justify my life

I used to feel
I was improving my position
acting as my own physician
really getting better all the time

Josie Anderson

josie anderson
joy, pain, incomprehension, same,
whenever I say your name

josie anderson
you are: steamboat hips, gunpowder lips,
blue bonfires on the shore

Big Band Stars

we set out in tennis shoes,
ski jackets, and driving gloves
we crossed lonely fields of snow,
in early evening the sky heather glowed
in a frozen, dilunar marsh,
we stumbled on wbbr

a substation radio tower
broadcasting big band stars

we climbed past call letter badge
past the red pulsing lights, aerial lights
to the transmitter I barely attached,
as it thundercracked like a breaking mast.

I looked out over the town
how I wish I had a whale to hunt down
I looked out over the sea,
how I wish someone was waiting to bury me

turn on your tractor beam
set your site for heavenly seams
I‘ve started to believe
on concrete we scattered our seeds

What Did You Do Today?

and what did you do today?
I’d really love to know
I’d so love to know
if the hours left you alone

tell you what I saw today,
I watched a caterpillar
and ochre caterpillar
crawl over my desk

I put him outside
outside my room
because everyone needs a nest

and what did you do today?
if you write me a letter
single-spaced is better

Foothills Of My Mind

fear,
is there any other way
to give yourself away?
my beaches have been stripped
for your apocalyptic blitz.

why are you flying out of range?
I’m in the foothills of my mind,
setting fires and shooting flares,
lost looking for your aircraft.

all those wasted afternoons
since you occupied my room,
I’m tired, I’m awake,
I don’t want to be a sovereign state.

watching the last lights fade
the stars come into place.
everything’d be okay
if I could just take my place
in the milky way.

the scent of your sweat remains,
so do my bloodstains.
can love still make you cry
or are you more war torn than I am?

why are you flying out of range?
I’m in the foothills of my mind,
setting fires and shooting flares,
lost looking for your aircraft.

watching the last lights fade
the stars come into place.
everything’d be okay
if I could just take my place
in the milky way.