photography--Joseph Rodriguez; collage--phantomheart

Heat lightening
silent flashes on a distant horizon
where smouldering clouds ferment
all sane intention
and the wine of misbegotten realizations
drips from a magenta sky
washing threads of truth into gutters
where the skeletal remains of sanity
dances with teenaged whores
and toothless grandmothers
deal dysfunction into
neatly stacked little piles of pain.

Down on Railroad Street,
the whole world burns
and the lives of lost children
bubble in the spoon
alongside the dry bones of dreams
of a better day.
Poverty lays like dust in hollow eyes
that see no sun
and swells the bellies of babies
whose cries go unheard
amid the din of damnation.

Lay some smack down, lay some smack down,
lay some smack down on you,...
and the lullabye of Railroad Street
plays on in endless swirling madness
splintering into notes of dead tomorrows
that fall mute upon strident ears
that will not hear...........

phantom...(c) wla, 7-23-2000