Mr. Jingo's Smile

On a golden pool at sunset
On a movie-splendor ride
With a peanut-vender sidekick
The world just comes alive.
Would you throw away your freedom
For a shell of molten lead
Tearing through the atmosphere?
Or maybe through your head.
You know where that will leave you
Six feet underground
And it isn't overly pleasant
When you cannot make a sound

(quiet breathing)

He will come and take you
Take you very far away
Silence he will teach you
Silent you will stay
Eyes that notice everything
Lips that speak no wrong
Tell me are you terrified
Over where your life has gone?
Are you gutteral with fear
Are you quaking with remorse?
I tell you its too late for that
To late to take your horse (and run)

(footsteps in the night)

Eavesdrops dripping from the eaves
Leaves drop spinning from the trees
Are those your nightmare fantasies
Of what he's hiding up his sleeves?

(scream echoing down a corridor)

The air is beautiful tonight
The sky so full of colour
Dripping from the skylight
Down to our earthly palor.
We are of the heavans sailors
Or so we used to think
Before the realities of trailer
Park-life drove us to the drink.
And we saw diamonds night
And shadows in the day
Stalking close behind us
Waiting till we strayed

(sharp intake of breath)

Running gets you nowhere safe
Breaks squealing, earth spinning
You plunge down into the lake
You must have been dreaming
There can be no escape
One minute your atop your throne
The next you've lost all they can take
And you're wandering alone
Then he jumps you in the alley
And face-plant's you in the mud
As the shadows swarm around you
All calling for your blood

(sobs fading to silence)

Runnaway
Runnaway and forget
All that you never left
Behind you as you
Made your way through
The trodden paths
Of everyone
They led you there
And now your coming home
You're coming home.

(wind whistling gently through a bramble thicket)