This life and world’s a seamless flame / firmament ablaze each day;
from summers long past, I set fires free / to guide lone farer’s way.
I beckon the Unknown to come / plunge towards its arms so frail;
across Hypnagogia’s sea / each dusk, I set blind sail.

Past shores of Wake, I touch Dream / her song not once the same;
her eyes are Love and Labyrinth / each answer spells her name.
I hide ‘neath night’s brooding wings / feathers sweep my cornerstone;
I trace her steps through silver mist / yet all the while, I walk alone.

Her cape is weaved of bluest blue / its folds so dark and deep;
stranger haven I have yet to reach / than her hallowed house of Sleep.
Seen there I have both beasts and bliss / come forth they do in lightless hours;
I have haunted pits in mind’s Abyss / on Slumber’s field picked crystal flowers.

But I hold court on figment thrones / come morn, my crown’s not real;
for the best of dreams is but a dream / not wish or terror – reverie.
In fleeting sips I drink the dark / ‘neath new sun it holds no sway;
but on that gate through which lies Dawn / one fateful night, I’ll step astray.

Ethan and Alice are inside my head
and they ain’t leaving.
Plus I think they do drugs. Lots of drugs.

Such people can I keep up there?
They won’t pay rent. I think that’s ’cause
all their money goes to drugs. Lots of drugs.

They play with the lights.
My head is the rabbit hole
and they keep on going.
My eyes are smoke and mirrors
and they keep on going.

Ethan and Alice might have a drug problem:
they might be running out of drugs.
Ethan and Alice live in a loop inside my head
and as we well know, loops have no end.

My head has limited space and the drugs might run out.
But the loop, as we well know, has no end.

Wash away
let the tides rise
till they drown out the ghost
let the waves guide and dictate
if you should reach a better shore

Place your faith
in hands of the undertow
and follow the forms
of the ocean floor

Wash away
drink from the fountain
till all that was is no more
till you forget the fairytales
wash it all away

Lay the weight of waters down
fulfilling
dreams and lungs

Oh dear god, yes. I remember California
and how a gun is held
the right way.

Yes. I remember skies lit with oil
and what colors not to wear
on the school grounds.

Yes. I remember traffic jams
spread across superhighways
and what life is like from 5 PM onwards.

Yes. I remember your necklace
pressed to my palm, you asking
if I’ll live to see twenty-five. (Well, maybe 25 to life.)

And yes. I remember what you said
and how I said nothing
– should’ve screamed “no” in every language –
when they came and took you away.

A fat man somewhere trips over a KFC bucket
the Earth’s rotational axis reverts itself
pornstars in the proud state of California
in the glorious state of coitus
the San Andreas Fault smiles and bides its time

This is the world, non-negotiable
a little girl in Africa gets her glasses from a charity project
life outshines death if only for a moment
and we congratulate ourselves by doing nothing

We’ve become what we’ve become:
a chakra tattoo in the backhand slap
that wakes the world
baseball bats held high towards a Baghdad sky
and you know there ain’t no game today

Yet aren’t we ever better? Ever more questions in the answer
the will to dive headlong into black water
to know what is there and who you are
who we are
insurgents in the undertow