Downtown/Noon

I am among you
the stray dog stayed too long
the pilot-fish depth charge
or maybe just an autistic tape recorder?
Moving with you
next to you
from place to place.
A half life ghost.
I see and hear you
and when I sit down
way down
in the empty part of my life
I take out the bits I stole from you
and hum until I hear tragic harmony.

We're propped up
dumb luck
grey suited grafters
cutting holes in pockets
to get what we're after...

Your words push through me
on their way to your life.
That nervous glance
in my direction
is enervated
by my formlessness
made shape in
the dead parts of you.

and we'll burn your blankets
and sell your sky
and we'll fill your radio up with lies...

You sleep
and wake to find me there again
and again.
Your face changes
Your sex changes
but it's always me
haunting the dimwitting edges
of your fraying existence.

And it's no surprise to me
that the only thing you see
are those happy smiling faces
waving their flags in the streets
It's their way of giving thanks
for the gasoline and banks
and the price to roll the tanks
keeps spinning round
and round
and round...

It wasn't always...
or, perhaps it was.
Does it matter at this point?
You have your job to do
and I have mine.
I can keep you moving down the line.
Breathe life into your bad example.
Be a wrong to your right
direction.

Isn't it nice to have more than your slice
when there's hardly enough to get by?
But if you feel down I'll run you out of town
on a rail in a blink of an eye...

Whatever you do
don't lock eyes with me
too long.
If you stare into the dark
it stares back into you.