“Money must roll,” she said Turning my last dollar into a cigarette The city turns dark, music gets loud Floating along, getting lost in the crowd Stand still, don’t move Close your eyes and feel the groove Breathe in, take a rest Feel the bass inside your chest “That’s our song,” he blared As if that was the only thing that we shared Blinding lights, the band goes live They jump and they shout and they feel alive Stand still, don’t move Close your eyes and feel the groove Breathe in, take a rest Feel the bass inside your chest Stand still, don’t move Close your eyes and feel the groove Take your time, find your beat Feel the ground beneath your feet Stand still, don’t move Close your eyes and feel the groove Breathe in, take a rest Feel the bass inside your chest Feel the bass inside your chest Feel the bass inside your chest Feel

From mum’s garden, picked a big one Drilled a hole to have some mel-fun Melon’s ready, trousers down Stick it in and go to town But in the middle of my fruity sin Door’s flung open, mum bursts in “Guess what, son? Bin Laden’s dead They stormed his camp, blew off his head” Her eyes look down, caught in the act Mum keels over from a heart attack Now mum’s dead just like Bin Laden Her ashes scattered in the melon garden So take a tip from my life, fella Keep it in your pants, not in a melon

On the seventeenth floor, I stare from my window A thousand orange tombstones stretch out in a line Ten million sleep as the taxis keep moving In what was a village ‘til 1949 Always awake if you know the right places Smiles and tears from behind cigarettes There’s boys from Jamaica and girls from Ukraine They all know your name, although you’ve never met It’s only a memory It’s only a dream It’s only a lesson that you never learn You’re able to visit but cannot return Some leave at two when their class is at twelve Some leave at six when they’re teaching at nine Street food for breakfast before the sun rises Bottles of water replacing rice wine Call it a bubble in more ways than one A thousand orange tombstones, they’re still building more They’ll never be filled but the city keeps growing And I watch it awake from the seventeenth floor It’s only a memory It’s only a dream It’s only a lesson that you cannot learn You’re able to visit but never return

Curving white, the yellowed teeth Hollowed eyes of gaping holes The cabinet holds many more But even now, a face I know This was a school before they came Now wrapping it, barbed wire Thousands passed these corridors Thousands left in fire Her love I felt that first second Born Siem Reap, ‘69 My mother washed me, held me tight I felt her hand close over mine At Tuol Sleng, doors are closing This time at least I say goodbye They gave no reason for her taking After forty years, still don’t know why

And I looked and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire infolding itself, and out of the midst came the likeness of four living creatures and every one had four faces and every one had four wings. Their appearance was like burning coals of fire and their work was as a wheel in the middle of a wheel. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them, and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke. And he said unto me, "Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee."

Standing at the dunes, I see the ship rise Wheels within wheels towards the sky The man by the river stares at me And into the future I let him see I am a thing you cannot understand I am to you as the beach is to sand I toppled walls and I split the sea And I wait under dunes until they remember me Just as a test I have caused you great pain Since the day I arrived in the first mother plane I set the boundaries of your right and wrong And down the centuries it goes on and on I am truly alive but I never die And like a scroll, I roll up the sky I swallowed Jonah when he fled to sea And I wait under dunes until they remember me You were the sheep and I held the rod I am not a prophet, I am a God At your end of days, I will be free But I wait under dunes until you remember me

My cat was killed in an ice cream hit and run Mr Whippy fled the scene when he saw what he had done My precious Bella turned into stracciatella Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow That’s the way it goes Meow meow That’s the way it goes Went with my shovel to scrape her off the ground Ice cream truck did a loop-the-loop and it came back around To the Mr Whippy melody, the cone atop it speared me Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow That’s the way it goes Meow meow That’s the way it goes Down in Hell, I heard no mewing or other feline sounds My precious Bella was nowhere to be found The Devil said, “Don’t be upset, Bella’s Heaven’s newest pet” Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow That’s the way it goes Meow meow That’s the way it goes Meow meow That’s the way it goes

The soldier said, “this church is mine” They’re making up for 1389 Says they forgot a thousand years of pain He’ll make them speak his tongue again This hill was mine in 12 BC I’ve brought a gun in case you disagree Snipers lurk where stones may fall To keep them in, they’ve built a wall Towards Rathmines, the ships set sail They’re reaching out beyond the Pale Plantations grow and that tongue wanes Sets the mould for Mumbai and Maine They all believe his one demand He says he’ll stop with the Sudetenland It’s more than tongue, the blood’s the proof But he used that blood to paint the roof First Crimea and then Dnipro He’s struggling with short man syndrome It’s all just power but he says it’s tongue Tell me if you’ve heard this one They say they’re strong, yet under threat Must redraw lines ‘til their needs are met You call them out, the protests come “But he’s my kin, he speaks my tongue”

When you look at me, I look at you If you feel shy, I feel it too We brush our hair, we stand at the sink When you look at me, what do you think? Your hopes, your fears, your silly gaffs Your dreams, desires, your inner laughs One plus one is double the fun Two plus two is four Reflecting you Reflecting me Don’t want to see It’s me There’s lots of thoughts I don’t want to know I don’t recognise if you’re a friend or a foe My head starts to swim, my nose to the glass Inhale, exhale, this too will pass Too loud, too small, too fat, too tall The beauty is, you can’t have it all Perfectly imperfect I am Imperfectly happy to be Reflecting you Reflecting me You can’t hide Take pride Reflecting you Reflecting me Stack of meat On feet Reflecting you Reflecting me Face of kin My twin

I saw him in the cathedral the day before we sailed A face of leaves and bark that hints at long-forgotten tales Something of the old world, something older than us all We don’t know why we scratch his face in every holy wall I’m told to expect rivers of red beneath the ground below But this face lies in wait for me inside a green inferno The Green Devil’s in the rafters, the Green Devil’s in the stone The Green Devil’s at the window of every church and home I turned my back to harbour and watched the sails unfurl I felt a dread inside me as we left for that new world The shores are still so distant, the night is still so long The ocean pulls us to a place in which we don’t belong I feel his gaze upon me as though he’s waiting on the beach I don’t know why we put ourselves within his hungry reach The Green Devil’s in the water, the Green Devil’s in the sky The Green Devil’s in the darkness beyond the naked eye It took less than a year before morale was broke They lost me in the woodlands as we fled from Roanoke I feel him in the shadows, I hear him in their cries I see him in the bushes from the corner of my eye The Green Devil’s in the rivers, the Green Devil’s in the mud The Green Devil’s in the lightning, the Green Devil’s in the floods The Green Devil’s in the forest, the Green Devil’s in the trees I am in the Green Devil’s home and he is watching me

“Oh, bury me not in the cold, deep sea” These words came low and mournfully From the dying lips of a youth who lay On his cabin bed at the close of day “I wish to lie where a mother’s prayer And a sister’s tear can mingle there Where friends can come and weep for me Oh, bury me not in the cold, deep sea” “Oh, bury me not…” and his voice fell there But we took no heed to his dying prayer In a liquid grave, despite his plea We buried him there in the cold, deep sea

The way to dusty death was lighted by the moon That swept across the well-kept windowsill The door creaked twice as I made my move And with a sigh he kept on dreaming still The candle by the bed had burnt down to a stub In a minute it would give its final light I stood and gazed on the blameless face Sleeps in this petty place from night to night The way to dusty death was lighted by the moon That swept across the well-kept windowsill I drew the blade and held my breath Out out, brief candle, and he lay still

When she sings Everything looks brighter Feels softer Sounds kinder When I play A rippling glissando Fingers fast then slow Her strings will glow And I play And I play And I play

When the lust was gone and my mind grew thin Dreamt of a face in a black limousine When the window rolled down, she made me a deal Only when I got home, the nightmare was real It grows in your body, this terrible seed It weans the addiction that you hate but you need You open the packet and you loosen your belt And you warm up the spoon ‘til the acorns can melt This is the path I have chosen for me I was born in a prison and each hit I am free Instead of spending a life as something I’m not It’s heating, it’s heating, it’s heating, it’s hot It sucks up the syringe in a fiery flight And if I turn blue it’ll turn out my light Tonight I shot myself up and the lights are green I shot myself up, I’ve shattered the screen I shot myself up and the lights turning blue I shot myself up, my young life is through Through the bliss and the pain, I’m aware of the shape Of a man in the corner, hunched up like an ape His body is fragile, his torso is bone And when he starts speaking, his voice a low moan Now he’s crawling towards me on his needle track limbs Because of my habit, I must look like him He’s close enough now that I can hear what he says And I see in his eyes that my actions dismay “Got some advice for you, son, looks like you need it ‘Cause you’ve started up doing some serious bullshit” And I know what he’ll say Hang on ‘til the day You shot yourself up on the edge of a knife You shot yourself up, but don’t give up life This creature has come here to sort my life out He’s leaning in close and he’s starting to shout “What the hell are you doing, man? This is all wrong Shut down the laptop and stop writing this song You ain’t ever suffered, in your whole life you won’t Think you know how it feels but it’s clear that you don’t You’ll never do smack and you’ll never know fear Worst day of your life was when you got diarrhoea Saddest moment of yours was the end of Titanic Walking home after midnight puts you into a panic Gave five cents to the homeless and your poor heart tugged At the guilt you would feel if they spent it on drugs While they’re freezing outside, lost, hungry and sick You’re browsing the web and you’re measuring your dick Yet you even believe you’re a common man’s poet Your ego’s enormous, even astronauts know it Kids will go hungry, mum chose smack over dinner You stare in the mirror and desire to be thinner Dad’s not around, he OD’d in his twenties And for most of your life you’ve been surrounded by plenty Forget about the poem, give it up, man Don’t speak for them ‘cause you don’t understand” I turned off the laptop, I’d finished the song I closed the thesaurus, the man must be wrong I warmed up some cocoa, though it’s all in my head I am a true artist, now I’m going to bed