Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree
Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless…
…Down to a sunless sea

I hold the image of the moment given - broken visions
Watching smoking women blowing kisses with the smoke they're spinning
The solemn tone is vivid, lost inside my own condition
Reading poems I've written even though I know that - no one listens…
This motion sickness, moves the masses like a mastodon
That passes on the master's song through the ashes of a vagabond
I drink a glass of calm, and glance across the table
At a man hand who has hand on his drink - scratching off the label
Old gypsy walks in the door holding a bouquet of dying roses
Most people pay no mind and don't take the time to notice
I feel like saying something along the lines of life is hopeless
But I'm too busy buying shots and overdosing on Ibuprophin
I was hoping she'd move straight toward the sad lovers
Or try to hustle the business man reading adbusters
But she came right to me, and said I have something, that I bet you'd like to see
I said please, I've had a long night and to top it off I'm single
I don't need a flower plus I don't have any money I can give you, S
He looked back without a word and plucked a rose from the stack
Placed it in my hand and left before I saw the note attached
The rose was black, the pedals frail and weak
The shade strange as it was both pale and deep
Out to the vacant street
My home for three long nights
To tear the letter open to read beneath the neon lights…

(scratching)

The center won't hold, inside this empty dream
This endless stream of consciousness that's constant on this benzedrine
Amphetamines… pumping pressure pounding through the blood
In a heart grown cold from never housing human touch
Cut, to the street confused and unattached
So far out I knew there wasn't any coming back
The poem provoked a sudden flash, you can call it an epiphany
That put my life in check and let me find my place in history
Consider me, a fly buzzin on the fly paper
"You can snuff me out now or let me die later,"
Eyes dilated, with feelings way beyond the flesh
Until my train of thought was broken from its place of calm and rest
On my left, an old man with a tattoo of Jesus on his chest
Flinching as pretentious prophets scream to him that "God is Dead"!
He looks to me I nod my head, then slide inside the nothingness
To feel that druggish drip that always lies inside my sunken ribs
I need another hit at 5 am, With eyes as wide as giant skies when time won't end
I left the streets then, gliding moving calm
On a trip to Xanadu to talk with Kubla Khan…

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree
Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless…
…Down to a sunless sea