Death and Insanity--A Brief Oration on Two Stages of Life in Three Movements Including: "15 Terrifying Tales of Murderous Marauding, Demonic Debauchery, and Grisly Death Inside the Mythical City of the Study, Obsession, and Survey of Massacre and Carnage Within the Miscreant Psyche" Followed by "Cranial Hand Job" and "Scrambled Eggs"

Death and Insanity--A Brief Oration on Two Stages of Life in Three Movements Including: "15 Terrifying Tales of Murderous Marauding, Demonic Debauchery, and Grisly Death Inside the Mythical City of the Study, Obsession, and Survey of Massacre and Carnage Within the Miscreant Psyche" Followed by "Cranial Hand Job" and "Scrambled Eggs"

Hey, Ma, look! That body's got no head.
It's over there in the corner. It's covered in red.
Carve a new tombstone.

Hey, Ma, look! A car crashed in the ditch.
There's someone moving inside. Do you think it's a witch?
Burn all the bitches.

Hey, Ma, look! That guy just got shot.
I can see through his chest. He don't look so hot.
People ain't bulletproof.

Hey, Timmy, look! That chick got hit by the train.
Over there's her unborn kid. On the tracks is her brain.
Dig two more graves.

Hey, Timmy, look! Bones are sticking out of that guy's flesh.
The blood is still dripping. It's gotta be fresh.
Notify the next of kin.

Hey, Timmy, look! There's intestines on the ground.
But the guy's still up. He's still running around.
He won't last much longer.

Hey, Tim, look! There's maggots feasting on that person's face.
They seem to enjoy it. Is a decaying body a cozy place?
Better get the dental records.

Hey, Tim, look! That chick's in the lake floating face down.
She's got nothing on. Wearing only a frown.
Ever see a naked woman before?

Hey, Tim, look! That guy's falling from the building.
The hardhat won't help. It'll be a hell of a landing.
He's gonna end up a little bit shorter.

Hey, Honey, look! That guy cut his leg off with a chainsaw.
It's lying in the sawdust. It looks awful raw.
I wonder how he did that.

Hey, Honey, look! Those two got knives in their hearts.
They don't look too bad. They still got their other parts.
The love triangle has been put to rest.

Hey, Honey, look! There's a guy squirming on the floor.
He's got rebar piercing his thorax. Can he take anymore?
Time of death is 11:43.

Hey, Son, look! Blood's gurgling from that chick's throat.
What do you think happened? Overzealous garrote?
Probably a butcher knife.

Hey, Son, look! That man's bleeding from the eyes.
It's some kind of disease. Much worse than the hives.
It's contagious, don't get too close.

Hey, Son, look! There's been an explosion in space.
The one guy left can't do a thing. And check out his face.
This ain't exactly his finest hour.

Hey, Somebody, look! An evil woman's got Her filthy hands inside my cranium.
She climbs up and crawls right in.
She's digging around searching for something that She likes.
She finds it and takes it.
She rips it out without even asking.
She assures me that together, we are as one.
And She takes off on Her flaming-winged Eagle,
Leaving me to mumble insanely to myself,
With myself,
And by myself.

There's a little place,
A place called space.
And there's a band that plays there.
And the name of that band is Floyd, Floyd, Floyd, Floyd.
Red Floyd, Green Floyd, Brown Floyd.
Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd.
Set the controls.
Oberon, Miranda, and Titania,
Alpha, beta, omicron.
Do the Batusi.
Not the Watusi.
Yeah, do the Batusi,
Hokey Pokey,
Jitterbug,
Bump and Grind.
Twist to the left, twist to the right.
Twist to the left, twist to the left.
Now Swing your partner.

Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles.
White shining silver heads.
With their wings in flames
And eyes in ice.
Sleep with Satan
And drink with God.
Suck off Lucifer's fire dick.
You're his right hand man.
Yeah, go Speed Racer!
Go, Speed Racer, go!
Get Jesus drunk.
Watch the angels cry.
Uh-huh!
Oberon!
Don't touch me!
Do you find it necessary?
Is it really needed?
If you know where to find them...
No purchase necessary!
Void where EVIL!
0
93
27
66
Meep, Meep!
69
666
1492
1776
1948
Two-thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand,
Million, billion, trillion.
Owls swoop, bats fly.
Stampede of a hundred drunk elephants.
Vultures, sharks, sharks, vultures
Rise from the acrid smoke
To peck out the psychotic eyes.
Poison slaves
Feast with the naked dead.
Slay the earth.
Everywhere is war.
War!
WAR!

Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles,
With talons of scalpels
And tales of the undead.
Bees and bestiality.
Go Speed Racer!
Sabbath.
Bodies burning in red ashes.
Flames hungrily licking at the boiling eyes.
Is Satan a good fuck?
Seventy-two.
Omicron blood.
Plus, minus.
Dark, light.
Red, green, and yellow.
Monkeys scream with delight.
Houston.
A problem?
War!
Ring, ring.
Message for you, Sir!
Jerry, are you out there?
Space case place race.
Let the knife dip in,
Dip deep into the breast.
Nipple!
Rip out chunks of brain
And let it rain.
We are as one.
T minus 10.
Our lives are closing.
T minus tea minus teat minus 9.
Die Toten kommen.
Masturbate.
T minus 8 masturbate the penis and vagina.
Go Speed Racer!
7, 7!
Quod illud est, id non sum ego!
6!
Remember a day.
5!

Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles!
4!
Flying, flying, soaring.
3!
Hello, Mr. Crowley?
Bump and Grind.
Twist to the left.
Bump and Twist
Left, Right, Up, Down
In the place called space.
2!
Jesus Christ's drunken stupor!
1!
WAR!

Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles,
With legs of death
And beaks of golden brass
And Brown Floyd feathers.
Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles!
Gather to watch.
Lonely man has none.
Dust.
Go, Speed Racer, Go!

EAGLES! EAGLES! EAGLES! EAGLES!

zero

Originally written:    September 26-27, 1998
Put online:    March 11, 2001
Discussion:    There's a little bit of everything in this poem. One of my earlier works (and still the one with the longest title), I wrote it after seeing an episode of "Millennium." In that episode, there was a Patti Smith song playing while one of the characters basically went nuts. The third part of this poem is structured from that--the brief moments of twisted lucidity interspersed among the rapid fire remote control-like insanity. Some of it is stream of consciousness, some of it is from pop culture (Pink Floyd quotes, Black Sabbath quotes, Speed Racer, the Moody Blues, Kansas, the Road Runner cartoon, etc.), and some of it is from the Patti Smith song. With the insanity part written, I needed a reason for it, an introduction, a highly regular form to precede it. Enter the first stage. It is a look at a man's life, from childhood ("Hey, Ma, look!") to parenthood ("Hey, Son, look!"--which in my mind continues the cycle), and all the death that he has seen in his day-to-day existence. He finally snaps ("An evil woman's got Her filthy hands inside my cranium."); all of the death he has seen finally caused him to go crazy, which is, again, what I tried to portray in the third part of the poem. His mind is a jumble as he recalls things that he has heard or seen, bits of high school life, etc.--none of it relevant to anything in particular. This is one work that continues to haunt me and change. This is more or less the original work, but more than two years after writing it, I am still tinkering with it. This poem was also published in UWGB's "Sheepshead Revue," albeit in a different form. For the latest version of the poem, go here. A link for a complete discussion of the third part of the poem can be found there as well.

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