The News From Whipsmart City

My neighbor’s standing naked in a window singing a children’s song
Licorice stick, licorice stick, gonna eat one pretty darn quick
Somebody get that man a robe and a couple of Xanax
Another dense day is off to a dense start in Whipsmart City

Last night flung me around my bed between sleep and wake
Oh my aching back and sides, oh my aching heart and mind
I wish I had a river of sleep to drown my aching heart and mind
But it’s too late for sleep to do me any good at all — I gotta go

to my day job describing massacre victims with a sweet vocabulary
with a hey nonny nonny and a robot chip
I almost said “massacred innocents” but then I had to laugh
because if I thought these stiffs were innocent I’d go insane

Two pills for breakfast two more for lunch and a fifth mid-afternoon
I get no kick from God or Country, get no kick from going along
After work a beer or a blood and Jager cocktail so I can drive home enraged
to beat the angel hanging in the corner cobweb till he screams

And then to bed which I’m fond of up to a point
Gabba gabba hey dead man gabba gabba flay
Thank God or Some Monster I stopped dreaming long ago
My neighbor took my dreams away which explains his children’s songs

and him standing naked in the window with them in his mouth
Sweet land of liberty of thee I loudly sing
I can’t get too excited about him being obscene or crazy in my place
when there are so many corpses to talk about here in Whipsmart City