Desire Lines - Crazy Arm

Up at the windows

Of unseen wards

Traffic control behind

Mind control ahead

Some people take my breath away

Some people leave me cold

Neon lights go on

We’re all cruising along

The belts and the buckles, the scars on our knuckles

The tears and the battles that strengthen our shackles

The friends and the traitors, the solemn tailgaters

The tired fell-runners who train through the summer

You hit and you hope

Along desire lines

You hit and you hope

This is your last chance

The sea-bed monsters who wander amongst us

The anxious note-writers, night-frighters, nail-biters

If they lay down more speed ramps we’ll take to the seas

If they put up more barbed wire we’ll just learn to fly

If they cut down more trees we’ll go underground

If they snuff out more lives, oh Lord, I don’t know where to run

The terrain is looking rough

And littered with trash

While you’re upstairs sleeping it off

She’s being turned over by a long-distance lover

The cotton-eyed snipers, the jail-bait juicers

The princes of thieves and the nurses of bruises

The warts on our fingers, the throats of our singers

The mystery jets and the truth that they bring us

The smiles of the cynics, the self-absorbed mimics

The rest of the people who don’t know their limits

The boots and the laces, the hooks in our faces

The best of the fighters, the worst of the useless