Desert Town - Jim Carroll

I hitched a ride to a desert town

(I never planned this trip)

I saw my past in the sun like a tongue

(that slowly dripped)

People faced me with Lazarus eyes

They were red and dazed like fat horse flies

I was lost in twelve directions

I was searching for my own reflection

In a desert town I found

A future old and broke like Roman ruins

I been turned around it’s true

The postage past is due

This heat is twisted like a knife

I got the picture but I lost the frame

(Where did it begin)

Thought I was holy but that’s not the case

I’m just too tired to sin

Sun glistening like a frightened fist

This latitude doesn’t exist

In a desert town I found

Nothing is going to be the way it should

What I thought I lost I could get back

Take the blade and hack my way back to another day

Instant that, instant this, instant that, instant this.

.

In a desert town I found

A future old and broke like Roman ruins

I been turned around it’s true

The postage past is due

This heat is twisting like a knife

In a desert town the sound

Whispers like like the women at the well

In this dry high wind I bend

Like a cactus in the sand

I’m waiting, waiting for your hand