Be Safe - The Cribs, Lee Ranaldo

One of those fucking awful black days

When nothing is pleasing and everything that happens

Is an excuse for anger

An outlet for emotions stockpiled

An arsenal.

An armour

These are the days when I hate the world

Hate the rich, hate the happy

Hate the complacent — the TV watchers

The beer drinkers, the satisfied ones

Because I know I can be all of those little hateful things

And then I hate myself for realizing that

There is no preventative directive or safe approach to living

We each know our own fate

We know from our youth how we are treated

How we’ll be received, how we shall end

These things don’t change

You can change your clothes

Change your hairstyle, your friends, cities, continents

But sooner or later your own self will always catch up

Always it waits in the wings

(Ideas swirl but don’t stick

They appear but then run off like rain on the windshield)

One of those rainy day car rides, my head imploding

The atmosphere in this car a mirror of my skull

Wet, damp, windows dripping and misted with cold

Walls of grey.

Nothing good on the radio, not a thought in my head

I know a place we can go where you’ll fall in love so hard that

You’ll wish you were dead

Let’s take life and slow it down incredibly slow

Frame by frame

The two minutes that take ten years to live out

Yeah, let’s do that

«Telephone poles like praying mantis against the sky

Metal arms outstretched»

So much land travelled, so little sense made of it

It doesn’t mean a thing, all this land laid out behind us

I’d like to take off into these woods and get good and lost for a while

I’m disgusted with petty concerns

Parking tickets, breakfast specials

Does someone just have to carry this weight?

Abstract topography

Methane covenant

Linear gospel

Asheville sales lady

Stygian emissary

Torturous lice

Mad Elizabeth

Chemotherapy bullshit

I know a place we can go where you’ll fall in love so hard that

You’ll wish you were dead

The light within me shines like a diamond mine

Like an unarmed walrus

Like a dead man face down on a highway

Like a snake eating its own tail

A steam turbine, frog pond

Too-full closets burst open in disarray

Soap bubbles in the sun

Hospital death bed, red convertible, shopping list, blowjob

Deaths head, devils dancing, bleached white buildings, memory movements

The movie unpeeling, unreeling, about to begin

I know a place we can go where you’ll fall in love so hard that

You’ll wish you were dead

I see yr hallway, you are a dark hallway

I’ve hear your stairs creak

I can fix my mind on your 'yes' and your 'no'

I’ll film your face today in the sparkling canals

All red yellow blue green brilliance and silvered Dutch reflections

Racing thoughts — racing thoughts, all too real

Your moving so fast now, I can’t hold your image

This image I have of your face by the window

Me standing beside you, arm on your shoulder

A catalogue of images, flashing glimpses, then gone again

I am tethered to this post you’ve sunk in me

And every clear afternoon now I’ll think of you: up in the air

Twisting your heel, your knees up around me, my face in your hair

You scream so well, your smile so loud still rings in my ears

I know a place we can go where you’ll fall in love so hard that

You’ll wish you were dead

Inefficient distant tide of longing

Cleaning my teeth

Stay the course

Hold the wheel

Steer on to freedom

Open ALL the boxes

OPEN ALL the boxes

OPEN ALL THE BOXES

Times Square, midday, newspaper building, news headlines going around

We watch as they go (and hope for some good ones!)

Those tree-shadows in the park here, all whispering, shaking leaves

Around 6pm

Shadows across the cobblestones

Girl in front of bathroom mirror

She slow and careful paints her face green, mask-like

Like Matisse, «Portrait with Green Stripe»

Long shot through apartment window

A monologue on top but no girl in shot

The light within me shines like a diamond mine

Like an unarmed walrus, like a dead man face down on a highway

Like a snake eating it’s own tail

A steam turbine, frog pond

Too-full closet burst open in disarray, soap bubbles in the sun

Hospital death bed, red convertible, shopping list, blowjob

Deaths head, devils dancing, bleached white buildings, memory movements

The movie unpeeling, unreeling, about to begin

That was great by me

Yeah?

Mine were alright.

Wasn’t my best one but who cares?

That’s the spirit