Wings Cost Extra - Jam Baxter

I’ve been staring off this roof for as long as I can remember

In an unspent hour I buried in late December

Where the icy winds tug and unravel your raison d'être

And the scene beyond swells in its dirty decadent splendour

A mere blemish in a scene seldom relished

Dogs howl and withering addicts hang at the chemist

I shrugged off the lingering grip of the psychedelics

And grabbed one by his neck

To examine his drab aesthetics

His skin hung like patchwork hammocks from his limbs

Gaping mouth like an ink stain splattered on his chin

The sweat cascaded from his palms

With a stance reminiscent of a circus bear balanced on a pin

I travelled on a whim aboard the final train to central

To where the world’s weirdest freaks and invalids assemble

The torrential rain flooded our minds with squirming invertebrates

That dictate our movements through pockets of heavy turbulence

Pigs prod at a child, losers become cheaters

Strange wild beasts eat buckets of lesser creatures

All the dealers either shrunk to single cell amoebas, burnt their

Features off, robbed their connections or found Jesus

Disembodied heads in dusty corners

Headless bodies inject liquor directly into their organs

The never ending crux of a very strange performance

The beauty’s in the gutters

This entire world is flawless

Scramble for a seat at the centre, fangs on discount, wings cost extra

Still freefalling on a seven day bender, leap from the cliff tops,

wings cost extra

Still in awe of it all, tear a hole in the head, cram it full of debris

Bag of souls to injest

Primal spasm for one, peel an inch from the brain

Whisk the earth to a pulp, sit and drink the remains

Air heavy with sin, name written in lights

Wouldn’t swap it for shit, eyes teaming with life

Keep hold of your face, days mimic a dream

Still chewing the sky, reboot the machine

The smell of crack wafts from the brothel beside the chicken shop

Above a sewer teeming with giant beetles and killer wasps

Opposite the corner where kids gorge on forbidden slop

And when their stomachs burst, wipe their innards off

And go about your business

Blind eyes in a barrel, a tycoon launches grenades at a herd of cattle

Slimy little boutiques buried beneath the gravel sell portable weapons

For the killer that likes to travel

The modern mammal, a delicate balance of blood and flesh

I spat the phlegm from my mouth and swung a left

Past a crowd of braying patriots dying a dozen deaths

And a crazed woman drilling a hole in her lover’s chest

I saw them all smeared across my vision

You were always taught to fear the competition

The gin took a hold of the scene and pulled it apart

Revealing manic pigs slithering adders and rabid gibbons

All tearing through the hours

Fiends feed addictions

Inpatients rattle off an endless list of symptoms

The earth yawns and wipes a city from existence

In a mouthful of crumbling buildings and little infants

I leaned forward and ordered another double

And tunnelled out of my mind through a forest of fat and muscle

Fucked on every such substance you could fit atop a shovel

I text my bredrin and tell her I’ve been staying out of trouble

Yeah right

Shuffle off the edge