Bugs & Flowers - Jeffrey Lewis

Out in the forest

Out past the stone wall

Built by old farmers

Or older guys

I saw a railway

With tracks all rusted

Wild flowers blooming

Up through the tides

I set out walking

Just cross-tie walking

Out on the cross-ties

Where I could step

Sometimes I missed one

Sometimes there was none

Sometimes the flowers

Had eaten it

The sun was burning

The flies were churning

The trees were turning

Inside the sky

The tracks were rotten

Some trash forgotten

Sometimes a bottle with ash inside

I’ve been a walker

A sidewalk talker

Out on the sidewalks

Where I could stay

Someday my body

Will look real shoddy

Wherever flowers have eaten it

Voracious flowers

Voracious hours

Voracious people

Voracious slime

Words like voracious

Just sound like nonsense

After you say them about five times

These flowers blooming

They are not human

These flies and insects

Are really weird

Their backs are shiny

Their souls are tiny

And by the zillions

They’ve disappeared

So if there’s life after

It’s packed with insects

It’s filled with flowers

No room for us

When they kick the bucket

They just say chuck it

They come and go like

Infinite dust

The human race’s

Beautiful faces

Changing places

Reform and bust

When we kick the bucket

Let’s just say chuck it

We’ll come and go like

Infinite dust