Pools Of Mercury - Jim Carroll

Sirens begin, the red light spins

Hungry go the thieves

Betty’s in the sandbox trying to detox

She always wears long sleeves

Desdemona in a red kimona can’t get off the bench

Her bolts are fused, her limbs can’t move

Someone better find a wrench

Got no past, they can’t last

Future’s like a curse

What’s best for them is always bought

At the price of something worse

Wren’s heart of ashes, the glue-on lashes

Her baby’s in a brillo box

She’s on one knee with key after key

Trying to find the right lock

By the pulp of her fears

And the shape of her tears

You can tell tomorrow’s weather

She bends her skin in the shape of her sins

To keep herself together

Got no past, they can’t last

The future’s like a hearse

What’s best for them is always bought

At the price of something worse

Got no past, I can’t last

The future’s like a curse

I’m swimming in pools of mercury

Making sense of the end of the century

They want to -- outside

They want to -- outside

They want to scream outside

They want to search outside

They want to lose outside

They want to beg outside

They want to have sex outside

They want to -- outside

They want to pray outside

They want to buy outside

They want to dream outside

They want to pine outside

They want to -- outside

They want to sleep

They only want to be alone outside

Carl’s been burned

Better return him back to central casting

Jen grows weaker her soul sneakers

Are useless without laces

So she rides the snake till she grows wings

And flies to better places

Got no past, they can’t last

The future’s like a hearse

What’s best for them is always bought

At the price of something worse

Got no past, I can’t last

The future’s like a curse

I’m swimming in pools of mercury

Making sense of the end of the century

It’s dawn, their faces worn

Rain like a female feathers

I’m swimming in pools of mercury

Making sense of the end of the century

Got no past, they can’t last

The future’s like a hearse

What’s best for them is always bought

At the price of something worse