The celebration of the lizard

 

Lions in the street and roaming

Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming

A beast caged in the heart of a city

The body of his mother

Rotting in the summer ground

He fled the town 172 >>

He went down South and crossed the border

Left the chaos and disorder

Back there over his shoulder

One morning he awoke in a green hotel

With a strange creature groaning beside him

Sweat oozed from its shiny skin 173 >>

Is everybody in?

The ceremony is about to begin

Wake up!

You can’t remember where it was

Had this dream stopped? 174 >>

The snake was pale gold

Glazed and shrunken

We were afraid to touch it 175 >>

The sheets were hot dead prisons

And she was beside me

Old she is not… young

Her dark red hair

The white soft skin 176 >>

Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom

Look!

She is coming in here

I can’t live thru each slow century of her moving I let my cheek slide down

The cool smooth tile

Feel the good cold stinging blood

The smooth hissing snakes of rain 177 >>

Once I had a little game I liked to crawl back into my brain

I think you know the game I mean

I mean the game called “go insane” 178 >>

Now you should try this little game

Just close your eyes, forget your name

Forget the world, forget the people

And we’ll erect a different steeple 179 >>

This little game is fun to do

Just close your eyes, no way to lose

And I’m right here, I’m going too

Release control, we’re breaking through 180 >>

Way back deep into the brain

Way back past around my pain

Back where there’s never any rain

And the rain falls gently on the town 181 >> And on the heads of all of us

And in the labyrinth of streams beneath

The quiet unearthly presence

Of nervous hill dwellers

In the gentle hills around

Reptiles abounding

Fossils, caves, cool air heights 182 >>

Each house repeats a mold

Windows rolled

A beast car locked in against the morning

All now sleeping

Rugs silent, mirrors vacant

Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples

Wound in sheets

And daughters

Smug with semen

Eyes in their nipples 183 >>

Wait!

There’s been a slaughter here

Don’t stop to speak or look around

Your gloves and fan are on the ground We’re getting out of town

We’re going on the run

And you’re the one I want to come 184 >>

Not to touch the earth (1)

Not to see the sun

Nothing left to do but

Run, run, run

Let’s run, let’s run

House upon the hill

Moon is lying still

Shadows of the trees

Witnessing the wild breeze

C’mon baby run with me

Let’s run

Run with me

Run with me

Run with me

Let’s run 185 >>

The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill

Rich are the rooms and the comforts there

Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs

And you won’t know a thing till you get inside 186 >>

Dead president’s corpse in the driver’s car

The engine runs on glue an tar

C’mon along, we’re not going very far

To the East to meet the Czar 187 >>

Run with me

Run with me

Run with me

Let’s run

Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake

The minister’s daughter’s in love with the snake Who lives in a well by the side of the road

Wake up girl! we’re almost home 188 >>

Sun, sun, sun

Burn, burn, burn,

Moon, moon, moon

I will get you

Soon!

Soon!

Soon!

I am the Lizard King

I can do anything (2) 189 >>

We came down

The rivers and highways

We came down from

Forests and falls

We came down from

Carson and Springfield

We came down from

Phoenix enthralled

And I can tell you 190 >>

The names of the Kingdom

I can tell you

The things that you know

Listening for a fistful of silence

Climbing valleys into the shade 191 >>

For seven years I dwelt

In the loose palace of exile

Playing strange games

With the girls of the island 192 >>

Now I have come again

To the land of the fair and the strong and the wise Brothers and sisters of the pale forest

O children of Night

Who among you will run whit the hunt? 193 >>

Now Night arrives with her purple legion

Retire now to your tents and to your dreams

Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth

I want to be ready 194 >>