Crocodiles

I had a cat tails slink for turn tables / home brew jamming with you the dope pro on the dobro and a nose hankering for hashish stew ya know / just kicking the shit like we know how to do
but then
I walked in the door
and to my chameleon chagrin stood shoulders turned in a single eye protruded mouth cracked and drooling for where I had before seen beer bottles paint markers and strewn clothing reminiscent of parties gone by and clairvoyant of art to come I now found only desolation / you at the counter with flour on your hands and pasta sauce on your feet from when the jar shattered on the floor as you turned startled by my entrance that slit the sucking silence I felt a breeze of depression rushing over my skin as I said ola and removed my shoes trying vainly not to notice that though it wasn't that bad the house seemed filthier than it ever had before / the same wine bottles wall hangings cardboard canvases and cold chamomiles coated with a grim cringing grime I swear I could see the sheen of sickness on everything / I stood in the middle of the kitchen thinking about any place else I could go / anywhere besides here / besides my home / I would sit and read but I didn't want the shit from the walls and pages getting on me / I would stand blast the speakers and spin but I feared the sound would disgrace the present disgust of silence that the music that moves would not be welcomed in / so I sat on edge of the ledge and smiled / tried to give you the love I could without falling face down in the current of the Nile
under extreme circumstances crocodiles are not picky eaters
and will pick a rotting corpse clean
no movement is necessary to draw their attention
you were a walking coma drowning in the
poltergeist you didn't know how to tell to leave
it was just you and me and a room full of ghosts
frustration and loneliness / an atmosphere that grieves
drawing away emotions in walls that hollered
"you don't know!" / humidity and the harbinger
it's one hundred degrees in here but there might as well be snow
unconscious tongues mouthing lip service ventriloquism
intent on voices drawing communication away
from the very thing that made us feel the most