[OCTOBER 13] [ORIGINAL] Tonight Now Running

[fulselden.livejournal.com]

Title: Tonight Now Running
Day/Theme: October 13, 'true as autopsies on tape'
Series: Original
Rating: T, mention of violence.

 

 

It begins with the slit of a knife in a belly

The white roadside washroom,

The blood in the bowl,

The fat little fledgling that’s down by the piping

Its feathers still fattish and yellow like combs.

Like sharp teeth of pale yellow

Your blond hair now ‘auburn’

Like the grease on the grip of the gun that’s not yours.

Like the two of you stopping to swallow down pale chips,

Fat and white and half soggy,

As you clench up your tongue.

Like wet bread or pale butter,

Like the empty container,

The dark town, the gun.

 

The bright lights of the chippie are sharp as bad vinegar

And the girls are bronze-dipped for a night in the town

And he’s folding himself round the brass of a knife wound,

Just a slice to the ribcage,

Just shut up and drive on.

Down the long greasy streets under angling cameras

Down and out through the suburbs,

Past scrubby old schools

Doors for boys and girls and a straight face of red brick

Like an autopsy venue,

An old concert hall.

 

Sing out for me boys as you turn off the ringroad

Sing sharp in your new clothes, your vinegar hair.  

Look sharp soggy boys for that blood on your trainers,

Lozenges of offal dried off in the car.

Look up for me, white boys, look up for the cameras,

Cemented and stilled by the buzzing white lines,

Get outside of a square meal,

That knife slit,

Each other,

Get out of the city, boys, sing me a song.