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Zeroone, 2001

1. Digital

Digital, binary system, ones & zeroes, dark vs. light,
yin and yang, x & y, my mother and my father made me one night.

In the beginning, a murky mass of hydrogen helium
voted to organize into higher elements,
carbon nitrogen & oxygen, protons electrons collide.

Digital, binary system, ones & zeroes, dark vs. light,
yin and yang, x & y, my mother and my father made me one night.

Forbidden fruit rotting on the vine.
Forbidden fruit, turning to wine. Intoxicating.
Nakedly we lay in an ecstatic embrace, trying not to
come too quickly, one minute rise, plastic bagged
lubricated safety tube.

This is not a through street; one cannot pass here,
but where me and you meet to graze the divine pastures.
This is not a through street; one cannot pass here,
but run and jump with two feet and break through all the matter.

Throw your body to the edge of crisis: Paradise is everywhere.
Throw your body to the edge of crisis: Paralysis is everywhere:
Clogged veins arteries threaten minor heartattacks traffic jams prevail:
Thefoolthefish that failed to merge like the others did into one of two
opposing schools of population in transition: information transference overload:
circuitboard’s a sign of a city understanding: synapses awakening mind:
citystate citizen citymeditate citymedecine: proteinzoned prozac
hormonefortified malefemales feel no ails from the moon
revolving ‘round us, pulling tides and currents: blood dripping out of tune:
seedless grapes tangerines longer lasting better tasting obedient mules:

This is not a through street; one cannot pass here,
but where me and you meet to graze the divine pastures.
This is not a through street; one cannot pass here,
but run and jump with two feet and break through all the matter.

Throw your body to the edge of crisis: Paradise is everywhere.
Throw your body to the edge of crisis: Paralysis is everywhere:
Digital, binary system, ones & zeroes, dark vs. light,
yin and yang, x & y, my mother and my father
in me still fight, in me unite.

Visited by my ancestress falling from her wilderness
Through my bedroom window: a dragon with sizzling breath, a dragon
with fourteenfootlong breasts to pass her ticking life on, to suckle if you want.
You came you saw got what you wanted and now you’ll go
Satisfied alone to stagnate wait for something better never comes
The doldrums drone on and duplicate multiply rabbitly to the horizon:
Can’t see nothing but horrible to the horizon.
Digital, binary system, ones & zeroes, dark vs. light,
yin and yang, x & y, my mother and my father made me one night.

2. Poppy Fields

I scrub my blackened feet,
scrape off the caked on grime of the street.
I wash my hands and face
of the worldly soot that accumulates
in the day-in-day-out farcical strife,
in the humdrum of everyday life.
And I enter my home clean,
step up to the hearth I’ve deemed my own.

I sit down on the bidet
and shower my flower of the decay
that sets in when she lets in a guest
for recreation no creation, her slight protest.
And I enter my bed clean,
lay down my head and dream
of another world.

The desert springs to life.
The golden chaparral gives up her rights
to poppy fields for miles
and purple lupin lavender behind
another world.

Waking with the sun,
the poppy petals peel back to open
and turn the hills orange
to start another cycle of seasons.
Another world.

We dance as whooping cranes
who once again have found their lifetime mates.
We bound across the plains,
roll down slopes, fill our white coats with stains
of another world.

We come to rest as one
at the bottom of the hill, start to make love.
We lean against the earth,
rocking back and forth and back and forth,
back and forth. Another world.

Under a wild sky setting sun,
we ride the waves towards something still to come.
Another world.

3. Obsession

O, my obsession.
Will I see you tomorrow?
Will I renew my sorrow?
Be like someone else now;
You’ve wasted much time
in the henhouse.
I wear the clown’s nose,
But the elastic band
Sometimes goes snap,
And I go scrambling
Across the floor
Apologetically babbling: Elle,
Elle pourrait comprendre
Si tu m’embrasses
(sera sera)
comme un enfant.
Why princess Diana?
I see your face in the hands of
Hong Kong kids summer ’97
On the Bowery above Canal
Chinatown Manhattan,
Mimeographed flyers
In memorium.
O, my obsession.
O, B-I-L-L-Y my obsession.
Will I see you tomorrow?
Will I renew my sorrow?

4. Ziggurat

Ziggurats are built only to crumble
We approach the gods
Then prepare to tumble down.
Love’s a kind of knowledge
You’ve written that on your arm
The kind you learn in college
In cafes and beds and bars
And I am studying my youth away.
For they will take my island,
Of that much I’m sure.
The tides roll in from Thailand
To pilfer my shores, grain by grain
By grain, they drive me insane.
I still drive under you influence
Crawling cross-country
A year and a day of St. Louis misery
With my tail between my legs
And my shoulders hunched.
There’s a shell on the beach
For every broken home
And we pick up the pieces
From out the seafoam
But our hands are too weak
And small to hold them all.

Walking across the grass
I’ve got a peaceful feeling
How long will this moment last?
When will I hit the ceiling?
Shatter this beautiful feeling
Into all those disregardable pieces?
Walking across the grass
I’ve got a peaceful feeling
Looking forward
And through the past
To see without seeing
Into the sea of seathing
Timespacematter where
Nothing’s the matter

I am all alone
You are all alone
Her we are alone
Together tonight
I am all inside
You are all inside
How to get inside
Each other tonight?
Hey you otter
Crack open my shell
Hey you oughta
Dive deep for my pearl

5. Bound feet & feathered

The safety behind bars and in motorcycle sidecars keeps me
Asleep all night, deep alright, so I’m not frightened by the dark.
My ears tucked in my pillow, hear not the wind blow.
I’m a passenger, a prisoner. The will is not my own.
And when the customs officer asks if I’ve anything to declare,
I keep my mouth shut, so no one will mess with me.

The theater in nightclubs from Kabukicho to Las Vegas
Shine the brightest stages, keep the tightest cages,
Swap the playbills for girls.
Bound feet & feathered, high-heeled and horned,
They do the can-can to the salariman, kowtowed and scorned.
And when the customs officer asks if I’ve anything to declare,
I keep my mouth shut, so no one will mess with me.

I hem my pants the appropriate length, so there’ll be less chance
Of me tripping in the street or of tracking mud from my soiled cuff
Onto my neighbor’s rug, among other stuff, their pristine white sheets.
I knock on their door, once one has gone to work,
And I slip in, dip in, to my neighbor’s wet purse.
And when the customs officer asks if I’ve anything to declare,
I keep my mouth shut, so no one will mess with me.

The safety behind bars and in motorcycle sidecars keeps me
Asleep all night, deep alright, so I’m not frightened by the dark.
My ears tucked in my pillow, hear not the wind blow.
I’m a passenger, a prisoner. The will is not my own.
And when the customs officer asks if I’ve anything to declare,
I keep my mouth shut, so no one will mess with me.

6. Merry Me

Once I was enslaved to a human being.
What to do today now that I’m free?
Merry me, merry me, merry me,
is this how it feels to realize one’s dream?

Once I was enslaved to a human being,
my mother, my lover. Next who will it be?
Marry me, marry me, marry me.
I’m happiest in the pursuit of liberty.

Once I was enslaved to a human being,
one half the saint and the other the villain.
Marry me, marry me, marry me,
kiss the only hand there in emergency.
Marry me, marry me, marry me,
kiss the only hand there til’ eternity.

Once I was enslaved to a human being.
What to do today now that I’m free?
Merry me, merry me, merry me,
is this how it feels to realize my dreams?

7. Can I?

Can I? I think I can. I can I think, think I can—
Fight to defend and survive, no more yielding
Helpless hopeless to the weight of time.
Can I? I think I can. I can I think, think I can;;
Take my raging bull by the horns and ride her
Cross barren plains and dark forests.
Somewhere between devotion and indifference,
Volatile daydreaming, waxing waning wallowing,
then wide-eyed, oh wide-eyed.

Can I? I think I can. I can I think, think I can.
Can I? I think I can. I cannot think, cannot think.
In other people’s opinions, I swell or shrink.
On other people’s opinion, I swim or sink.
Can I? I think I can. I cannot think, cannot think,
cannot think.

Grandma, hold my hand now.
These steps are steep and uneven even.
My little legs are a-trembling,
Working so hard to keep up, keep up
With everyone walking so fast,
Leaving us two behind behind.
Pull me ‘round the block in the wagon,
Pull me as fast, as fast as you can.
Feed me all the things you’ve been hiding
From Uncle Art in his upstairs bedroom.
Where are the trays that fold out,
So we can eat watching television?

Grandma, hold my hand now.
These steps are steep and uneven even.
Your little legs are a-trembling,
Working so hard to keep up, keep up
With everyone walking so fast,
Leaving us two behind behind.
Can I? I think I can I?
I can I think, think I can.
Can I?

8. Amnesia

We drove out to the Long Island shore
With Bobo’s body on the backseat floor,
Parked the car and hauled her out to the waves to say our goodbyes.
Seven eight times she came rolling back—our shirtsleeves waterlogged,
Her fur just damp. We took her in our arms and with all our might
Flung her into the recessing tide and prayed, ninth time’s a charm.
Just then the sunset exploded from o’er the dunes where we stood frozen,
And from the brilliant shades of purple pink and orange,
We knew she would not return as a dog.
Our puppies go blind deaf an senile then die in our arms.
Seven eight waves of denial then ninth tide’s the charm.

Three white pages all covered with Braille,
the hand-woven lacework of a young bride’s veil,
lean up against this shooting gallery wall,
an anonymous letter for an autonomous fall.
I love you I miss you I need you
I walk out aimlessly through leaf-strewn streets,
Wonder why the elms have gone extinct,
Pass factory buildings, all brick and brawn,
Ghosts of a revolution come and gone,
And I stop at the bridge built between us.
Our lovers go blind deaf and senile, then die in our arms.
Seven eight waves of denial, then ninth tide’s the charm.

Amnesia we’ve fallen and gotten up
To feel the hole where there once was love.
Amnesia we’ve fallen and gotten up
To feel the freedom of an empty cup.
Our puppy loves go blind deaf and senile, then die in our arms.
Seven eight waves of denial, then ninth tide’s the charm.
Amnesia we’ve fallen and gotten up
To see the beauty of a setting sun.

9. Like A Knife

Like a knife come to slit my ties to the past,
to all the things which bind me to the grave, you came.
You came in the morning after a long night.
You came in the morning after a dark night.

I stared into the knife, to see if it would hurt me,
threaten my life, use me and desert me.
To a decision, I came.
I came in the morning after a long night.
I came in the morning after a dark night.

I took the knife, slid it under my belt,
was so surprised at the joy I felt
to come out of the mourning, I came.
I came out of the mourning after a long night.
I came out of the mourning after a dark night.

Like a knife come to slit our ties to the past,
to all the things which bind us to the grave, we came.
We came in the morning after a long night.
We came in the morning after a dark night.

10. Tugboat

When the tugboat tires of pulling someone else’s weight,
When the tugboat tires of giving all the credit away,
There’ll be silence in the factories,
Empty shelves and pantries,
Just you wait.

When the tugboat tires of sweating for minimum wages,
When the tugboat tires of swallowing its pride and rage,
There will be weeds by the million,
There will be hedges needing trimming,
There will be chamberpots overflowing,
There’ll be conglomerates undergoing
sudden change.

When the tugboat tires of pulling someone else’s weight,
When the tugboat tires of giving all the credit away,
There will be one less in the bed that night,
No one to undress you that night, just you wait,
‘til the tugboat tires.