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 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 Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin Wake up! You can't remember where it was Had this dream stopped? The snake was pale gold Glazed and shrunken We were afraid to touch it The sheets were hot dead prisons And she was beside me Old, she's not, young Her dark red hair Her white soft skin Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom Look! He's 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 . . . 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' 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 This little game is fun to do Just close your eyes no way to lose And I'm right there I'm going too Release control we're breaking thru Way back deep into the brain Back where there's never any pain And the rain falls gently on the town And over 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 Each house repeats a mold Windows rolled Beast car locked in against 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 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) Not to touch the earth Not to see the sun Nothing left to do, but Run, run, 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 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 Dead president's corpse in the driver's car The engine runs on glue and tar C'mon along, we're not going very far To the East to meet the Czar Some outlaws lived by the side of the 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 Sun, sun, sun Burn, burn, burn Soon, soon, soon Moon, moon, moon I will get you Soon! Soon! Soon! Let the carnival bells ring Let the serpent sing Let everything 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 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 'I am the Lizard King I can do anything I can make the earth stop in its tracks I made the blue cars go away For seven years I dwelt In the loose palace of exile Playing strange games With the girls of the island 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 with the hunt? 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'