I stare at a face in the monitor but it’s not mine
It breaks down when you ask if it’s fine
No good reason for it being there
But I’m far too stressed to care
About the noise
About this poison

Dripping from the ceiling and falling into the floor
There’s a bucket of burning oil hanging over my door
And when I try to leave, they throw on tar and leaves
And push me down a few flights of stairs
And no one cares

What I knew was nothing but an image
What I grew had died
What I threw into the water with my eyes closed
What I blew away in the tide
And erased away

Defeat by fighting stone and mockery
The laughing giants of rock
Deliverance by pride and stoned apologies
On the monitor’s eye-face
And erased

What is a monster to an accomplice?
Who holds the key to an empty palace?
Who pours the water into your chalice?
Where did you pray for Spirit Alice on fire?

In my hands, a gravure of the monitor
Hands are chopped, swimming in ink
Begging to never repeat itself

Where? But in the middle of the ocean
No can hear you
That’s the point of sailing into nowhere
Get lost and afraid
And maybe sea change will come through

But I have doubts about a victory
When did it ever end all right?
Presenting odds as color pictures
Blown up and perfect
Just like you remembered it for us

Haven’t I been somewhere here before?
Finding the fragments and chasing the islands
Hoping the nerve doesn’t strike too violent
Praying I break through the monitor

In the shadows I see a dog
And a girl I obsessed over 9 years ago
I swear, it’s true, I was different then
People make mistakes and don’t know when to let them go

Out in the dark, I am no one
Free to blend into the set
Bored and annoyed with glass in my feet
And an eye gouged
Someone is chanting in whispers
A clue from a parallel world
“There’s an ocean on fire”, says the monitor
And I shut down