Dumpster Sonata

Tried it once, thought you’d quit, Now you’re digging in the carpet just to taste a bit. Pocket full of lint, shoes split at the seams, You chew on the wallpaper and cough out your dreams. Street rat junkie, alleyway slave, Laughin’ in the mirror staring into the hole you crave. Laughin’ in the alley with a bottle cap grin, Cops stroll by, don’t even bother to pin. Neighbor bangs the wall, says, “Turn that down,” You say, “It’s my trudging in triumph while I rot in this town.” Meth lung drifter, sidewalk fiend, Another cracked halo with a guilty sheen. You beg for a match, then you beg for a drag, Beg for a punchline, you’re the punch in the bag. Heartbeat skips like a busted drum, Even the rats scatter when they see you come. You kissed a payphone, thought it whispered back, Slow danced with a cockroach grippin’ a six-pack. Tried to box the wall, but the wall boxed you, And the concrete laughed like it already knew. Toilet stain poet, lost luck freak, Laughin’ through a cough that’ll drown you next week. Yeah, yeah, yeah Rotgut romantic, bottom shelf king, You’re the muse of a song no one wants to sing.