I got a head full of worms and a shirt full of cigarette ashes A hearse full of passengers laughing, the driver keeps checking the atlas I paid a man in the alley to tell me exactly what happened He opened his mouth and a handful of maggots came out with the answers I got a bad reputation with people who never were present A room full of mirrors, I covered the glass but I still see the reflection My appetite’s getting expensive, I’m dining with things I invented The waiter keeps asking for names, I keep giving him wrong recollections I got a prescription for panic, a bottle of pills and a counterfeit blessing The priest had a tremor, his hands kept confessing, his collar was stained with a message I heard that the dead don’t remember, but somebody’s calling collect from the trenches I picked up the phone and the breathing was mine, just younger and more unpleasant I’m in the basement with buckets of plaster and plastered-up holes in the drywall A little bit of something is moving beneath all the furniture, scratching underneath I got a face full of leeches, a mouth full of wisdom I never believed The coroner’s looking for evidence, tell him to check where the last of my past rots I like my coffee black as the lung of a chain-smoking saint Got a box full of bones that I labeled according to who I became My old friends keep calling, I don’t recognize any of their names They sound like the people I buried alive in the back of my brain I got a deadbolt, a red bulb, a bed full of things that I can’t identify The ceiling is peeling, revealing a layer of skin that resembles mine The landlord keeps saying the building’s been empty since nineteen ninety-nine Then why does the fucking apartment keep breathing whenever I turn off the lights? I got a mouth full of dirt, but I’m still talking shit Got a hole in my chest where the conscience went missing Everybody wants heaven until somebody mentions The price of admission and what you were given I got a mouth full of dirt, but I’m still talking shit Got a head full of names and a list full of witnesses I don’t need a coffin, just lower the ceiling And leave me wherever the foundations are sinking I seen a surgeon with trembling hands operating under a dimmed bulb He said the tumor was growing a face, and the face was beginning to talk I said, “Tell it to shut up,” he said, “That’s what I thought when it started to walk” Now the hospital’s billing me monthly for something they found in the wall I got a nervous condition, a permanent twitch and a terrible sense of direction The exit sign points to the entrance, the entrance leads straight to the detention My reflection’s been making suggestions, I’m starting to question the source of the tension I caught it outside in the parking lot smoking a cigarette, asking for rent and attention I got a black bag, a cracked mask, a half-empty flask and a bad disposition A thousand-yard stare and a thousand-yard hallway that bends into different dimensions I don’t need a séance, the dead keep appearing whenever I sit in the kitchen My mother keeps asking who’s talking, I tell her the house has a problem with plumbing The graveyard is crowded, the cemetery’s charging for premium spaces The worms have been eating so long that they’re starting to recognize all of the faces I watched a man dig up his past, then complain that the smell was contagious He found what he wanted beneath all the dirt, but he couldn’t remember the name of it I got a mouth full of dirt Still got a few things to say Put my name on the stone But don’t put the date
