67

THE LIKENESS MONSTER

Another drawing of the page
The pretty song says act your age
And everybody in the game
Confirms the meaning of your name

Like candy on elastic string
You think it’s vague when I say thing
While everybody in the city
Thinks what the paper says is witty

They’ll compare you to a lake
Dam you up and call you fake
But if it’s really so serene
When day is dun and night is clean

Then what’s the use of all this use
These little years spent on the loose
Pouring yourself across the city grid
Do you like what your self-pity did?

Or are you content to be alone
And pray to God and charge the phone
Spend your quarters at the boardwalk
Write a play about how whores talk

The organized impression that I get
Is of a perfect storm of debt
And terrible as it may seem
Of someone half-in-love with dreams