Give me smelling salts to suck away the brine
Give me warden's words to write the valentine
Give me tear-filled ears when I've cried nights to sleep
Give me vagabonds to scold me when I weep
Is there no one in this world who cares for me?
Is there no on who escapes life's tyranny?
Are we all condemned to silence our requests
once vile beauty whores herself against our chests?

Sullen victims we portray ourselves in tow
as the rainbow ends in gardens villains grow
But the blame is never placed on those we touch
Just the wards who turn the filters down too much
And the prayers we all emit when we're below
to convince bystanding squaws we see the glow
Throwing hands to wind as if to catch a harp
while the patient serpent files his fangs so sharp

To the quick, red wicked carcasses breathe forth,
to propel our warm worm hearts eight steps too north
And at this point Galatea dons her cape
telling Acis that "Sweet Sunlight needs a Rape!"
as she squints her eyes through lighthouse window cracks
Sees a sailor sick on waves as white as wax
"Darling Acis, bring the candelabra near!"
But her lover and his boat will never hear

And pale porpoises held captive wield the blade
for to summon virgin mermaids from the shade
here to sing, beneath the hulls that cling to bays,
deep into our lungs, onto our tongues, a phrase:
one last symphony of sighs to bid us due
and to carmelize the cancer til it's through
And at this point Galatea's face grows pale
as she learns she'll spend life married to a whale.

PRM 11.05.99
reviewed 7/02

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