Polaroids

Hands on the casket
Handful soil
Hand a rose to the widow
She lays it tastefully angled down and to the right

The mahogany and the white contrast nicely
As well as the black tie attire
The air of this event, somebody was important
But a distant stare proves too strong to ignore it

Little window on the ground floor of the chapel
And the face pressed up against it make fog breath
Highlights of a fading heart

Raindrops on the hood of the El Dorado
Her acrylics clicking on the headlight
Her bubblegum poppin' her head slightly angled down and to the right
And her angel pendant dangling

Like a lynched bird space for a last prayer
Pained like a pinched nerve, awaiting a last word
Posture reading last straw
Tempered stance of her partner is palpable even out of the frame

And without her naming his crime he must be prostrate
Like a last prayer awaiting a last word
Posture reading fuck whiteboard
Multicoloured lines in dry-erase

Roughly angle down and to the right
This is right before the leap through the open window
But in the moment it's all smiles and perfectly crowned teeth
(Perfectly crowned teeth)

Someone looking secretary
No offence, but that's the air she gives off
With the pleated skirt and neatly tucked-in blouse
(Neatly tucked-in blouse)

Holds a phone as if it were a scarier event
That these executives who read her work don't even know about
(Don't even know about)

And frozen in this pantomime a moment
Where it happened, time would split off
With a fix to make its mighty mountains cry
(Mighty mountains cry)

The curled lip and terror eyes
A giveaway of what she hides
The back side of the picture, dated 1929

All of these photos tucked neatly in a box
And hidden in a sock drawer or underneath the bed
Memories are gobos making shadows on the locked
Present that has been fixed, so it's best to leave them dead

Don't bother with it, live lobotomy
Split a bottle better
Drink the god and leave the
Past behind for the fire
Don't, nobody want these Polaroids

Don't bother with it, live the lighter side
Split a spliff together
Smoke the god and leave the
Past behind for the fire
Don't, nobody want these Polaroids

Hands in the air
Half eyes wide half eyes smiling
And a couple others with the heads covered up too afraid to look
The track slopes down and to the right

Rough guess two seconds from the top of the drop
The exhilaration on the faces of the riders
More than worth the price tag of the printout
Which was also way too high

Time-stamped by mullet length
And neon Billabong logo
And fitted cap with hologram sticker on the underside
That certainly won't last till the ride comes to a stop

Peace signs and wide grins in the foreground
In the background is great powerful
Cascade of water falling from way out of frame
Down and to the right

It's way out of place to say and way out of
But ain't it strange that both these kids are dead?
Anyway, the deep green of the foliage, so definitively wild
People used to drive to places like this just to escape

If you look close, you can see the early
Fibre optic cable stretching out into the jungle
The beginning of the end
A still life in motion

One of those night traffic shots
The long exposure makes the taillights stretch ad infinitum
Down and to the right
Red tiger striping the city street so it reads raver

This is before the riots
Ghostly in the out-of-focus high rises are rising as they're want to do
Contorting just like trees looking for sun
(Trees looking for sun)

Mostly to the left you'll notice
Piling up like nothing new the boxes for the shanties
That these buildings would become
(These buildings would become)

Toppled by the potholes here
They are before they sunk (before they sunk)
Like on hold for the glottal stops approaching with the sun
(Approaching with the sun)

The choking on the words they never said
So soon the running from the end of life that no one really figured had begun

All of these photos tucked neatly in a box
And hidden in a sock drawer or underneath the bed
Memories are demons trying to burn the edges of the present that has been fixed
So it's best to leave them dead

Don't bother with it, live lobotomy
Split a bottle better
Drink the god and leave the
Past behind for the fire
Don't, nobody want these polaroids

Don't bother with it, live the lighter side
Split a spliff together
Smoke the god and leave the
Past behind for the fire
Don't nobody want these polaroids