The whole of life cowers in a shadow
as I sprawl undone on the leather sofa
those lingering promises blown apart
their bloodstained shards 
decorate my mind

O beauty, beauty
you'll be the death of me
I say nothing when I hear you speak
I hear nothing but my voice saying
'give yourself to me'

And you can choose not to remember
you can opt not to partake in recollecting
but the guilt-wave dust finds your fingerprints
smeared up those red-lit banisters

You watch that pretty hand reaching out for you
dragged into the back room, singing

'strip down, strip down for me
like a car, like a wreck
like a trust, like a love
all taken aside
a bullet put in its heart'

This city's strange glow filters through a window
curtains bellow on the dead of night
in the mirror above I'm watching
as the inner workings are exposed

And what works; works
and what doesn’t work, is made to work anyway
then pulled apart

O beauty, beauty
you'll be the death of me
I can think of nothing else
when you speak to me
I hear nothing but my voice begging
'please give yourself to me...'

And the mind, the mind, the mind
spends so much time
distancing itself from where the body's been

My mind, my mind, my mind spent so much time
distancing itself from where my body's been
Beauty, beauty
you'll be the death of me...

(April 2014)