Erlking

Grandpa Aaron prophesied 
The year the messengers would arrive
In living ships 
That burn next to the sky 
Home from school 
I’m on suspension 
For selling all my Ritalin 
Mare makes eggs
Then she gets down to business
By 3 she’s comatose
Dark den
Snowy television 
So I’m learning “Cherub Rock” 
On an ex’s electric guitar 
A flat affect
But I really care
I see some far-out shit that isn’t there
It’s in our blood
And our dust-colored hair 
Mare’s been toast since ‘84 
She lost some friends 
Then she lost some more 
She sent letters and Violent Femmes to John Hinckley
When she had me she was 39
A pickled Pearl, but I was pretty much fine
When the future’s written 
You just kinda have to resign to it 
Any day
We’ll escape from our heads
From the chain of consequences
And ascend 
Mama, I can’t  leave you here in hell
Anywhere I go I’m still myself 
I’m a tunnel caving in 
And a goddamn great American
Any Day
We’ll escape from our heads
From the chain of consequences
And recall everything forgotten

Pearl

https://www.emptycountry.com/s/Basilisk.pdf

Basilisk, or: Pearl Practices Guitar and Hallucinates the Future

Peaking 
To Madonna’s “Ray of Light”
Ego death
Dance all thru the night
Just to mute the static in our heads
And forget the fuckhead president 
Sleeping 
To cancel these compulsions 
Medicine  
Jet planes in formation
Let the shockwave topple monuments
Burn the books and melt the records
While the chain of days keeps lengthening 
Lengthening 
Snap the mast
And crush the hull 
The Dominion of the Gulls
Close my eyes and feel the pull 
Through something ineffable

Empty Country

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