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ape headed
dog headed
the sharp beauties
of his filed down teeth
surrounding
surrounding
cutting dissolving
slowly bleeding
leaving a red smear
straw soaked in animal piss
his mouth
full of blood and disinfectant
he washed his hands
in an old enamel bowl
the reflector
the worn leather couch
monster
monster
icepack and cigar smoke
thrown down the walls
sleeping in a cattle car
a wheel sparking under us
running on iron rails
down
down
cut and ripped
a city poisoned
a city poisoned
born out of desire
not born out of need
got a dry glass with
smoke
smoke
you know you’re talking to?
don’t touch me
Here’s two girls talking
Let’s listen in
Someone went by over there
He’s just a spoilt brat
He was my friend
Very concerned about me he was
They’re burning old tyres
On a vacant lot
Whom do I have in heaven but Thee?
This is a reconstruction
And I like the way it works
This is a reconstruction
And I touch the ground
This is a reconstruction
And he left the motor running
This is a reconstruction
And I like the way it works
And I have to listen in
And I have to watch
And I have to listen in
And I have to watch
He sealed the door
With plastic tape
He locked the windows
Pulled down the blind
Just left like that
In front of the wheel
With the headlights on
With the headlights on
And I have to listen in
And I have to watch
And I have to listen in
And I have to watch
Where I touch the ground
When I touch the ground
Where I touch the ground
When I touch the ground
This is how their talk went
And this how the motor works
This is how their talk went
And this how the motor works
This is how she leaned back
And this is how the tyres burned
This is how she leaned back
And this is how the tyres burned
This is how he sealed the doors
And these are his ignition keys
This is how he sealed the doors
And these are his ignition keys
This is how I listened in
And this is how the motor works
This is how I listened in
And this is how the motor works
Forever
Forever
Forever
Forever
A dry fountain
Shell slates and fingernails
Thin wire and your wound
Your hair
A constellation
Education
A loose organization
I’m going to walk
It’s dark and moving
Free and standing
Our skin
We filter through
Talk soft, gleam and perish
We filter through
Sweat shutters and light
Look at the sunset
Look at the sunset
Inside and against
Inside and against
We’re on the compressor
Rich house of animal soul
We’re on the compressor
Professor
Animal voice bring me vision
Like a nurse sleeping
On a cement floor
(or where I come from)
This insect bite on my arm
(that’s where I come from)
The broken slate:
the dark air cage
I will not remember your words,
Nor will I ever leave your side,
Stumbling into the prison yard
41 days in the Feverhouse
42 days in the Feverhouse
43 days in the Feverhouse
44 days in the Feverhouse
45 days in the Feverhouse
46 days in the Feverhouse
47 days in the Feverhouse
48 days in the Feverhouse
49 days in the Feverhouse
51 days in the Feverhouse
52 days in the Feverhouse
53 days in the Feverhouse
54 days in the Feverhouse
55 days in the Feverhouse
56 days in the Feverhouse
57 days in the Feverhouse
58 days in the Feverhouse
59 days in the Feverhouse
Wherever he walk,
paint
blisters away from the walls
around him
and we will practice
our actions
in dark city garages
Five hours on a tile floor:
it was the coolest place
in the heat
I passed out there
and I wasn’t found until
after midnight
half-naked in the dark
There was
an electric storm
breaking in the sky
above us
We’re buying up
advertising space
We’re burning up
our advertising space
All-night drugstore
- wolf calls
from the radio mast
…played back
a diseased heart…
A dried out sponge
a dark chemical bath.
A body pulling loose
from the ramp
A body pulling loose
from the ramp
I wanna do the ramp ramp
I wanna do the ramp ramp
Over silent action:
aftermath of violence, events recorded
Without angering the subjects:
deserted beach, an empty room
Occurring within fifteen to thirty seconds:
mortuary shadows, all over
Reaching for an empty glass:
the moment of orgasm, there
Lightning in a dark cloud:
their blood is black and yellow
pierced - scarring - makeup- covering - film
open - tight clothes - straps
body position - movement in a room - blindfolds
scraping away - film - a poster - a scar - eyes - scratches
auto collision - signs - windows shattering - debris
body positions - environment - subway - damage
movement - statements - opening sequence - the blindfold
piercing the white cloth - lying amidst ferns
Rising and walking from the shower stall to the bed through a hotel
room over the main drag. Insects gather in the light across the bed.
Someone was here before you. The ice-crusher’s broken, and it makes
long low loud grinding sound. You call the night lift and you fall
against the wall when it moves. A glass falls out of your hand spilling
alcohol onto a black rubber floor. This is the last thing you saw:
returning, unable to adjust. That’s when you see things… Nothing moves
in the night sky. The light punishes you. It cuts into your face. You
turn running at the mouth and say:
‘I’ve made such a mess. I’m so weak.’
Everything burns so quickly; everything burns so easily. Against the
white scratched wall, a glass fragmenting in your hand, the sound of
sheet metal tearing, lights and crash barriers spin out around you.
Rising up from the centre of the room, the smell of scorched iron,
heavy oil soaked into clothes, chlorine and swamp water.
Everything burns so quickly; everything burns so easily. You move in
your sleep and you tear a fingernail on the thin white under-sheet.
The night closing your mouth: the night coming and closing your mouth.
Everything burns so quickly; everything burns so easily.
May 14, 1914: One or a Series of Wolves
Make Two, Make Three, Make Many Vietnams
Look out: we’re a politician
Outside
A child’s being beaten
Outside
There’s frost on the windshield
Outside
Drive me through Outside
A voice from the smoke, a voice from the bed
A singing voice, a gesture in silence
A voice from the smoke, a voice from the bed
A singing voice, a gesture in silence
Outside
The one hundred million
Outside
Moscow was rusty
Outside
Drive me through Outside
Desire faults in the camera
I don’t know why I treat you so bad
Smell the smoke on my clothes
Clean me up, my heart beats faster
Outside
We’re making up tapes now
Outside
We pay for control
Outside
Drive me through Outside
Jacking off to late-night TV
Don’t you think that’s sad?
Peace through chemistry, that’s out policy
Bring us together - we’re a politician
Bring us together -we’re a politician
I clean my room out
These times don’t suit me
I need this new life
If you say so
If you say so
You hear a car start
An all-night party
I sleep alone now
I sleep on bare boards
I see this highway
But I don’t travel
If this was morning
Please don’t wake me
If you talked slowly
Then I could hear you
If you just listened
I’m not crawling
If you say so
If you say so
Start with a building
The compressor
The slow steady pressure of
Walls and foundations
Where body counts drift through
Mortuaries and iron safes.
The burial site
Never taught to speak
Just something passed in the dark
Where the flesh begins to swell
Diseased and bound up
Voices gone animal
And chains uncoiling in the darkness
‘The way they move on their dirty beds’
‘Staring out from their dark dirty rooms’
In a house of heat and bones
All the above texts written by Ken Hollings between 1981 and 1984 and
featured on the LTM release After The Click: Retrospective 1980-89,
except ‘Feverhouse (opening text)’ taken from the film Feverhouse,
originally released on video by IKON FCL in 1985, and reprinted as
part of sleeve notes to Compressed.
These versions transcribed and redacted by Ken Hollings in 2003.
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