The car finally burned out around 3. The blue beacon

of a silent patrol car threw new shadows into the street

turning the window into a flickering monitor screen.

I'd seen the kids torch the vehicle before I left on a

nightly surfing run to a cybersex site in Chile.

It wasn't as if they were getting rid of prints, everyone

knew it was them. They didn't give a shit. They just

wanted to see the flames, to throw a bit of light on a

situation. I looked up the hill at the spread of the estate.

The streetlights glowed like campfires of an army on the

eve of battle or fireflies trapped in the canopy

of an immense jungle.

Jungle, young mental jungle,

Here in the jungle, in the jungle

Where men don't cry and husbands lie and you never have

to justify a kickin.

When mates jump in to save your skin if a chib is ever

pulled out in a square go.



Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it's over.

Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it ends.

Oh here she comes round again, here she comes round again,

here she comes round again, here she comes, here she comes.



The glazed eyes of porcelain clowns stare skywards at clouds

of goldfish madly circling their own silent plastic worlds, high

above the children who stuff ping pong balls like pills

in the mouths of slowly rotating heads.

Intentions true as the arrow's flight wins a cuddly toy

to while away an evening. Outside this ring of light

he'll claim his prize, she'll sport lovebites just to

prove to all he's been there.



Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it's over.

Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it ends.

Oh here she comes round again, here she comes round again,

here she comes round again, here she comes, here she comes.



I crept along the edges of the parade, staying glued to the

shadows where the dogs slept uneasily on their chains

under the caravans.

I followed the drums and the pulsing light until I came across

a clearing in the centre of which was the attraction.

And then I saw her, an angel in a chariot, her hair

trailing behind her like the tail of a comet. And I knew

that she was mine. I knew that we were destined

to leave this place together. We didn't belong to this

carnage and the knowledge of escape was the only thing

keeping me sane. But for now I could only watch and

wait for this was an arena I dare not enter.



On the rim of the machine the animals had gathered.

Big cats at a waterhole waiting on the weak and wounded

to stagger into their territory so they could exercise

some violence and feed their starving reputations.

No climbdown in this standoff with the world.

They already know that they can never win the war

but in this battle they're gonna do some damage.

The pack will follow the stragglers into the dawn.

Young mental jungle.



Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it's over

Jungle ride, jungle ride, tell me when it ends (rpt)

Here she comes round again, here she comes round again

Here she comes round again, here she comes, here she comes