Lions in the street and roaming

Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming

A beast caged in the heart of a city

The body of his mother

Rotting in the summer ground

He fled the town



He went down South and crossed the border

Left the chaos and disorder

Back there over his shoulder



One morning he awoke in a green hotel

With a strange creature groaning beside him

Sweat oozed from its shiny skin



Is everybody in?

The ceremony is about to begin



Wake up!

You can't remember where it was

Had this dream stopped?

The snake was pale gold

Glazed and shrunken

We were afraid to touch it

The sheets were hot dead prisons



Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom

Look!

I can't live thru each slow century of her moving

I let my cheek slide down

The cool smooth tile

Feel the good cold stinging blood

The smooth hissing snakes of rain . . .



Once I had, a little game

I liked to crawl back into my brain

I think you know the game I mean

I mean the game called 'go insane'

Now you should try this little game

Just close your eyes forget your name

Forget the world forget the people

And we'll erect a different steeple

This little game is fun to do

Just close your eyes no way to lose

And I'm right there I'm going too

Release control we're breaking thru



Way back deep into the brain

Back where there's never any pain

And the rain falls gently on the town

And in the labyrinth of streams

Beneath, the quiet unearthly presence of

Nervous hill dwellers in the gentle hills around

Reptiles abounding

Fossils, caves, cool air heights



Each house repeats a mold

Windows rolled

Beast car locked in against morning

All now sleeping

Rugs silent, mirrors vacant

Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples

Wound in sheets

And daughters, smug

With semen eyes in their nipples



Wait

There's been a slaughter here



(Don't stop to speak or look around

Your gloves and fan are on the ground

We're getting out of town

We're going on the run

And you're the one I want to come



Not to touch the earth

Not to see the sun

Nothing left to do, but

Run, run, run

Let's run

House upon the hill

Moon is lying still

Shadows of the trees

Witnessing the wild breeze

C'mon baby run with me

Let's run

Run with me

Run with me

Run with me

Let's run



The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill

Rich are the rooms and the comforts there

Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs

And you won't know a thing till you get inside

Dead president's corpse in the driver's car

The engine runs on glue and tar

C'mon along, we're not going very far

To the East to meet the Czar



Some outlaws lived by the side of the lake

The minister's daughter's in love with the snake

Who lives in a well by the side of the road

Wake up, girl! We're almost home

Sun, sun, sun

Burn, burn, burn

Soon, soon, soon

Moon, moon, moon

I will get you

Soon!, Soon!, Soon!



Let the carnival bells ring

Let the serpent sing

Let everything



We came down

The rivers and highways

We came down from

Forests and falls



We came down from

Carson and Springfield

We came down from

Phoenix enthralled

And I can tell you

The names of the Kingdom

I can tell you

The things that you know

Listening for a fistful of silence

Climbing valleys into the shade



I am the Lizard King

I can do anything

I can make the earth stop in its tracks

I made the blue cars go away



For seven years I dwelt

In the loose palace of exile

Playing strange games

With the girls of the island

Now I have come again

To the land of the fair, and the strong, and the wise

Brothers and sisters of the pale forest

O Children of Night

Who among you will run with the hunt?

Now Night arrives with her purple legion

Retire now to your tents and to your dreams

Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth

I want to be ready