Time to wake up and see what's around Time to learn without a sound Time to understand without second sight Nothing in the dark that's not there in the light Don't criticize me, you can't understand What looking at life can do to a man Don't try to deny or claim perfection There's problems with us that surpass detection Can't you understand, it's still all right Nothing in the dark that's not there in the light There's something to learn in every disease I'll take my knowledge and do as I please See the blood on the hands of those angels in white Nothing in the dark that's not there in the light G.S., 2/19/87

Young boy and grandfather walking in the street Crowded summertime city street Toughs walking down the street Strutting their stuff Tension in the street The toughs pass, it's just another day But the tensions is high The invasion is here Someone walking with us A man I have seen before and think I know (my father?) There is a splash and screaming metal as his guts hit the ground For a moment he stands with half a body Then he falls back and his head breaks the glass of a store window Blood runs to the black velvet display case and pools around his head Staring up with lifeless eyes, Haloed with broken glass and blood on tan tile Things move fast and my grandfather takes me...... We are up in an apartment, hiding Once I think there was more here Things of comfort before the fear Claimed lives and property gone Don't know who will survive but the end looks near "These are bad days" says the old man to the boy Who rises and looks out the second story window to suburbia below He can remember how it used to be Change came suddenly, inexplicably The streets are quiet now, with a few people moving around Grandfather summons him to sit and starts to explain "Just close your eyes and put your head in my lap." Grandfather has a ceremonial knife The boy knows what will happen now And with his eyes closed he listens for the sound Will it be slick like a razor Or rough like the tearing of cloth? The throat is cut, a soft wet ripping sound No different than that of an animal And the deed is done The boy rises and looks at the old man's second mouth The unnatural gash self inflicted The old man's lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling. Now he was alone. G.S., 12/86

My soul wants to move south Up to the boulevard to reclaim some pride I live in a condo An air conditioned dream palace in which I can hide Until the landlord comes by with unwanted intrusions upon my time My room is big with walls like tissue Overhanging the living room And when I play my organ I'm much too loud But at night when the room is black In adventure and air-conditioned coolness In sheets cleaner than a hospital's I pursue my incest In the morning I'm going south South to the boulevard to work in the theater And I'm already there and I'm working in the basement When a man comes rushing in who knows me And is screaming with violence and hysteria in his voice Blissful thoughts of condo heaven fade and I am slapped awake As he screams about blueprints in his hand Apparently I drew them and there's a problem (go away I want to sleep) Apparently I'm an architect and there's a big problem (am I in trouble?) The whole place is coming down And as this guy goes to grab my throat the wall rumbles It's going to come down Blue paint and plaster and mortar crumbles I'm up like a shot and running like hell The angry man and disaster are chasing me I'm running from both and I must escape The theater crumbles and dies below me Up stairs ramps and ladders to the roof I escape And I'm almost to the top and I'll make it there soon And when I get there I'll look down At the street I love, at the prestigious boulevard So full of life and decay and magic And for a moment I'll be on top of the world And with sadness and joy and abandon I will move south. G.S., 12/15/86

I walk the streets alone at night Beneath the silent neon lights There is no order Chaos rules And violence reigns supreme My conscience left me long ago I don't care And I don't know just where it's gone I'm happy now There's nothing in my way I live to take your life tonight I'd love to take your life tonight As screams and terror fills your heart Your death makes me a star Now I'm on the nightly news With your blood I've paid my dues Your innocence and all your dreams are buried in the grave I'm killing you because it's fun It could be you or anyone I don't owe the world respect And this is all I crave I live to take your life tonight I'd love to take your life tonight As screams and terror fill your heart Your death makes me a star Now it's time to face the facts Time to play the final act This world is a catastrophe and order is a joke If you live free you live with me Brush shoulders with insanity I suffer you to come to me Or live under the yoke Take one last look before you fall You've seen my face in mirrored halls To you the world is made of glass To me it's made of stone G.S., 3/87

(STOP! WARNING! ADULT CONTENT! FOUL LANGUAGE AND I DON'T MEAN CHICKENS! you may continue......) It was rush hour in the night club cafeteria High atop the social tower High above a thousand glittering impersonal lights In the towering club The elite danced the night away To the pulse of the latest rage Blood red was the light It was a few hours before dawn And night was not yet gone When the chase began As an emissary of the Dragon force A policeman-assassin of sorts Was pursuing The Interloper He who was not of the club The rogue of many faces He who owes no allegiance And schemes only to escape And serve himself The night was full of dying possibilities Full of changing air and excitement Full of life, however dangerous and foul The force of life crackled like static in the wind The rogue pushed through the unseeing mass Drugging themselves on the red-lit dance floor Shoving the unaware aside in his attempt to escape the law The oriental agent followed, doing the same Until the rogue pushed through at last To the brightly lit hallway Where the elevators led to offices, The street, New adventures, Freedom But his pursuer was right behind Dragon man could not cuff the rogue But was pushed off balance The elevator was called And as the rogue disappeared towards freedom inside it The agent assassin laughed in desperate triumph "I've tricked you", he called as the doors shut: "That elevator is going down!" But as the doors shut and the elevator roared up Throwing him to the floor He knew he had won anyway. On the ground above A strange sight awaited him Naked, sprawled on the floor Wall to wall on brightly colored bean bags The elderly corpses lay sprawled in a naked orgy Groping without motion The fresh dead had been positioned obscenely In a last fling at wild passion He picked his way through gingerly Hoping to avoid stepping on anyone In his head he heard their voices And became convinced they would feel pain if stepped upon He had no wish to anger them Though they seemed dead Their social grope was important They must go undisturbed As it was the easiest way to avoid arguments and confrontations And he passed through the glass doors to the condo project beyond It was almost dawn but people treated it as dusk Perhaps to some there was no difference He roamed the empty facades Conscious of the presence of the force of life In so much empty space The people were all in But there was more life because of it The way the empty night feels alive to those weary of their kind Ahead in an upstairs window a light shined In a typical middle class bedroom Of a typical middle class girl Some businessman's daughter Just waiting for sex Ready to fuck and suck for the sake of rebellion Ready to try anything once Ripe for perversion A fellow searcher for the force of life She snuck back in her room with her friend Less attractive and somewhat more cynical than she Perhaps they both were looking for a good time Young girls often liked to play games He climbed up to her window Scaling the rustic facade into teenage suburbia The Interloper once again They did not seem surprised They did not want to fuck He had to get somewhere and he needed directions From up here he could see better They took him to the window and pointed It was a club on the street shrouded in mist from the damp morning In the gray light it looked like a chateau And he knew it was a chance, a battle in the war Perhaps tonight he'd win And as he stared from her window He grew excited Sensing that victory could be near Get ready for another adventure Get ready for another fight Tonight....... G.S., '86

I was back in school again Getting ready to graduate It wasn't my school But if it was I probably wouldn't go back (It never is) But very often if not always I feel I have returned home To people I never knew who are my close friends To girls who I really did use to know Who didn't like me then But want the chance to know me all over again Friends and community Always there in the back of my mind And on waking I find I am saddened that only in dreams were these things truly real for me. And every year around June When it's time for some new class to graduate I dream and I leave once again Or I'm just back Back with friends more real than those I left behind Back in times more fun than the truth What was the truth? Moments out of time, we were as one But imprisoned, unity was in cynicism If the authorities didn't hound us, we often hounded each other It was no paradise Even if I could go back, there's not much left behind Just dreams of what we could have been Had we not been so blind I was back in school again It was graduation day Father was speaking on the phone, so many miles away And as he spoke, a shower broke and rain came pouring down The room turned gray and the light grew dim and my soul wore a frown He spoke to me from the land of night, where I was soon to go To plunge full time into the night to wrap my dreams in snow He spoke of payments to be made, appointments to be kept Smalltimes coming down so hard, was it he or I who slept? I comforted him and said, "Don't worry, for I will join you soon". Hung up the phone and I walked to the edge And I looked down through the gloom There in summer rain so warm my friends lay on the ground Drunken by the party, real escape unfound And the girl I had come so far to reclaim was gone along with my chances The day will turn sunny and warm, a day of pompousness and circumstances And an audience of previous generations who wish to share their blight Goodbyes will be said and the inmates released To work out their lifetimes in night. G.S., summer '86

An end to war and hatred, An end to need and want A perfect life while living, No memories that haunt A span of years with no regrets Or ways to fill them all A world of spring and summertime, An end to winter and fall A time when all love is returned And every promise true A time when old age is a myth And everyone is new A time when everyone has food And no one needs a car A time when everyone is loved For what they really are And the world will change With words and a tune Water from the moon. G.S., '84