Mean Streak

a meat wagon in the shadow of a tenement block
you got the pigs up in the stairwell
asking questions and taking down names
i say "that boy had a mean streak
i aint trying to be mean
hes just easy to hate
he had a spike in his veins for a number of years
its all cold memory now
he tells me that he has gone clean
a black white tv set up the back of his head
that shatters and shutters
but wont never go dead

that boy had it down
holier than thou
though he was dumber than a bag of hammers
i didnt know
hed pull the trigger
with his left big toe

well he shaved off his hair
leaving only the eyes in his head
and a hole for a mouth
that looked more like an asshole i swear
he never had no family hed sit up on the ledge
staring up at a moon that died in the nights arms
to keep watch like a ghost on his heart
in its throws and its calms

well it aint how you fall its how you land
id remind him...'life has its lessons'hed say
ill come good once i figure to learn them
i kicked junk with the bottle
now its merely a teething concern
he would tell me
but i had my doubts
a 13th floor bedsit a kitchen a couch
the only ways down
cause the bottom youll find
is much clearer to the eye than the top is the other way round"