Vic Chesnutt - Skitter On Take Off

 

 

Feast In The Time Of Plague

Mirrors, mirrors everywhere
A thousand eyes reflecting glare
Waves vibrant, thrilling and soothing
Dancing, resting, breathing, moving
Sunlight cranking in the head
Body craving to be tested

Feast in the time of plague
You were a beautiful pig
Feast in the time of plague
You were a beautiful pig

Pounding tables, fists of meat
Stupid messy giddy greed
This inflippent, frightening
Sloppy senses heightening
Praises gushing down from high
Drowning practicality

Feast in the time of plague
You were a beautiful pig
Feast in the time of plague
You were a beautiful pig

 

Unpacking My Suitcase

I was unpacking my suitcase
Pulling out dirty clothes
When evocative aromas hit my nose
One shirt smelled of your smoky loft
Another strongly of spilt vodka
And it occurred to me, how much I brought home

And knowingly your head loaded me up
With the stuff to survive
Through lean times
So starved I could just wither and die

But I was saving little chunks
Of your sweet sweet goodness
And squirrelin them away
I was squirrelin them away
I was saving healthy chunks
Of your sweet sweet goodness
And squirrelin them away
For the long lean winter

All of y’all, so lush and generous
It can get lean and lonely where I hail from
But each luscious one of you
Gave me bounteous charms to chew

And I was stuffing, stretching, smiley-cheeked
For the extent of my stay
You could say that I was
Squirrelin it away
I was just squirrelin it away

 

Dimples

Wrinkled russian newspaper on the wall
Streaks of purple bruises on your arm
Long stemmed roses as a row
Lock of auburn hair in an envelope

Cat calls and wolf whistles
Cat calls and wolf whistles
Cat calls and wolf whistles
Everywhere you go, everywhere you go

Jello shots from a stranger
Turn them in the red granger
Playing catch across the trestle
Tackle turned into a wrestle

Breaking bones with river stones
In the shadow of the project
Sailor stopped the river walk
Waving jolly rogers

Too good to be true
The onus on you
Too good to be true
The onus on you, the onus on you

Time stretches amazingly
When adrenalin is pumpin
With your fist against my temple
Scary when you show your dimples

 

Rips In The Fabric

She was walking down a sidewalk
Sniffing, sniffing in the wind
Thinking of everything and nothing
Just another flighty human being

And satellites were arcing
Undetected overhead
Her cells were busy splitting
Engenacing the dead

Beauty is as beauty does
In the eyes of the beholder
Or collectively in all of us

She was waving to a cyclist
As he went coasting past
In through a lazy intersection
Toward the remainder of his life

And a fair old cat went dashing
Behind a dumpster there
Which displaced a brown rat
Which went fleeing with a comical flair

We are trapped but we are free
To go through the motions
And be just as happy as we can be

And later on I held her in my skinny arms
My chapped lips were whispering esoteric alarms
But her warm breath assuaged me and the music returned
We continued dancing while big forest fires burned

Space is spooky and time it is a trip
Don't let the preachers, teachers, hipsters fool you
There ain't no rips in the fabric.

 

Society Sue

We were strolling hand in hand
We were going to see the man
We were laughing at gaffer Dan
We were happy as giant clams

But Calamity Jane ruined everything
With her body and brains
She lived up to her name
She was Calamity Jane

We were kissing beside the park
As the parkie sputtered and sparked
We were bumping our birthmarks
We were happy as lilting larks

But Society Sue, she had something to prove
And when she made her move
There was nothing to do
We just had to make room for
Society Sue

 

My New Life

I am so lonely
I am so lonely
I am so lonely
I am so alone

I am so lonely
I am so lonely
I am so lonely
I am so alone
without you

I will never find my new life
I will never find my new life
without you

But one thing I will find
One thing I will find
In my new life
One thing I will find
One thing I will find
In my new life

Is that I don't have to
Be with no asshole anymore
And that I don't have to
Listen to your bullshit anymore
Yeah I don't have to
Be with no asshole anymore
In my new life

 

Dick Cheney

You’re a manly man
You gotta fearsome farmhand
Big strong shoulders
A set of stones as big as boulders
Confidence near from year to here

Maybe not the straightest aim
But that don't stop you from shooting
Over and over and over again
You love to shoot
In the face of our resistance

Defiant with a grin
Going down with Dick Cheney
Going down swingin'

So American, So western
You ride off into the sunset
While all civilisation burns behind you
And I, I bet you're humming
Don't fence me in
After the incredible stonewaller
That you have been
I bet you're humming don't fence me in

Admired by a few of the most powerful people in the world
You are head of y’board feared retirement
But you will be confined
To your little bubble of protectors
Cos if you stray you will have to pay
For all the unconscionable wrong
You will have to pay
For all the unconscionable wrong you did

 

Worst Friend

You got one friend who's a flight attendant
You got one friend who likes speed
You got one friend who always wants to smoke inside of your house
You got one friend who secretly likes to get peed on sexually

You got one friend who is oh so natural
And got one friend we all call the retard
You got one friend fighting cancer
You got one friend who I bet right now is barking out in the yard

But I'm the worst friend in the world
I'm the worst friend in the world
When you are down
I'm nowhere to be found
I'm the worst friend in the world

You got one friend who's in Iraq
You got one friend who dresses like little bo peep
You got one friend who is in prison
You got one friend who's really really in defeat sexually

You got one friend who could be a competitive eater
You got one friend who's one of those bad movie buffs
You got one friend who touched you inappropriately
And one friend who you are pining to touch

But I'm the worst friend in the world
I'm the worst friend in the world
When you are down
I'm nowhere to be found
I'm the worst friend in the world

You got one friend who's emic Arthur fellow
You got one friend who a widower
You got one friend who claims to have taken a dump in the White House
You got one friend who just gave birth to twins

You got one friend who goes to the gym at least twice a day
And one friend recovered from severe burns
You got one friend who rubbed his penis on tv's actual Wheel of Fortune
And one friend who y'all ain't, y'all ain't even on speaking terms

 

Sewing Machine

Suck in your gut, unclench your fists
Just finished skulling a big black fish
On a bench up behindthe tool shack
In a patch of the poisoned sumack

Momma order us some catalogue jeans
And she made the cuffs on the sewing machine
Sewing machine, sewing machine, sewing machine

Granny wrote a letter up under the table lamp
Said her thumbs hurt cos all the beans she had to snap
I laid on the porch, just looking through the cracks
See the dog sleeping, watch those ugly chicken scratch

The prom is coming and big sister should be queen
Momma makes her dress on the sewing machine
Sewing machine, sewing machine, sewing machine

Daddy is asleep, he's just home from work
In his comfy chair and his yellowed undershirt
Sister is sad cos she just got the curse
And I am kinda happy cos my go-kart kinda works

I wanna be a vampire on Halloween
Momma makes my cape on the sewing machine
Sewing machine, sewing machine, sewing machine