All the Rage

You're the darling
& you're the gem
The infinity and the extremity of intimacies
To render the gods mortal
& to bend the mortals divine,

I'm your tow-along
Pulled along and keeping up
(just)
by the skin of my teeth
I take my place in the background
While you savour your customary spotlight.

You're the fiercely protected beauty
& the Prima-donna of all,
The caricature of royalty for the peasants to drool,

I'm the boy wringing his hands behind you
While you graciously
Nurture your appetite for destruction
& your love of the obscene

You're the appetite for infamy behind the appetizer of fame,
& you're just all the rage
Oh yes, you're just all the rage,
You sleep around at night
You can't yet string together a song
You're the decay on the dancefloor
But everyone wants more,
Oh yes, everyone wants more

---------------------------------------------------------
Summer Days (Alive)

When I go to sleep, it feels like I'm falling,
Slipping through my sheet,
Splashing ice water on my feet,
When I wake up, it feels like I've been reincarnated,
Thinking of you.
(it's good to feel alive)

I'm not here to make an impression,
Not hanging around to carve my initials into the trunk of a tree,
(like we used to do, back in summer days)
To sketch stick men into the dirty old sidewalk with a piece of chalk,
(like we used to do, back in the summer days)
To sit in front of the black box and laugh at Friends,
Because isn't that all we needed back in those days?
(back in the summer days)
To sit on the park bench and drink lemonade
(before we needed to swig from vodka bottles)
To lie in the grass and blow ladybirds off our pinkies
To shake our heads to the steady six string
To wonder what we'd be when we were big and old.
To wait for angels to come to surburbia,
(let the time fly, let the time fly)

When I go to sleep, it feels like I'm falling,
Slipping through my sheet,
Splashing ice water on my feet,
When I wake up, it feels like I've been reincarnated,
Thinking of you.
(it's good to feel alive)

I lie in bed,
Listen to the rain splatter against my window,
(handfuls of ants smashing against the glass)
And think about the times we spent together,
Holding hands and skipping rope,
Knowing that the sun penetrated through to our souls,
Making a million chinks of rainbow studded light within
(the summer days we lived)
Knowing that we still had our times ahead,
To hitch our rucksacks up our spines
(still a mass of rotating cogs and wheels in disarray)
(not yet full of muscle and bone and wiry neuron)
And wave our goodbyes and part our sorry ways.
Speeding up the highway,
Wind tearing strips out of our hair,
Jam the pedal all the way to the floor,
(sixty miles to go!)
The wings on our sneakers rising just enough to skim along the tarmac,
(meditatively chewing stalks of grass)
Smiling as we saw the horizon paint itself before our faces.

When I go to sleep, it feels like I'm falling,
Slipping through my sheet,
Splashing ice water on my feet,
When I wake up, it feels like I've been reincarnated,
Thinking of you.
(it's good to feel alive)

They were times when we knew ourselves for who we were,
When we didn't need to look round
(arm ourselves with daggers in our belts)
Look back at the footprints we trod in the wet sand,
(smear the blood of others on our belly and cheek)
We heard the call of the wild, the roar of the tiger,
We roared back in all happy fury,
Waiting for something to come along and tame us,
We grew up together, through graduation and may death do us part,
(but oh, those summer days)
But I lie in bed and know that things aren't the same,
Memory has faded from Technicolor to grey and pasty white,
(those days have long gone)
Now we arm ourselves with adult knowledge,
But deep in heart, we're still the kids of yesterday.
(just keep on moving on)

When I go to sleep, it feels like I'm falling,
Slipping through my sheet,
Splashing ice water on my feet,
When I wake up, it feels like I've been reincarnated,
Thinking of you.
(it's good to feel alive)

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