Jungle Ride

Jungle Ride The car finally burned out around 3. The blue beacon
of a silent patrol car threw new shadows into the street
turning the window into a flickering monitor screen.
I’d seen the kids torch the vehicle before I left on a
nightly surfing run to a cybersex site in Chile.
It wasn’t as if they were getting rid of prints, everyone
knew it was them. They didn’t give a shit. They just
wanted to see the flames, to throw a bit of light on a
situation. I looked up the hill at the spread of the estate.
The streetlights glowed like campfires of an army on the
eve of battle or fireflies trapped in the canopy
of an immense jungle.
Jungle, young mental jungle,
Here in the jungle, in the jungle
Where men don’t cry and husbands lie and you never have
to justify a kickin.
When mates jump in to save your skin if a chib is ever
pulled out in a square go.

Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it’s over.
Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it ends.
Oh here she comes round again, here she comes round again,
here she comes round again, here she comes, here she comes.

The glazed eyes of porcelain clowns stare skywards at clouds
of goldfish madly circling their own silent plastic worlds, high
above the children who stuff ping pong balls like pills
in the mouths of slowly rotating heads.
Intentions true as the arrow’s flight wins a cuddly toy
to while away an evening. Outside this ring of light
he’ll claim his prize, she’ll sport lovebites just to
prove to all he’s been there.

I crept along the edges of the parade, staying glued to the
shadows where the dogs slept uneasily on their chains
under the caravans.
I followed the drums and the pulsing light until I came across
a clearing in the centre of which was the attraction.
And then I saw her, an angel in a chariot, her hair
trailing behind her like the tail of a comet. And I knew
that she was mine. I knew that we were destined
to leave this place together. We didn’t belong to this
carnage and the knowledge of escape was the only thing
keeping me sane. But for now I could only watch and
wait for this was an arena I dare not enter.

On the rim of the machine the animals had gathered.
Big cats at a waterhole waiting on the weak and wounded
to stagger into their territory so they could exercise
some violence and feed their starving reputations.
No climbdown in this standoff with the world.
They already know that they can never win the war
but in this battle they’re gonna do some damage.
The pack will follow the stragglers into the dawn.
Young mental jungle.

Jungle ride, jungle ride tell me when it’s over
Jungle ride, jungle ride, tell me when it ends (rpt)
Here she comes round again, here she comes round again
Here she comes round again, here she comes, here she comes.