The city’s a mammal breathing in the dark,
A vast, pulsing, throbbing, sweating,
Bleeding, shitting, pissing, fucking,
Screaming, crying, laughing, dying beast
That doesn’t care about me or anyone,
That just is, and does, and will be.
We’re specks of dirt on its metal skin,
Drops of blood in its concrete veins.

You people, I see your traces every night:
You’re the ones who throw out half-eaten pizza,
Leftover Chinese, expired milk, moldy cheese.
You’re the ones who discard broken toys,
Torn clothes, worn-out shoes, cracked phones.
You’re the ones who dump dirty tissues,
Used condoms, bloody tampons, piss-stained sheets.
You’re the ones who leave photos of smiling faces,
Drawings of rainbows, love letters, suicide notes.

The truck’s another beast, made of metal and oil,
With a hungry mouth, a crushing throat,
And a roaring, smoking ass.
It roams the city at night, devouring its shit,
Turning it into mush, then spitting it out
Onto a stinking mountain of waste,
Where birds and rats and maggots feed.

I’m a beast too, a parasite on the beast,
A machine of flesh and blood and bone and nerve
That runs on garbage and music and memories,
That breaks down and heals and breaks down again.
My heart beats like the engines of a spaceship
Launching itself into space.

This guy I work with sold me his old shitbox
For a couple hundred bucks, said it runs fine.
Engine coughs, starter groans, heater’s a joke.
This piece of junk should’ve been scrapped.

I like to cruise through the veins
Of this mammalian machine
That runs on trash and pain.
The pizza joints, the strip clubs,
The ruins where junkies shoot up,
The alleys where whores sell their flesh.

The streets are covered in shit
Left by dogs and pigeons and drunks.
All the kids are scared and angry.
The adults are just old kids with jobs.

I used to think I was different.
I thought I had a purpose, a meaning.
But I’m just another piece of trash
Thrown out into the world
To fester and decay.
I try to keep my head down.
I try to make it through the day
Without killing someone or myself.