“Mortal Grin” lyrics

 A song I wrote 16 years ago:

Mortal Grin

The night is speaking in strange tongues,

and the heat hangs like a dead lung.

Surreal thoughts leaking out of my brain,

going up in smoke through this tepid rain.

I wander vague, disconcerting streets,

full of apparitions clothed in meat.

Staring into these confident faces,

I'm stupefied for explanations.

What should I think about this suavity

and body language so cavalier,

when I feel like an underground man

with a Dostoevskian fever?

I hear the murmur of latent cadavers,

waltzing just outside the graveyard fence.

No misstep, no pause in their palaver.

Where can I get one of those big, wide mortal grins?

My thoughts are running like a wild dog,

as I contemplate this complacent throng.

Hey you, yes you, with that bowler on your head,

what spell are you working on the mighty dread?

I stand perplexed, my mouth is agape,

mystified by reality's shape,

while all around me are gesturing blithely.

They know something I'm un-divining.

Should I purchase some opium,

join this conspiracy crowd?

They say there's strength in numbers, numbers,

but they're dropping like flies while the night's unbowed.

What should I think about this suavity

and body language so cavalier,

when I feel like an underground man

with a Dostoevskian fever?

I hear laughter coming from a midnight ball,

where the smiling masks are made out of skin.

Jesters tumble happily in absurd thrall

to the yawning god of sleep and mortal grins.

I hear the rumble of distant thunder,

that deep and unsettling symbolic din.

I wish I could put this fear asunder.

I want my very own big, wide mortal grin.

Words & Music by Tim Buck, 2008