Mark Eitzel Southend On Sea
This summer the sun was a shotgun pointed down at me
and I was just another ugly American melting in the
heat
watching the stagnant ocean breathe painfully
it only wants to drag you down by your feet
No one swimming in the water
no sharks, no eels, no little life boats
just a history lesson and some two bit Victorian ghosts
who do a turn at the pirate ship
singing, “It’s A Small World After All”
either you laugh at it baby
or you hit a brick wall
You said to me,
“You’re from California
and you laugh too easily,”
You said to me,
“You just let things happen
that are killing me”
We’re like whitefish beached all day on hot parking
lots
waiting for the summer parade to sadly drift by
melancholy floats filled with suicides and drooping
paper flowers
a defeated army and no wind to blow away the smell of
surrender
There was ’50s nostalgia and horrifying Flintstone
characters
living memorials to wasted days and wasted bitter
nights
and everyone on the promenade participates in your
silence
’cause I’m always wrong baby and you’re always right
You said to me,
“You’re from California
and you’re as dumb as can be,”
You said to me,
“Are you the Scarecrow, the Tin Man
or are you Dorothy”
You said to me,
“I’m beginning to think that you’re
a part of the enemy”
You said to me
“If I was drowning would you save me
from Southend-on-Sea”
from Southend-on-Sea
There was a chamber of horrors
and it was packed with onlookers
wax figured day trippers being tortured
worse than their crimes deserved
and there I was in a stranglehold spinning out
from your nightmare
and my life with you was a black cloud hanging in the
air
And you said to me,
“You’re from California
and you lie too easily”
You said to me,
“Did you really think that this was
going to set my heart free”
You said to me,
“I’m beginning to think that you’re
a part of the enemy”
part of the enemy
You said to me,
“If I was drowning would you save me
from Southend-on-Sea”
from Southend-on-Sea