The Stump - Jam Baxter

All seems quiet

Guess they’re gonna ram it out later

My worlds were dividing

Flesh like handfuls of old newspaper

Some foul smell wrinkles the fat, red face of the cocktail waiter

He sneezed out seven more bar staff

Scuttling around like rats in fantasia

It’s all filling up

Some kid brought his whole past with him

That’s from from 2012 with the meth lab stare and the sour cream filling

That’s him from his teen-goth-lip-stick phase

We all thought he went missing

12 more at the back bar grinning

Me and her sat there chilling

By midnight she’d had a few kids, by 7 she’d had a bunch more

It was jarring

They chewed at our kneecaps under the table and picked at our shins

Left deep, red scarring

At 2AM ten of my twins pulled up in three-wheelers and snuck through a side door

Lined up behind me ready to swap seats

And sell her a lost freak

This tequila’s to die for

Damn… she kept snake eggs in a silver purse

Damn… now let’s all multiply till the building bursts

He could have filled a church with shades of himself all kneeling in prayer

As hundreds of stained glass scenes from his childhood spin around us 6 feet in

the air

Told them to hide in the trunk

Never mind me, I’m drunk

Swarm of people around us

Millions of twinkling-eyes in this dump

If you wanna be by yourself

You should have said that right from the jump

But when you’ve sawn off the left hand

How you gonna slice off the right with the stump?

(How you gonna slice off the right with a stump?)

(How you gonna slice off the right with a stump?)

Rumour has it I’m still in the wild wriggling

Tugging my teeth out in a Vietnamese chemist

The sun on my back, staggering, fleeing a green menace

That’s pulling my brain out and deleting the clean edits

Squeezing the days dry and then eating the sweet relish

The sweltering heat melting the skin on my scalp bubbling

Rattling guns firing a million rounds up at him

Guessing they all still ain’t forgiven him

How troubling

Nah, lies

I’m on my ones at the table tucking in my napkin

Imma eat all night while the walls are collapsing (yeah)

Blood red everything, everything matching (matching)

Reptile eggs in the cold air hatching (yeah)

We lived our lives like sci-fi epics (epics)

Just my name three thousand times on the credits (scrolling)

We were pelted with pills like shotgun pellets

And after a while we were just sending our stunt doubles to parties in red

capes to tug at the night’s innards

Slipping in mud dribbling blood in their wine Spritzers

Coming back with a skull and a couple of nice pictures

All these plastic figures are peering out of the cupboards

I just rang the bell and greeted a shivering shop dummy

And every possible future is stuck on a spinning wheel

She just pushed her little hand on the buzzer and got lucky

'Sir!

These extra faces cost money!'

I sped away grinning and burnt a full tank

He surrounded himself with himself

And then sat there waiting one to pull rank

The trouble ain’t the endless debauchery and depravity behind us all

The trouble’s remembering every minute

But no-one's gonna turn up and hand you a tiny island with a single deck chair

in the centre of the pacific

Wait, wait, never mind me, I’m drunk

Swarm of people around us millions of twinkling eyes in this dump

If you wanna be by yourself, (you)

You should have said that right from the jump

But, when you’ve sawn off the left hand, how you gonna slice off the right with

the stump?

(Wait, wait)

Never mind me, I’m drunk

Swarm of people around us, millions of twinkling eyes in this dump

If you wanna be by yourself

You should have said right from the jump

Should have said right from the jump