E Is For Estranged - Owen Pallett

Boys run like water from the barrel to the trough

They’ll never stop their running

Gunning for their brothers

This house is a hostel

It is peaceful, but it’s always emptying

Boys all want to be someone

Haven’t you heard?

I am a flightless bird

I am a liar, feeding facts to a false fire

If pathos is borne, borne out of bullshit

In formal attire, I’ll score you a string ensemble

I saw my son at seventeen

The shutters made projections on his naked frame

And now at twenty-five

He simply cannot stay away from the ketamine

With makeup on his sores

He spends an hour a day composing little eulogies

Sometimes he sends me letters

But they’re mostly garbled phrases and apologies

But haven’t you heard?

I am a flightless bird

I am a liar, feeding facts to a false fire

If pathos is borne, borne out of bullshit

In formal attire, cue the Bulgarian men’s choir