The Rat's Prayer

I believe in all or nothing

Sometimes in the early morning

I believe in anything

Hungry for the dusty war cries

Hiding from a line of cat's eyes

I believe in Natty Dread

When the gods have shaved and spoken

Soft farewells to spin unbroken

Leaves to match the newly dead

From eye to eye the tumult gathers

Victims work into a lather

Take us with you when you go

Up the trap door

Down the sewer

Off the slat shot shut they trossed

Like a horn in ragged water

And slitting up the slot spot cut

From wall to world the end is never

Odd or strange or even clever

Cleave it with an iron slice

While Cook's below the frothing cinders

Mend the skull of old Belinda

Thudding on a bulb of ice

Here is love and here is cancer

Cleanest velvet for the mince event

To comes your aching teeth

Rot the skin of past and future

Tiny leads are bound to suture

When they show through underneath

Roar the waves so close and hollow

A tide that must be satisfied

Foam is fertilizing

Rotting cleansing of the valiant rat