Sleepwalking

How do you live in such a mad world?
The perfume you breathe is made of crushed pearls
Where the red high-heeled shoes stalk the concrete
Card towers tilt to the drum of dead feet

The pigeons all watch from their gargoyle homes
As if they, the scavengers, see while they comb
All our garbage and stare at our bare listlessness
The streets full of strangers; our mindless existence

We all are the cat who walks by himself
With pride and long noses, our mirrors and shelves
All places alike and all places the same
Stories of how we once knew our own names

Which hat will you wear? Which mask matches today?
Which sequined gown for the masquerade?
Where everybody dances like nobody cares
Sleepwalking, lips moving in irreverent prayer

How do you live in a world gone to the dogs?
Or to the mice that live hidden in drug-induced fogs
The roses have faded, the green leaves have all changed
Would that we all were hungry, blind or deranged

Perhaps we'd be searching or moving, instead
Of sleepwalking, tilting, just like we're all
Dead.