Greg “Dk” Kelley 2026 (in progress)

Shielded Cable

A shielded cable runs from my fingers
It fashions the eternal pickup line
No interference perfect transmission
I don’t know what and yet I call it mine
In my eyes fair trains of image rise
No need to call them lies
Just because they’ve never been before
Each little heat drawn from the void
Each little dream it will return again
Each little peace each little joy
You best be ready friend to burn again
In a grain of sand see a universe
Going round and round and round and round and round
A monster fly squats on my paper
She dots with darkness everywhere I write
I raise no fist against stupid instinct
I know I’ll never teach her wrong from right
Claw in hand away together fly
Don’t even have to try
Galaxies and worlds within my mind
A shielded cable runs from my fingers
It’s all protected from the evil way
By love eternal by love transcendent
My thoughts of you my love lift me away

Animals Think

In the ditchbed behind the houses the lone coyote sets
Waiting to kill and eat all the neighborhood pets
Got no mate and got no litter committing such atrocity
Tell me why tell me why tell me why
I wonder what do animals think
I wonder what do animals think they don’t talk
I wonder what do animals think
On the beach down behind the jetty a broken-off antenna in my hand
Carving naked pictures in the sand
Got no friends and got no money don’t you wonder why I’m wasting time
Tell me why &c.
In the basement you’re disappearing I know you won’t be coming out too soon
I guess you feel alright with a needle and a spoon
You got tons of friends and tons of money I guess it makes me wonder why
Tell me why &c.

Empire (The Tyger)

“The Tyger” by William Blake, 1794
Additional lyrics by Greg “Dk” Kelley
Lydia Sharp, Soprano

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

They stand their post
They stand at their post
‘Til the whirlwind knocks them over
And they die

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Goatboy pulls the rope
Goatboy pulls the rope
‘Til the whirlwind knocks him over
And he dies

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?