A young boy busts his dad's Hills Hoist, using it as a swing k**s a magpie in the backyard with a homemade ging Steals chlorine from the neighbour's swimming pool Puts it in a coffee jar and pours brake fluid in Makes a pipe bomb using match heads, and it fizzles when he runs Tries again using the powder from the shells of his Old man's shotgun It hisses like a feral cat he's seen, slithers like the snake he k**ed Leaves a scorch mark on the pavement And he's badly beaten for it Finds a Playboy on the way to school Tries remembering his Mum Throws rocks at a girl he likes, and he's sent Home before lunch Finds a King Kong doll beneath a bush Probably some rich kid's But it roars ants when he shakes it So he drops it in a bin Later on dinner time comes He puts tinned beans on white Tip Top Halves it with his fingers Shares it with the dog Jumps a cyclone fence to the sound Of his old man f**ing through the evening Finds a severed kangaroo hind leg Just laying in a clearing There's a tendon or a tapeworm That retracts after a kick Finds a new stink that nearly makes him puke When he pokes it with a stick Meets a friend near there They go to see his house just down the road The sister lets them in Then goes back upstairs in a bathrobe He sees a Phillishave full of hair clippings In a bathroom, near a bra They find some car keys Go outside and search a V8 car And there's a Beta tape in a brown paper bag Hid under a seat Hit play on the VCR machine And start to hear flute music Now there's two girls on a farm somewhere Playing with a labrador Which rolls onto its back, like it has Been through this before and It's the last time D hears flute music The last time he thinks about girls He sneaks home about 10 o'clock Gets inside using the dog door Channel 7 gets the scoop again There's a man gone crazy He stole an APC from the army base And closed down half the city D's been expelled from school and he's quite happy Staying in bed He keeps track of all the updates Surfing networks instead This tank arrives at police HQ about 8am It makes pancakes out of 5 or 6 patrol cars and then Runs out of diesel near a Castrol service station And there's a standoff Then he's tearga**ed and Not heard of again D's father dies of cancer the next Christmas day He's so hopped up on morphine that he Can't get straight He says "Be proud of me my boy Well I am finally off the f*gs Since they caught me upstairs Smoking on the helipad" They cut the tumor off his liver But he died without it Seems like no one gets to choose What they can't live without It don't matter about money When there ain't no way around You are living in a nightmare You can't bribe your way out D finds a one room flat That overlooks an underpa** He works part time as a labourer and it's ok Though it's hard Then some black kid steals his concession card And beats him 'round the head Next time D sees an army surplus store he steals a bayonet Then one day the bus to work Knocks down the kid that held him up He dies laying in the street The driver don't make too much fuss He smokes a ciggie with the cops The ambulance is running late And something inside D finds all this very, very strange Soon after that the work dries up And D starts drinking hard Starts drinking cheap cask wine with old black fellas Living in the park One has a tattoo of a swastika made with a candle Soap and spoons Says he's half caste and that full bloods prefer Petrol over goon Says he was brought up on a mission Then became a Viet Vet Ain't got a single tooth to chew So D gives him a bayonet He has white scars between his knuckles Or what's left of them and says "See I'm white too I just cannot drink inside the way you like to" Five years later D meets Werner at the rifle range Werner's granddad was SS So now he goes by the nickname Werner the Jew Burner and young D become so tight They start going bush in his Landcruiser Living on roos they shoot spotlighting They get a year's lease on a duplex Werner finds D some work as An unlicensed forklift driver in a fish market for cash He's got pictures of Adolf Hitler Antique copies of Mein Kampf But D thinks Hitler's obsolete And Werner's practice too relaxed But Werner finished high school And studied engineering D never did finish school And Werner breaks the news that evening The RAAF say they accept his application To be trained to work on Hercules' 2000 miles away He leaves tomorrow for NSW And throws a party Late that night They get to drinking and they're talking Then they argue then they fight D comes to bleeding in his bedroom Begging Werner not to go But Werner's full weight's on his back now And he's face down in a pillow D wakes up late next afternoon But Werner is long gone D goes to find his .22 But there ain't no shells at all He finds 5 valiums in a Winfield pack In a duffel bag in the hall Then sits in front of the TV screen Washes it all down with a bottle Cliff has a beautiful wife He's insured for his life It is autumn here in Brooklyn In obstetrics, labour pain And though his roots here are in slavery Cliff is dressed himself by slaves Credits rise like you're collapsing, so bewilderingly fast Seems the Cosbys of the world all go to bed 11 sharp The rest of you have a choice of late night news And more commercials Yeah Just Do It, Have A Break, yes Life Is Good Because You're Worthless Maybe She Was Born With It And maybe you were too Seems that one way or the other There is nothing you can do Cause you can only go as far as denying You haven't come anywhere Forget Charles Darwin's namesake Is surrounded with black hair You are depressed now but need only take this pill To ban despair If East Timor can't be middle cla** It can't really be there You are driving the Jeep Cherokee Burning Arabs for fuel But you are driving the Jeep Cherokee And that's good enough for you You are living among taxpayers Who welcome brown folks with a moat Conducting policy with the one free hand While the other's round their throats You are living in a land besieged By what the world might think or know But with its head so deep in Turkish sand This can't really be so You are living in a nightmare Let them Balkanize the East No one says a word these days They turn the other cheek You are living in a nightmare You can't trust a ceasefire bid And any wall they build around Gaza Will be begging for a lid You are living in a nightmare You can't bribe a want of doubt You are living in a nightmare You can't bribe your way out of But now we interrupt this broadcast To bring you breaking news There is a building in Manhattan And it's burning