We're Out of Time - A Cento

We're Out of Time, A Cento*

She got up from the kitchen table.
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio.

Something has gone wrong.
And I don't know how much longer I can take it.

This flower is scorched.
This film is on, a maddening loop.

The world is collapsing, around our ears.
But I can't hear it.

40,000 stars in the evening,
Look at them fall from the sky.

My mind is racing.
Blackbirds backwards forwards and fall and hold hold.

It seems a shame you waste your time for me.
But what about me?

It seems so silly.
I skipped the part about love.

Oh no, I've said too much.
I set it up.

There's no time to cry.
Throw your love around,
love me,
love me.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*This poem is composed of two lines from each of the tracks on REM's Out of Time Album (1991), except for Endgame (an instrumental track).  

The songs are: Belong, Near Wild Heaven, Country Feedback, Radio Song, Texarkana, Low, Me In Honey, Half A World Away, Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People.