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# Severed Hearts / Murdered Brains
- URL: https://www.merionwest.com/severed-hearts-murdered-brains/
- Published: 2026-05-03T03:00:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-30T17:03:49.000Z
- Description: Dave Church
- Author: Dave Church
- Tags: Poetry, Arts

> Severed hearts and murdered brains  
> on their own are bleeding alone MAD  
> in broken neon streets mumbling stoned  
> insanities and holy obscenities SCREAMING  
> sworn oaths of death before dishonor PRAYING  
> in search of virgin bedrooms and temples  
> of gloom for shadows like their own  
> searching too to eat their own  
> to keep from dying

> On my own I’ve known more than my share  
> of silver tongues and smooth pearls  
> More than my share of blue-blood  
> esquires and sleazy debutantes  
> riding in long-white limousines flashing  
> morality books with pages FULL of perfumed  
> opinions and insanity  
> More than my share of promise and myth  
> More than my share of tears smeared frozen  
> in my path  
> And more than my share of drowned poets

> On my own I’ve known well some who’ve tried  
> on me plastic bags of airlessness wrapped  
> tight with alienation  
> Secured with concrete fascination  
> And protected with bubble gum imagination  
> There was one especially who tried  
> and failed  
> I left her somewhere alone crying  
> And my own bag remains full of holes  
> for breath of life

> On my own I’ve married four levels  
> of consciousness  
> Been divorced from all four and moving  
> closer to a fifth  
> Been left alone wandering and wondering  
> Talking incessantly with machine-gun words  
> about master plans and miracles  
> Cosmic awareness!  
> And the powerlessness  
> of mortal sins  
> Been left unprotected from psycho mind benders  
> and killers of soul  
> Politicians  
> Who gather in chambers searching for flashlights  
> Earth Gods in black robes  
> Doctors who cure with lobotomy pills  
> and middle class self esteem  
> Police who answer “call of wild” bluesman  
> with bullets and handcuffs  
> Mothers and fathers who deaf and blind  
> leave child to suffer  
> and perish

> Oh how once these eyes dream traveled  
> over tall mountains  
> Beyond long seas  
> And all that these eyes saw  
> was all that these eyes were  
> Unclouded skies!  
> Weeping rainbows!  
> Womb bellies!  
> In people I did believe as I believed  
> in goodness  
> Breastmilk  
> Brotherhood!  
> Bomb shelters!  
> The God of my ancestors  
> And all great laws of earth fathers  
> “Do not compare man to rock or tree”  
> “Gold equals molecule of life”  
> “Evolution is now”  
> “You your own guardian in love and war”  
> “Beware wild animals”  
> Never though did they speak to me of Goddess  
> Venus rising from water in darkness offering  
> gift of butterfly soul  
> Who left me nearly blind  
> A winged infant with arrow and bow  
> Who left me on my own alone  
> Inside steel structures doing thorazine  
> shuffles under influence of Atomic cocktail  
> And Acapulco gold

> And on my own I’ve known the likes of Mr.  
> Bones and tambourine  
> Listened to their words of whiskey and rum  
> Danced with them cakewalk on the run  
> Read their gospel of order and law  
> That taught me what to steal from the rich  
> and from my own  
> And once I stole a friend’s reason  
> for dying

> And some of us die before our time petrified  
> and electrified  
> Blown away and thrown away in broken neon  
> streets mumbling stoned insanities and holy  
> obscenities SCREAMING sworn oaths of death  
> before dishonor Praying in search of virgin  
> bedrooms and temples of gloom for shadows  
> like their own searching too to eat their

> own to keep from dying  
> And some of us die before our time  
> Yet on our own we continue  
> All the time  
> All the time being  
> Being really scared.

This poem originally appeared in *Roadie,* a chapbook of poetry by Dave Church, published by [The Beehive Press](https://www.theindieauthorhive.com/library?ref=merionwest.com) in 1999\. 

### The late Dave Church was a neo-Beat poet widely published in the small press. He was active in the 1970s and again in the 1990s and early 2000s before his death on the eve of Thanksgiving in 2008\. "No degrees, no awards" was how he liked to describe himself, but a book called [*Of Small Things*](https://www.amazon.com/Small-Things-Dave-Church/dp/1946580260?ref=merionwest.com) was published after his death as a tribute, containing poems by many poets who knew him or corresponded with him. It remains a testament to his influence in the "underground" poetry scene of his era.