"Zen" lyrics - JOHN CALE

It's midnight
And our silver-tongued obsessions come at us out of the dark
Scrambling to be recognised before tearing themselves apart
It's zen and the art of Bollywood
Heroes turning on a spit
The lovers unable to resolve a prehistoric bitch

We don't know the half of it
Clever is as clever does
His drawn lights sparking on a merry-go-round
Hypnotizing everyone on it
In zen and the art of forgery
We're losing control of light
DeLorean, Picasso, Mondrian, El Greco
Someone's gonna pay the price

If I didn't know you better than that
I'd never let you out of my sight

Where is the art of sorcery?
We wanna be fooled again
Staggered by deception
Charmed into submission
Helpless as a deck of cards
It's now the art of reality
Calling a spade a spade
Facing the obvious
A monkey and his grinder
But on a different plain

I see you clearly from day to day
As clearly as I see tonight

"Keep talking," said the slow-eyed Mandarin
"I have got nothing to say
Meet me on the staircase on your way down
We'll see if there's been a mistake"
In zen and the art of algebra
There is no value for time
Whatever thrives inside the dark
Decays on the outside