Mystery Streets

.

Who knows what goes on in those
Dark miles beyond Montrose up Palamino Canyon
Up there among the cold kennels of dawn
Where unknown guys pay you $50 to park their Toronados
It's every dog for himself they say
I understand these things only a little bit
Got a wife & kid yet often I feel alone
Take solitary walks down by the black ocean
Johnny O'Clock said his goodbyes on these
Dead nocturne mystery streets didn't he?
Then they hired him to a long-term contract
The kind that doesn't pay you any royalties
"You can't unplug your phone forever Johnny"
They said to him as they burned him down

Mystery Street, dir. John Sturges (1950): poster, image scan by Noirish, 2005
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street: Giorgio de Chirico, 1914