radio silence

• bir elvis costello sarkisi. when i was cruel albumunden.
  
  signal fading, listen to what i'm saying.
  testing, testing,
  this better be worth all of the breath i'm wasting.
  maintaining radio silence from now on.
  
  barricaded in the talk radio station
  hostage taken
  the red 'on air' light shines on
  something cheaper than passes for free speech
  will have to do
  
  hear him coming through loud and clear
  trickling in your ear
  he'll tell you anything you want to hear
  the tape starts running
  he's going to tell you something
  strings start strumming another humdrum conundrum.
  signing off now,
  maintaining radio silence from now on.
  
  but there's one thing i should have said,
  the hostage will end up dead.
  it's just a comedy, the hostage is me.
  so pay the ransom beyond the run-out groove and
  get my wife down here, a helicopter on the roof.
  no police marksman
  maintaining radio silence from now on.
  
  mystery voices drowned out by too much choice
  that's not to mention
  the sad waste of this wonderful invention
  maintaining radio silence from now on.
  
  libraries filled up with failed ideas,
  there's nothing more for me there.
  i trust in tender ink and gentle airs.
  
  do those drug dealers still polish women made of wax?
  gangsters and world leaders require the same protection from attack.
  from a distance it's hard to tell the difference
  between a king and a jack
  between a poet and a hack
  maintaining radio silence from now on.