Werner Herzog helped Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck;

Werner Herzog helped Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck;
Failed brakes on a canyon road
Just above Sunset;
Pumping a dead pedal
That empty clunk
Went twice round the globe;
They felt it in their guts
On every penthouse porn set
In weed blown lots
It spoke to junkies through their junk
It sung from the jewelled tips of Botox needles
And every hare lipped 'tard
Turned a pecking head towards the light
Behind the home's orange drapes
Hissing
Viper Room
Viper Room
Until their nurses came and slapped them.

Werner Herzog helped Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck;
The car flipped hard
But a little prosaically
Roof flinting asphalt
One hot strike and
A brittle mosaic of sparks
Left skid marks like tribal scars
And in that moment
Joaquin came to think
Very hard about his motivation
Airbagged, inverted
Smooching the Pillsbury Dough Boy's belly
Praying? Maybe;
Death drugs time to the single pellet
Of sweat
Inching
Up the nape of your neck.

Werner Herzog helped Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck;
Suddenly there came a rapping
Gentle as a raven's beak
Against the passenger side glass
You know, the tap-tap-tap
Like a lover reminding you to
Undo the lock
So they can get in;
'Hello,'
A mellow German tone,
Soft-sonorous as a dying cello
'Just relax.'
'I am relaxed.'
'No, you're not,' the voice said
So Joaquin craned his whiplashed head
And through the grime-lashed pane
(This car could really use a wash)
That's Werner Herzog,
He got this feeling
Like God was filling him with hot soup.

Werner Herzog helped Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck;
Phoenix rose
From that glinting carcass
Stepped out
Onto tarmac
That stank of sunshine and cigarettes
And looked at the world
The way Hiroshima kids did
Right after the bomb;
Herzog was gone.