Barn Swallows

Barn swallows over the alfalfa
High summer pummels the hills & the hollow
Willy mends a tractor,
Becky mows a lawn
Mabel’s doing nothing
ain’t nothing wrong.

Indigo bunting singing for a lover
My goodness, shudder to reckon such a color
What’s the use of fussing
I’m where I belong
Contemplating all the blue in the universe
ain’t nothing wrong

Bergamot blushes & silences the meadow
Particulate light, lavender in echo
As the season deepens
I stare a lot
Imbecilic with contentment and wonder
ain’t nothing wrong

Big Dumb Truck

I drive a big dumb truck
For which I paid too much
I throw my beer cans out the window
I throw my troubles out there too

I like a thick woman
Not too sharp and not too dull
She can be pretty but not too pretty
I wouldn’t wanna have to defend her

I’ve no intention
of working for a living
Nobody gonna
tell me how to kill myself

I like to drink too much
It makes it easy to forget I was
Once alive and kickin
I like it joyless in a glass on the rocks

I’m gonna clean my gun
Shine the barrel, see the steel in the sun
I pray for war, I wait for chaos
I’m scared of Spanish-speaking Americans

I’ve no intention…

The Creatrix

God spoke in Arabic
spit in the dirt and curled his fist
Around the earth and in it stirred
…Womenkind

She had a heart made of porcelain
Piss in her veins and swing in her hips
Cellophane in place of skin
…I surmised

I’m so sick of beautiful women
Selling me things I don’t need to own
Round and round I go in circles
She sits in the middle and knows
She said death comes to those who wait
And I’ve got nothing to do today
But lie around around in state
…unsupervised

God spoke in Arabic said he don’t do drugs
so he gets his kicks
On mescaline and natural shit,
smart phones and dumb women: Uh huh

-chorus-

Forever Elsewhere

Why do you make it
so hard to love you?
When all I wanna do
Is wrap my arms around you
Do sweet things for you
You take it so far so often
You threaten to walk out
On all we built and worked for
You fill out mind with doubt.

Moments in time
Get in the habit
Of coming one
After another

And there ain’t no rough drafts
In life as we know it
I chose ours
Not any other

Why do you make it…
Your love’s as fragile
As a fern frond
It bends in the wind
Soon be gone

And It seems you’re forever
elsewhere
Your head in your hand
Caught in the glare

Here Comes Charlie

Deep in the morning here comes Charlie
Licking his fingers, sucking his thumb
He got the spirit, may be holy
Keeps the beat by smacking his gums

Screw the windows, start a fire
Carry the wood, pile it high
Charlie’s silent, Charlie’s bitter
Charlie’s hungry for flesh this time.
There in the west I sense it’s presence
wicked indifferent wintertime
An ocean of silence lingers after
Linger, Charlie, if you’re so inclined
I’m flying away, man, farewell, Charlie
Imma cheat the the tilt of the earth
Hear the crying of a stranger’s baby
If worth is what for what’s it’s worth

One void after another.
All the ups with which I put.
No snowflake falls in the wrong place.
For all the evers that ever were.

Homo Digital

Homo digital
Got his head full
Screen at day/ screen at night
Screen’ll make my living right

Fee fie ho hum
What comes after boredom
Hardcore softcore
Totalitarian porn

Relaxa, relaxa

Face becomes interface
Screen replaces page
Use-less/ things for
Useless people

In the the moist folds of my brain
Molecules congregate
Long & sublime
Horizon lines

Relaxa, relaxa

Old-fashioned Rainstorm

Only one thing
worse than awkward
silence-
Small talk

I am an old fashioned rainstorm
Coming down straight and proud
My home is in the country
For crying out loud

Go swap God for the speed of light:
Nothing changes
Nothing changes

You are a purifying fire
Nothin cleaner than ash
How the embers liven
Like heartbeats leap and crash

Go swap…

Saint John Brown

They’re calling in the Guard
I sleep with clenched fist
From Kansas to Virginia
I hear the battle hymn

Gonna shine our rifles
Gotta sharpen up
Gonna split their skulls with a cutlass

Ready my horses for sunrise
We’ve an armory to occupy
Any man left standing
Gonna be put down
Gonna start a fire they
can’t snuff out

The lines are drawn and certain
The center cannot hold
They’re fighting in the street, boys
I smell the tang of war.

-chorus-

Sol Duc River

Beside that tumbling water
I let all my worry go
Wrote it in the river &
I tied it to a stone
Didn’t even know
I had a worry to my name
Only felt the weight of it
when it had gone away

I’m still your father and
your father I will always stay.

Airplanes or interstates
you know I never care
Asphalts just a ribbon
tying you and I together
Don’t treat me like a stranger
when I see your changing face
Don’t you change too much at all
Until we meet again

The stars are unfamiliar there
Orion doesn’t show
Look under the horizon:
A buckled belt and bow
And every night at eight o’clock
You stop your running round
Spare a thought for all the
constellations in the ground

Sound of the Wheels

I’d rather hear the sound of the wheels than what’s going on in the world
There’s stars being coined in the great black void and want to think a while about it.

Not the hurt
Or the hungry
And the lonely at birth,
orphans of war
When there’s nothing I can do about it now
So I’d rather hear…

Not bad pop, dumb country,
or songs bout Jesus.
Just make me uneasy
And the melodies don’t move ya anyway

Cousin had a baby
Neighbor passed away/ he
Fell into a ditch and died.
Driver had a road rage
Killed a pregnant lady
(on) 88 late last night
Turn it off
Turn it off
Turn it all the way off
The night could be so soft
But I do not know and I won’t speculate.

What a Lovely Life We’d Lead

What a lovely life we’d lead
The sun would rise & the past recede
Orange & large & unhurried
A little work and the time to be

Spoon of honey in our morning tea
side of a mountain, trickle of a stream
Snow on the meadow and ice in the eaves
What a lovely life we’d lead

But oh…
you’d find a flaw
Wouldn’t you?
Like fresh stains of burgundy wine
Like bubblegum stuck in my mind
All of my thoughts
soon confined
by and by
That troublesome girl of mine

What a lovely life we’d lead
Even here in our sick country
More! is the cry of a man in need.
let them dig their graves with their teeth

The evening moon is rising, see:
Over the hemlocks a grand marquee
If only it could guarantee
what a lovely life we’d lead