Cruel Imagination (demo)

CRUEL IMAGINATION


a smoke and a burger some caffeine
we'll string all the tyrants up
it's raining again like in childhood
this government's so corrupt
a wonder is quickly perverted
the grease slides into the drain
your memories gather like stormclouds
like thunder you follow the same

no more cruel than imagination
and the way it might haunt or tease
the world will still be with us tomorrow
on our knees thank you please

one day away from the vagrants
the ceremony's under the bridge
the locks have all been smashed open
the flies are dyin' inside the fridge
your good news drains of its color
as anchormen all babble the blues
blame tight shoes for sensible journeys
the large print version of news

unloading the night makes me weary
there's danger in knowing your job
in cities where growth into nothing
makes worthless the things which we rob
i say it's my world and believe it
we do as we please if we can
believe that the sky lasts forever
and kill like the night when we can

some smile small like a pimple
some grin till their face disappears
but i know some who are cautious
step through gates like erasing their fears
waters define all our coastlines
grain puts the farmers to sleep
concrete simmers in sunlight
frost holds us tight as we creep

all in all it's a good life
every boy and girl knows the tune
readin' and writ and the other
documenting all of our ruin
signing off till tomorrow
what can i say but goodbye
cows coming home in a heartbeat
signs stop in the wink of an eye


~~

12 27 06

Rather Be Nowhere

Rather Be Nowhere


I wanna make it with you I wanna break it with you
Fly off to Morocco or Jamaica will do
Or we can sit down on the floor and have the sand stay on the shore
Cock an eye at roadmaps still to come and those before

There's a bunch of busy colors on those maps
Okay moving around long as we get our naps
Immature or sage, but time won't get its due
Yeah, I'd rather not be there, rather be nowhere
Rather be nowhere with you

If it means we gotta sometimes squint our eyes
As long as we're together it'll be no surprise
When the stars all blur and stumble away
When our hands are our touch
And our touch starts to sway

'Cause the running and the talking aren't real
Yeah we need 'em sometimes, but they ain't no big deal
I think the stars are in your head, o yes it's true
And I'd rather not be there, rather be nowhere
Rather be nowhere with you

There's a pretty place, a picture on my wall
Sign off my thought, to destiny I crawl
When I'm floating will you be there with me?
When I'm sinking slow will you be my sea?

On the corner 'cross the street I'm afraid
All the people we were turn their backs just to fade
And so the old has turned into the new
But I don't care to be there, not to be anywhere,
Rather be nowhere with you


~~


12 15 06

in winter

path curves
snow covers
cold brush

red light
prisms dance in
warm eyes

white sheets
fold away from
bodies

RKO Proctors

What Saves It


to remember
the musty air
more than the
red velvet and
the lodges and
how this changed
at the snack stand

remember these scents
more than my
tired eyes now more
than the sameness
of dark turning it to
just shadows softness
of velvet stained
and sticky floors

to remember it fondly
to make in me this way
of remembering

this saves it
night's anxious squalor
dark's routine rehearsal
suddenly filmless
all must gone


~


12 06 06

fishobaby

Lewis C. and john e somewhere in the 70's
Pisacano's Fish Market, Yonkers, NY

RIP Lewis, 1978

whoop

dodder


kilt lifter ale    light
on every corner
as it should be

the poor have a right too
to be eccentric

walter sylvia dance
dance dance

dance to absorb me
larry and sue
dance to absorb me

it's a sleep problem
i have anyway   'swat
makes my speech simple
my barren bare barren bared

here i am saying saying saying

saying to you   lift that ale
all you white russians

dance to absorb me


~


11 29 06


(an aside)


the poor who act with grace
transfigure sour face
and leap and hobble still
but ne'er against the will

a tongue of gold it coughs
and wails the mis'ry off
in song we wheel these carts
to gild these plastic arts

so curse the day is long
our ending won't be strong
by roadside scrub we sleep
the night the poem we keep

unemployed, written 1975 sung 2006