she wails
estranged
my unknown mother
tears on the Kenyan graves
i feel her from my corners
a thread pulled taut
from the web
of my citizen soul

I love you most with tension between us
You're sad, I'm mad,
Look at me.
And oh that stare
Makes my stomach churn,
With worry of what it means for us
Because maybe you'll never look at me how you used to.
I love you most when I fear I might lose you,
Gone forever,
With worry I'll never feel your hands
Make burning embers of my skin
Make me quiver
Shiver
Ashes in your arms again.
With fear your lips will never again gently,
Passionately, protectively
Meet mine.
I love you most when I get that edge
of the cliff
No breath feeling,
When it's all drooping sighs, angelic eyes
Balled up fists, wrenching heart
Aching head
Sick to my stomach,
I can't lose you, I love you, I hate you.
I love you most in the end
when we don't fight,
When, oh god, we aren't one of those couples
We become tense and worry
We lie, cry
Want to die
But never fight,
We just curl up and sigh
Breathe each other in and touch
Like we might fall apart.
But truly,
I love you most when you say
You aren't going any where,
you love me
Hold me close, won't let go
When I tell you over and over
I want you, I need you, I love you.
I love you most when we are finally together.
Alone.
And we sin,
I feel myself unravel in your bed
And breathless we cling to each other,
Come crashing back
And I bury my smile in your chest
And, at last,
I'm home.

Young men in France would clamber to that call,
To drink their fill of bottles filled with wine;
They lined them up and shot them on the wall.

Sat huddled in small cafes in the fall,
When news of war came creeping down the vine,
Young men in France would clamber to that call.

Their basic training taught them how to sprawl,
As target dummies waited in a line;
They lined them up and shot them on the wall.

They marched to battle, lean and fit and tall,
And when the whistles blew to give the sign,
Young men in France would clamber to that call.

In no-mans-land, their charge became a crawl,
And in the mud they cursed the German swine;
They lined them up and shot them on the wall.

The Germans countered, swiftly taking all
The captured and the wounded to a mine;
Young men in France would clamber to that call:
They lined them up and shot them on the wall.

I'm exiting an off ramp
On this cloverleaf;
On a divided highway,
Moving west to east.
Across the ditch
They steer towards
What I did from the east.
If I do a U-Turn now
The predicament's the same;
There's no luck on
This cloverleaf,
It's driving me insane.

Rattle Snake Bob came swaggering in
with a gun in his boots n' smell'n like gin
He had one green eye, and a wandering blue
make'n ya wonder which one was look'n at you
With burry vision, and a sloppy slur
the swanky restaurant went silent in a minute, or two --
cause he was standing bear *** naked wear'n just a single shoe
waving his gun up in the air --
with last nights Chili n' gum mixed in his hair
My- oh -my how everyone stared
everyone knew to hit the deck
when the bullets went fly'n and bouncing like heck
See --
Rattle Snake Bob had a twin named Rob
who'd gone to Princeton and was a total snob
he'd majored in golf n' minored in Law
with a penchant for ladies...
that were dating ...*Bob