I was my mother's bad joke
she just didn't get me

She thought monogamy
Was a type of wood

All I knew about my father
Is that his seed didn't fall to the ground

My mother's friends were ******* me
Their cheap perfume stung my eyes

And burned my throat
As it made its way to my fragile lungs

When I grew older I had a woman
I loved very much

She ghosted me
Turning my heart to stone

To get away I took a trip to
The Petrified Forest asking why it was so afraid

I didn't need a death sentence
To let me know I was alive

So I turned around and went back home
To the place I hang my hat

I lived my life out naturally
Holding memories and a well-worn heart

It's been a long time
since I had a good cry,
even longer since I let my heart sing.

When was the last time that I found something
that was "to die for", just for it to die.
When was the last time I had a righteous cry.

I  ought to,  I've got to drive on out of here.
Use the charge card, rent a car. Take a day trip,
perhaps a week. Maybe go for broke and drive on out
to the other coast.

If only I could give as much as I get, wouldn't love flow free, make it practically, a good bet.      This wearing my heart on the cuff of my sleeve,
it's got to the point where I can barely breathe.. Something was taken,
when I was young. And repeatedly stolen, and repeatedly I got stung.
I could never give it away, and I can't, to this day.
No I can't any more, yes,  it was taken so long before.

So I kiss those goals and I send them along,
I set them free, I don't hold on too long, it leaves me feeling
that I'm good and strong. As strong as I can be.



Listen close I tell myself, If you don't want to ride the roller coaster
put your hands in your pockets and don't pay the price.
remember *you can't pull strings when your hands are tied,
and you can't feel too good when you're poisoned inside.

The stars are but specks in bits of space, my lids are heavy
from this weary living. I feel the devil has put his bid in place,
On his part, there are no misgivings.

I came to this place of my own volition, to get loose of this crawlspace
is my only mission. Then you'll hear a chorus of me, a churning of mercury burning, I let a moment of time, a bit of space, leave me old and well worn down

The first thing
that I noticed
was the child's beauty.

Then again
I realized how
I can judge a book
by its binding.

My fingers
laced behind my head
while the back of my mind
rest in the palm of my hands.

The linking of
those bony fingers
a sign
of my threadbare body,
barely old, barely able.

There she was,
waving her habitual bliss
like a carrot
on the end of a stick.

While a silent psalm
surrounds a starry angel's glow.

When I was young
a gypsy woman said to me,
You'll have a life of chaos and confusion
With no end in sight, no solution.
She waved her arms in the air
pronouncing due time must pass
before I'd stumble upon peace, and
more pleasure. And love, all in good measure.

As I think about what she said
I relax on the beach listening
to the waves lapping at the shore.
Watching the children carry their plastic pails
full of jellyfish to a sandy death
before going back for more.

The haze in the sky lets through the suns rays
and I burn slightly contemplating these better days.
I don't look back but when I do, it's not for long.
I turn my thoughts to what went wrong,
then I cast the memory aside
in order to allow my spirit to glide.

Mistakes are still made,
not every card is well played.
I get nowhere if I deny,
and cheat myself with some spun lie.
Change is going to come, it comes for everyone.
I make the best out of what I've got,
sometimes it seems that it's so little
but the opposite is true, it's really a lot.

We set our sights
To the stars and beyond
Somewhere out there
There is somebody somewhere
We are not alone
All that space all over the place
I understand why no one would
Want to befriend us
We are greedy murderers
Bent on power over the weaker
We peer past the sun and the moon and the stars
An ear open to the radio
We attract attention and it may be our bane
History shows us what the ignoble conquerors
Have done to the indigenous
We don't seem to be able to get over our differences
We are unable to see the peoples as one
I am sorry for us and I don't know what to do
We may as well be a fireball hurling through space
Burning and out of control.

I cry
Not only because I feel alone

I see others out there
Not knowing what to do

You say
You have something to offer

Please come to my
Windowpane and tap lightly

As the devil
Stands on my welcome mat

Beating down the door

What do I do, do I invite him in
To begin another round of chaos

Or do I wait for your gentle rap
On my windowpane

The air is thick with water beads
***** water beads
That fill my lungs
Making it harder to breathe

The yeast
In my belly
Is causing a sickness
That nothing can remedy

My head is full of
Dead ends and barricades
The yellow and black
Bumble Bee signs
Warning me to
Keep my feet on the ground

Just as a hot air balloon
Spills its people
Onto jagged rocks
Breaking their bones
And giving them ****** noses

Skin deep in her cold green sea,
a dark and gnarled sky above.
On the curved horizon a side reads:
She believes in angels but she can't believe in love.

Insane in her reverie, wings sewn cross-stitch
down the spine of her back.
Rattling panes that the wind blows
are just a reminder of all that she lack.

Saw teeth across metal is music to her ear,
the shriek of the tea kettle full of insolent childhood fear.
Rude eyes shout; forget the devil, he has no bite.
She knows better though and she's not going down without a fight.

Her attempts to speak of the things she has heard
are the sounds of a cat who has sprung on a bird.
To spread her wings is to spread her legs
and embrace the power the darkness has made.

Oh, the suffering of heartache after hearts ache
while pulling the wings off of flies.
She can make you laugh, she's pretty smart eh,
but it isn't the same as being wise.

Every bit of her life, it occurs to her,
yes it does, it just occurs.
Now is it being selfish or just being blind,
if fooling people well is her way to unwind.

A late afternoon drive
through the countryside.

A lot of rolling hills
dotted with fields and farms.

Haying time, first of the season.
Old roads potted with holes,

asphalt turning to dirt...
we lay plumbs of dust.

The suddenness of a summer shower,
then thunder rumbles, the rain begins.

When the water hits the dirt
it almost looks like little atomic bombs.

We stop the car, not being able to see
through the windshield.

The farming community called Old Barns,
with a Lady Slipper Lane and the whole bit.

Silos breaking the sky, drizzle equals puddles,
puddles to drive home through.

A lick and a promise, the sweat of the gods,
nothing  comes close to a tour by the bay.

Sometimes I can feel it yes I can
I'm wrapped around your little finger yes I am
The way you do my head it just ain't no good
The way you do my head not like a good girl should

She'll slink up behind you bro
She hid in the garden don't you know
Everybody said she was before her time
She'll sneak up behind you and commit the perfect crime

But it's alright yes it's okay
I'll get some of what I need just for today

The coffee's going down and I'm waking up
She has a whole lot of baggage enough to fill a truck
Down by the waterfront she'll take the plunge
She made it through the nineties she lived through grunge

She'll sneak up behind you bro
She hid in the garden don't you know
Everyone was saying that she's before her time
She'll sneak up behind you and commit the perfect crime

You have left and
I will watch as you walk away
Watch you become so small until you are
A speck on the horizon

Then I'll turn my thoughts to something new
Or some old thing that I thought I had let rest long ago
Either way I will distract myself and not call it 'waiting'
What do I have to 'wait' for anyway, maybe just a new day

A day that has no scent of you
With a nightfall that will bring peaceful rest
A rest with no dreams of my loss
No dreams of what was once something that I called mine

Plastic toy soldiers will now guard my bruised heart
They will guard against any intruder that might want to distract
Me from my wallowing in self pity
Creating my pain from frame to frame in a comic book life

A cosmic tale of a fish that I call a whale
A boat that I float in a sea of stars that shoot a movie
Of a sad sad man who doesn't understand
And if he did he wouldn't change a thing

I should have said Yes but I said No
And now I tell myself  it doesn't really matter
A lie I will tell the world to save some face
To sooth my broken ego that masquerades as my heart

Credit equals slavery,
telephone rings off the wall.

Two cars in the yard,
A house on the hill.

Money for this,
money for that,
along the way
you try modestly
to squirrel away
money for your Will.

You're my only hope
I need you near
I'm in Deaths scope
It's the end I fear

The crackheads
want the good gear
even though it doesn't matter
they are going to take that eight-ball
and smoke it all

All wide-eyed and sketchy
teeth rotting out of their head
scanning the floor for any dropped crumbs

Another run for a twenty stone
to be drawn down deep with another and another

Good gear they say while grinding there stubby stumps
too wired to think of anything else but the crack

The sores on their bodies skinny rakes for a frame
A bad reputation with their drugs to blame

The nights and the days they very much mesh together
until they run out of funds that were begged for borrowed or stole

The crash is inevitable the cycle as well
the lives they lead are a living hell.

I want to work my vision
and make a story,
a story of the crazy,

for the crazy,
to pass to the man
who says that he is sane.

Trapping those who walk the borderline,
those with a mind to or
with a mind not to.

I commend my soul
to the vastness beyond,
I beg thee, bathe me, cleanse me.

Take my talents and possessions
that I leave here on earth.

Scatter them, share them.
To bear witness of fresh new birth.

They will bury me
under a star lit sky
beside a sinless tree.

I want to love you
Like there is no tomorrow
I want to give it my all
And never experience any sorrow

I want to take your hand and kiss your lips
Lead you to the promised land
And wait for off-spring
With both hands on my hips

I sometimes wonder do you feel the same
I'd like to ask you hoping you're not playing a game
Is it my *** you want though it's nothing to write home about
Or is it your *** you want to flaunt  leaving me no way out

We could blast off into the stars
You being Venus me being Mars
Hold up a mirror and peer past our reflection
Make love all night without any protection

I think that I have loved you
Since I was a kid
But wait a minute now
Let's not and say we did

What's
pain
is pain
and
what's not
is not

Turn
to find
sometimes
nothing
is all you got

If it gets you
that natural cause

It's sure to be met
with dull applause

***** what I can't do
I'll see what I can do

I don't want to die
in my living room
the stereo
blasting
the Stones song
Doom and Gloom

I used to
  Drink my face off
     'get lost' to this world

I'd stare at my insides,
   My red raw meat

Up to full speed
    I  wiped more off my chin
       Than most others drink

    Life was going down the tube
And I wasn't helping the situation none

Everywhere I went I wore out any welcome
  My rude, angry self, had no restraint at all

The face left me
   Was nothing I could live with
     I  had to clean my act up,
       Make me a more presentable me
           Blend in with those  I chose as my peers

Imagine that,
No more 'Bums Rush'
No more bloodied noses
No more " Here's your Hat, what's your hurry"

The shadows fall and
all in all
nightfall
will soon be upon us.

The campfires
smoking
giving the darkness
a grayish tinge.

This Split juts
out into the Fundy Bay,
now with the sun gone
it will grow even colder.


Low laying clouds
mingle with the smoke,
if you remain quiet
you can hear more that the crackle
of the burning wood.

From behind the trees,
something eerie
to make you shiver.
To let you know you are in the wild.

A stream runs through the woods.
The fresh water for the morning coffee
has already been drawn,
plastic jugs and canteens full.

There are bears
and coyotes and deer 
out here,
but in all the time
coming out to
this breath taking cliff
I have never run into either.

This time I have come
with a purpose other than
the fresh air and sounds of the ocean
far below.

My father's last wish,
to have his ashes
scattered over the side
to the rocks and water.

This is where he grew up,
the small village at the base of the cliff.
I was born here and I never called it home.
Now I am proud to come from such
a beautiful place.

My mother, a native,
my father, an import from Boston.
So much history needing to be sifted through.
So much a mystery when it comes to my Dad.

A plaque will adorn the small cemetery,
with my fathers full name,
-Irving Richard MacPherson-
My mother already buried there.

He never liked his name
so he called himself Richard.
Now I find myself choosing Irving
over Kenneth for mine.

I will die and when I do
I will join my father
in the vastness of the Atlantic.
Such a beautiful end to a good life.

You could cut the air
With a knife, it was just that thick
It had me chewing my nails
Gnawing them to the quick

I plan for the worst
But I hope for the best
Born to create
I take my imagination
and put it to the test

They say that a bad attitude
Is like a flat tire
You have to change it
If you are going to get very far
Free will
Choose the things you choose
But you can't go pinning all
Your hopes on some far away star

As Life goes, and go it does
I hold on tight and put my past in the dust
I have come face to face with my demons
and lived to tell the tale
I was backed right up against the wall
but my morality is in tact...
'' This cat's not for sale''.

I'm alive for two reasons
yeah, it's come down to that
Reason number one is I was born
And number two well, I didn't die yet.
I am no go between it has come down to that
I can't deliver something I never had
Although sometimes I have to give my head a shake
And always remember to give a sucker an even break.

I did a double take,
it doesn't have to
be that way.

I goofed, ****** up,
my nasty habits were on display.

I have had a hard life,
I'd rather that than
one that's flaccid

I saw and heard things out of
the ordinary, kinda like I was
doing acid.

To each his own,
I can tell you that.
Some things are not for everybody.

At moments I'm bursting with joy,
that's in between bouts of melancholy.

I can be on a plateau
for a bit of a stretch
right before I turn a corner.

Then I'm just shot into space,
I guess you could say that I'm a foreigner

If you wanna have some whiskey
by all means feel free,
it's just not my cup of tea.

I'd rather a blunt and something sweet,
just hangin' out, taking it easy.

If you want to converse
I'll go along for the ride
but there is a limit to what I'll discuss.

Most every thing is fair game
Though an open mind is a must.
But we can't tackle *******
no, that would be a touchy subject.

Out behind
the blood red barn.
Hauling off a cigarette,
all of 12 years old.

Across the spring sewn fields
at the edge of the treeline
a bobcat, seemingly oblivious
to my shenanigans, moves slowly, methodically.
Perhaps looking for some small snack.

The wisps of clouds
cast see-through shadows
on the landscape.

My mind drifts with the
run-of-the-mill thoughts.
Thoughts of a boy out of touch
with the adult work-a-day world.

I'm just trying not
to get caught smoking,
neglecting to take any precautions
like washing my hands
or even chewing some gum.

insult
    to
        injury

               egg
          on
    yer
face

fobbed out

whats

   da
      
madda
          
             fo
                
                  you

broken
   rice
     bowl

                 kamikaza
             pilots
         wearing
     helmets

                -why-

shame
   shaming
      shammed

          junk
     and
foibles

If we don't walk alone
And we get to give and feel love
Does it makes it all worthwhile
We plan ahead and have some input
Thinking we're in control
We think we're enlightened
That it's all okay
And try to wear a smile
Our dreams don't die
The people around us do
And we just wait like the other shoe
We hit the ground running
And it's a funny thing
The only time we pause
Is when something
Wakes us up
And let's us know
That we give a ****
This thing we do
This being Human
The big denial
The fudged balance sheet
The final breakdown
None to discreet
We can only begin the best we can
We can only end with our head up
Having been a small help perhaps
To our brothers and sisters
As we draw one last sip
From the loving cup.

To hold the Universe
I leave my mind
The switched on Darkness
Shuts out the Light
And the edge of Spirit
Becomes the boundary line

Dishes dishes dishes
stopping me from getting
too big for my britches

Morning noon or night
piles of dishes
in plain sight

I needed a dishwasher
to help me be free
Turns out the dishwasher
has to be me

Pots pans measuring cups
pizza plates  into the suds
Extra moisturizer rubber gloves
dishes are not one of my favorite loves

Face to face with a habitual liar
make your words  heard when you say
Hey you liar, your pants are on fire.
Save that ******* and pull yourself higher.

Use your words when they say
''Vote for me". Tell them
they can't change things and if they could
they make welcome the snipers bullet.

Use your words to heal the unhealthy
Let them know there is a better life
Everything changes like everything should,
when you begin to rearrange things
There's a greater possibility for good.

Shuffle your train of thought bearing witness to something worthwhile
Let go of the ****, throw it on the ground to help your garden grow.
When you see it for real you can be the winner, or at least place or show. Everyone will see the change, making it hard not to know.

Use you words to change the way of love
Let them know that they don't fall in love.
They only uncover the love that was always there.
Love isn't only in the air, love is ultimately everywhere.

Use your words when you have done another harm
You freedom begins with your follow-through,
Actions  have always spoken louder that words.
Without an action you only squawk like  hungry  birds.

Use your words to summon your creator,
knowing the truth of how selfish you are.
Ask for guidance, and leadership, every day, and in every way.
Remember we are kindred spirits, we are all one.
Let that attitude be the one way, the one way that you display.

It looks like I took
A turn for the worse
I hit a fork in the road
And came down with
Some kind of voodoo curse.
These monetary blues
I must confess
They've taken away my
Happy-go- lucky
And put me under house arrest.
My muse she flew
Out the back door
And is on the run.
Screaming over her shoulder
It ain't a crime to be unhappy
But it isn't any fun.

Take a Carney ride
At high noon,
Or at midnight sky
Under the moon.
The moonlight says,
The night is a good deal
And the Night says,
The Moon knows
That we are here
To pack a wallop.
But the Stars ignore
The Moon's stolen light,
Knowing that they
Will soon be dust.
While they spend
Wistfully useless hours
Wandering if
The only reason Time exists is
So that everything
Doesn't happen at once.
Then, all at once,
They are able
To leave well enough alone.

A game of mini golf
between the tombstones
bouncing the ball off
the trellis archway
knocking into a tree trunk
on the perimeter
to put the ball  back into play

Greyish black
skeletons wielding
irons and woods
Their sunken eye sockets

A perfect place to insert golf *****
then they pop them out
grab them to their palm
slap them to their mouth
and **** them back
like  Jaw Breakers

I sit in the relative quiet of the kitchen
The rain plays a shuffle on the window pane
I hear the chugging rhythm
Of the sump pump in the basement
The pills I take no longer work
Coffee long gone from any habitual routine
A cup in the morning is all I will allow myself
The clock on the wall, not digital becomes a metronome
Jazz or Classical is all I will listen to as I prepare for bed
If when I sleep it is incomplete and broken and I awake
My tears roll down my cheek to pool in my ears
Another morning and I rise feeling tired and bitter
Sweet sweet slumber why can't I surrender to your wholesome rest
I pray I don't tear someone another
When I leave my home to face the world
Day after day divided by dark, I remain edgy and short tempered
Not suffering fools or the intelligent  gladly
In need of some kind of medication, a pill to curb my sarcasm
Some therapy to wipe away the insipid drudgery in facing Day after Day after Day after Day.

I come to find
that I relate
I relate to the
persons places
and things
in my world

My relating
is how I see life
not only mine
but yours as well

I relate to the joy
I relate to the pain
I relate to them
again and again

Can you relate?

I knelt at her Headstone
Placing hand-picked
Wildflowers gently down.

Loving thoughts
Caressed my Spirit's heart
Sent from faraway
Far beyond the outer most stars.

She had held me
In her arms
When I was just a babe

And taught me
What it was
To surrender
To a larger part
of the Whole.

I wish that I had known
Her inner thoughts when
I was young and on her hip.

Perhaps I could have
Acted more out of love
Than out of a pain
That I felt was
All my own.

The pain
That was nothing
More than a fear filled liar.

She would say
With Jesus it's
"Knock and the door will open"
But the Devil will keep on
Hailing you from
Every corner.


Make no mistake
With all the respect
That is due
I miss her sweet voice
Showing me the softer side
Of any cold hard fact.

I don't have to wish
She has life after life
Sometimes I feel her.
  
When I study her face
In the photographs
Taken by family and friends.

Meat
and bones
shiver,

trees
naked
branching
on the curved
turquoise
skyline.

Azure,
nothing
hidden,

Spring
bolting
through.

Winter's
white
blanket
long
passed
its Glitter.

Snow
now
a
four
letter
word.

A spider's web clings
As I walk under
The awning.
What the hell
Am I writing.
The muse is
Missing and I
Crap all over
The page knowing
That nothing
Has been said.
But I did see
That spider's web
And at least it
Wasn't one that
I walked through.

Angel drives so well
She'll drive you against the flow
Driving with one hand on the wheel
She has nerves of steel
A labor of love is her job
It can move you heart and soul
When a labor of love is all you got
It can put you in the hole
Angel does my dishes
She does my laundry too
At the drop of the hat
She'll cover  your back
She wraps her wings around me
And sometimes I miss my clue
Then it comes at the speed of sound
She was only passing through

It was ten years ago today
That his wife died. He was going to retire
But the Lighthouse needed his care.

There was a ghost in the basement
Or was it just a trick of the light.
If it was, it  just wasn't fair.

The deepness of the foghorn's call
Kept him from missing one single soul.
When someone stopped to visit he'd just sit and stare.

Many people came to ask him to leave
But he just held tight.
To leave would be more than he could bear.

It was ten years ago today
That his wife died. He was going to retire
But the Lighthouse needed his care.

One thing that he never knew
Was that he was the ghost in the basement.
He was the ghost that was sitting in the chair.

A black and white long hair
getting up there in years.

She's not my cat
but she knows I'm a sucker.


Once a day
she comes looking.

She'll stare me down
and guilt me in to a petting session.

She sheds black and white
to paint a grey on  the sleeve.

Now she can get back to
being the old girl that she is.

She will withdraw
to sleep away her day.

Back to the
subtle pool
of dark and deep
that lay below illumination.

Wriggling slippery
scales of black
in a pool
so hard to see
so hard
to grasp.

Down the hall
in the realm of control,
pulling into light a dark shadow.

Maybe two, but one.

Pull it close
to touch it in mind,
to know it and own it
and to let it go.

So deep and dark
and subtle and fooling
this pool of mind.

I can be so brutal
or so you say you can tell
but stop and look again
this could be a match made in heaven
for two angels straight from hell

We could sit here
and stare the clock down
stare it right off the wall
or dust off the top hat and spats
and strike out on a crawl

Now I know what it is to be drunk
and I know what it's like to be sober
I know what it is to be young
and quickly growing older

The safest bet by a long shot
is to keep time hung up on the wall
make believe we can predict
just what way it's going to go

Shake  those dice
and give them a blow
by the time they hit the velvet
you know how it's going to go

We can do it up just like a drug
you don't have to convince me I'm already sold
it's back to throwing out a life line
drawing some heat out of this late winter's cold

How
I shut
myself down
it's a wonder
in its self

Sometimes
I crave being needed
while I'm in need of great help

If I could trust
in the Universe
and clean this house

Perhaps
more good
would
spew forth
when
I opened
my mouth

How can
you grow up
if you're a child of God.

But it's
the only way
I know about

When
things
get
too
hard

You could
never give it away
no you lost your chance

Putting it all
down to happenstance

You can't anymore
it was taken from you
long before

You gave it freely
a second ago
where it is now
I just don't know.

A ****** crossed
the crescent Moon,
they hung in a twilight Sky.

The Wind whispers:

Is this a blessing
or is it a curse.

I **** my head
and heave a sigh.

Tumbling headlong
into the abyss  
this just got worse.


Can we go the distance
or are we going down with the Ship.

After all, who owns the Moon,
who can lay claim to the stars.

Time will tell.

Trying so hard to
Avoid those corners

I hugged myself
In the jacket when they
Said this is yours

I bit my lip
While plugging
My ears

Trying so very hard
To push this stick up
Into another gear

My mind has
Gone and got me
Under the gun

I'm about
To shoot it off

Go out in style
And call it fun

Someone
That doesn't
Want some thing
Would be a relief

It saves on the sorrow
Saves much of the grief

Crazy mixed up world
A threat to ourselves

Bumping into a morning
No giving fair warning

I built up my own sweet hell
And on this I dwell

'Twinkle twinkle little star
how I wonder what we Are'.

i don't want to be
owned like a slave,
told what to think
and how to behave

you think you're right
i think it's wrong
so step aside now
and moving along

i am not there yet
i am still over here
with a viral vertigo
sippin' a beer

i even brought her flowers
and now she's a no-show
looks to me like it's just another no-go

friendship is a two-way street
we tell each other our weaknesses
then pray we remain discreet

smoke
rings
in
the
breeze
spokes
upon
a
wheel

Sheltered promises
Fitting male into female,
And I hold out in this hotel room
Standing up for nothing.
There is a time to pay the price
And just get on the ride

The local folk, they don't smile much,
So I hunt my alone time down
Only to set it free when caught.
Get a whiff of that,
It smells like someone died in here,
Their spirit choking on crumbs of thought.

Metal bars and a chain link fence,
Chewed torn sleep when it comes.
Some only sleep,
They are free until their lids separate.
The toll being too high to cross beyond.
Unsweetened, sweaty dreams chide and natter
Becoming bitter yearnings off in the distance,
Only markings made by memories.

No news is good news
Just as long as I am
Lying here with you
And though we're fools
Still I want just to hold you

In my mind
Are these green green fields
The fog is everywhere
And I'll always remember 'cause
You were there
You were there

Terracotta woman
My Celtic Queen
You work with clay
Giving form its birth
To shape this day
You have turned to the earth
Terracotta woman
My Celtic Queen

When I get home
I want to unplug the phone
Turn the lamp down low
Because no news is good news
Just as long as I am staying here with you
And though we are fools
Still I want just to hold you

i have a
name as long as
        a gang plank

questioning
    over heard
         whispers

dog
eared pages
        bark
         in a book with
            a broken spine

innocuous radio
  blurting bubbles
     to light on
   sleeping beauty's
      unmade bed

I'm lonesome for the country
and I need to get out of town.
with this city if you're in for a penny
you're in for a pound.

I need to get back to my roots,
I want to fill my boots
with some hallowed country sound.

A skateboard flies by,
clack-clack on every sidewalk crack,
the same rhythm, same rhyme
as that lonesome long snake
rolling down the line.
Moving up the steel to a muddy sky,
moving up the steel to a muddy sky.

A pedal steel wails as a cop goes by,
Chev Malibou sails through a red light.
On every corner you have to look left
and you have to look right.
You can't go looking up the steel to a muddy sky.
looking up the steel to a muddy sky.

This city she has her shades of blue,
a man stands on the corner with a national.
two hands pounding out a delta groove,
his head tilts back,sings, you got to move, you got to move.

Moving up the steel to a muddy sky,
moving up the steel to a muddy sky

Spine twisted recompense
and all that was,  is not.

Fortune buried in a field
and you stand on the wrong
side of the fence
with your plastic shovel.

Wisdom brings responsibilities pain.

If you hold too tight
hugging the kettle,
you shall burn your arms.

What good to burn your arms?

Better to cut them off
and go through life
eating with your feet.