The sun beats down as the motor hums incessantly away. The smoke offering from the cigarette at my lips curls heavenward as I plant my feet firmly in the dark brown earth...

It is Spring once more.

My concerns and worries that accumulated with the winter snow have melted away, not to return for many months.  Yes, now I have something else on my mind. Tilling, planting, weeding. Growing with the season. I am born again, brand new. Thriving in the warmth and rain and rich soil.

I shut my eyes to the midday sun
and feel the warmth, it surrounds me.
As I wonder what, is yet to come,
This world, as of yet, it still confounds me.

So I walk on down, the hot dusty road,
As I think of whats left of my family.
My brothers, oh, like seeds on the wind,
They scatter to escape this harsh reality.

For my father-o, is long past his prime
He feels it in each step and every memory.
His friends are all gone, his hair: no longer blonde
It's been too long, three-quarters of a century.

My mother cares, for her mother and my dad,
Though she, now too is getting older.
And all she wants, in this God-forsaken world
Is her sons to come home married and sober.

All of these things, they echo round my mind,
but so do my own dreams and my desires.

Only twenty years I've lived
The love they needn't give
In the sun, these thoughts will make a man perspire.

Tired, sweaty; fingertips and arm hair singed beyond recognition. Egg yolk and beef broth smeared down a crumpled, black apron. Aching feet, back, and head after twelve hours in a cramped, screaming kitchen...Doors closed, dishes washed, liquor drunk. Sleep finds an exhausted body and a mind racing with new recipes.

Wild, unkempt branches point in every direction; covered in vines, they conceal a ground covered with shrunken, warped and misshapen apples that fill the air with the smell of ferment. This half acre plot was once only a small part of dozens of acres of upright, handsome trees bursting with ripe, crisp apples. The once quiet county road that rambled past has been straightened and now hums with traffic. Coffee shops, bars and upscale apartment sit only a hundred yards from this field and as people drive by they often wonder, "Why isn't this overgrown eyesore made into something more useful, a Walgreens perhaps. After all, everyone needs condoms, headache medicine and sleeping pills."

Somewhere in the quiet distance, I hear it. The sound I have been waiting for. The echo of it rumbles far and wide across the land. I look around and see the frightened and confused faces. I also see knowing smirks on some faces that are then quickly hidden. I try to blend into the crowd but somehow they know. In their fear and confusion they are capable of almost anything and I begin to doubt myself. But soon they realize what I have done, they realize that I have utilized the most dangerous tool in my arsenal. I did not fire a gun, I did not plant a bomb, I instead planted an idea. An idea that will quickly spread across the land and threaten their way of life. They are scared, they are anxious, but best of all...they are intrigued.

The moon is obscured by clouds and a thick fog settles into the valley. The rain has stopped but thunder still cracks ominously in the distance. Lightning illuminates the horizon as if a great battle were taking place. The warm summer breeze rolls through the trees as I walk home with my thoughts.

They tell me what's cool
They tell me what's not
Go back to school
Or go where it's hot

Take one little pill to make you feel sane
Save up your money to pay for a game
This one thinks that and that one thinks this
All in the time it takes me to ****

The women will love me if I drink *****
They tell me these things and I get confused
If I buy a new car, then I will succeed
It's all about wants, who cares what we need

More people on Earth than ever before
I sleep on my bed, but wake up on the floor
A new phone comes out, throw my old one away
I don't think that I can keep living this way

Where will it end, Where will it stop
We're born to live but we live to shop

They tell me whats cool, they tell me what's not
I thought that I knew but I guess I forgot
I thought that I know but I guess I forgot

The truth is clouded from our vision
In a plan to steal our minds
They want us to be fat and happy
So we don't care whats going on

They fill our heads with empty knowledge
So they don't lose what once was ours
We gave them power for a moment
And they took all that they could rob

We sit in a half drunk stupor
And watch whatever **** comes on
While they walk in the front door boldly
We don't know that our stuff is gone

So what, you say you're fat and happy
And now I've talked for way too long
But you will see in the near future
That what I say is far from wrong.

Cheap thrills are driving me insane
Don't know whether it's spit or rain
The time has come for me to shout it
Free bread and circuses mask pain.

The moons so bright tonight
I wonder where I'll go
I walk the streets of town
But I walk them alone

I fight the cold off
With a bottle and a prayer
No clue where I'm going
Or if i'll make it there.

The silence of the empty town
Echoes in my mind
The snowflakes frozen in midair
For the rest of time

I find an empty alleyway
And then I settle in
I go to sleep so freezing cold
And don't wake up again

They find me in the morning light
Covered up with snow
No job, no home, no family
I had no place to go.

A vague feeling of longing, of knowing there is more but not knowing where or when to find it. Or more devastating, that it has passed you by when you were not paying attention.

There's no peace in understanding
It just causes pain
The mind is full to bursting
Little left remains
And when the bottles empty
The night so cold and long
no more walls to hide behind
everything's gone wrong
There's only one more choice to make
the options stark and cold
To rot in jail, or end it all
More knowledge for the soul.

The gaslights on and the bills are due. Leftover rice for dinner again. School in the morning. Dead-end job with too few hours in the evening. Drunk at night. Drunk at night. Awkward encounters with women I  don't know. But good too. Lot's of laughs. Deep wine fueled discussions into the early morning. Music,Music,Music. Fall extravaganza, Jackson Pollack on the mountainsides. Things change. Snow and cold and wind and ice. Hide by my fire. Wait for Spring. Wait for Spring.

Downtown streets are full to bursting
shopping, buying, hungry, thirsting.
Dressed to show off wealth and class
But its a Sunday during mass.

The world's been changing,slowly turning
The torch of "Progress" steady burning
The constant hum of what shall come
beats the manic wartime drum

Have I changed or was it them
Mankind no longer man's best friend
Swindle, cheat, or steal for more
The hungry masses, silent, roar.

Is it too late to turn the tide
The moon still tears across the sky
Will we find a higher ground?
Where all can stand, where all are found.

I walk the streets of home now
A stranger in a foreign land
I speak to them in tongues now
And they can't understand

Two short years I've been gone
But they can't recognize
What once was right is now all wrong
When seen from another's  eyes

The old hometown is gone now
What's left I do not know
It hasn't changed since I left
So I must have surely grown.

There is no truth, there is no truth
The whisper on the wind.
There is no truth, there is no truth
Where should I begin?

To live at all is such a gift
Though life is fraught with pain
While my heart aches, so does yours
But still we sing that old refrain.

No one knows the pain I've felt
But that is where you're wrong
We all bear the rugged cross
We've borne it all along.

No one stops to look around
And see I struggle too
But when I fail and fall to earth
The bell, it tolls for you.

I AM the truth, you ARE the truth.
Shout it to the wind
All around; your fellow man
Your best and only friend.

Side by side lets grit our teeth
and march upon the hill
The one collective soul of man
Our iron inner will.

If one shall fall, we pick them up
We are one massive soul
Keep this in mind as we plan
The planet's future goals.

WE ARE THE TRUTH, I hear it now
erupting from the lungs
of 7 billion hungry mouths
the dawn at last has come.

Somewhere in the darkness reaching,
searching, hoping, groping, seeking
Try to find a way into the light.

Questions form upon my lips
but no one answers, no tongue slips
a word of hope of praise of love of fear.

I find the light and all around me
people wander, groping blindly
for the light or just another soul.

The dead of the night brings no peace.
There are no distractions in the still hours of the night.  
A man is marooned with his thoughts and has no way to hide from them.
A man feels he has but one option and soon whiskey fumes pervade the small, closet of a room that he calls home.
Outside of his one window the wind plays with the large oak in the field across the street.
  It is a warm peaceful night outside but inside his apartment a battle rages.  Broken chairs and an upturned table tell the tale of a mind in serious trouble, of a person in battle with themselves.

I don't know where our time goes
I just know that it does
I don't know where my friends may go
But they go with my love

When I sit back and close my eyes
I'm with them again
The times we had and the things we have done
They will always remain

Years pass by like the falling of leaves
Now I'm old and I'm gray
Though I lay in a hospital bed
That's not where I'm at today

I'm drinking beer out in the sun
On the warm riverbank
Laughing hard with my old friends
And thats where I'm gonna stay.

Life flows like a river. It starts out quickly but with no depth, tumbling, rushing, cascading down. It picks up speed and intensity as it progresses. As time and distance pass however, it deepens and slows. The frenetic energy is gone but the power has increased, spreading out and providing for many. It then slowly rolls and winds it's way towards the sea where it will join every other river. The waters merge and become one. There is no new water so it returns to the mountaintop for yet another endless trip to the sea.

The fire it is raging, the wine it has been poured.
Bodies soon entangled; Spirit in my soul restored.
Dinner on the table but it just got ignored.
Rolling by the fire; Spirit in my soul restored
Auburn hair a flowing, green eyes burning bright.
Now it's just the two of us and I'll take you home tonight.
Bodies lying closer than ever did before
I know that I love you; Spirit in my soul restored

The fire it is dying, your face lit by the coals.
Whisper to me softly, the secrets of your soul.

We once shared love,a burning love, a first love
We would talk for hours, kiss and joke and hold each other
We made love in the bright sun in green fields and hoped that no one saw
For years we did these things but something happened, something drove us apart
We joked less and fought more until one day We were no more
We saw each other still and often shared an awkward night together
But it was not to be
You found solace in the warm arms of my friend
I found cold despair in the bottom of a bottle
I tried to tell you how I felt but I could never say the words
Whenever you asked how I was I only ever said that I'm alright
And now when I last saw you we just passed like strangers in the night.

The old withered pines dance slowly in the wind. I watch them sway from my vantage point on a peak. As I sit, basking in the sunlit glory, I pull out my pipe and blow smoke rings towards the heavens. Where I sit I am on a great divide; behind me I can see a terrific, sprawling wilderness that stretches back as far as I can imagine. Before me lies the home of man. Where once were mighty oaks and sunny fields there is now a sea of gray, an ocean of ugly buildings. Modernity rears its head and swallows all it can. It's hunger is insatiable.

The Orchards? Gone. The wood's? retreating;
Corporations now competing
For my wage and grandma's mattress dough.

Country poor get even poorer;
Stinking cabin, oh the horror
No one seems to care or notice though.


Now I try to fight this faceless foe,
But grandma's dead from lack of dough;
Soon they all will come to know
That we will reap what others sow.

WE will reap what others sow.

The whole of our history runs through my mind
I see mankind's struggle get passed down through time.
We're born on a rock to live and to die
To pass on our seed without knowing why.
We do what we can, we write our own song
We decide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong.
We wonder aloud if we're doing it right
It keeps us awake in the darkest of nights.
The people we meet all have their own views
That we'll never know, we can't walk in their shoes.
Time marches on without blinking an eye
And we all pay our dues, we all have to die.
This worlds all we know but it isn't a friend
A hole in the ground's all we have in the end.
But that's not that bad, I hope that you see,
To breathe and to live is alright by me.

The sun will set and the sun will rise,
Dreamers stare upon the skies.
Lovers gaze in each other's eyes,
Young grow old and babies cry.

All the while time rolls by,
And dreamers stare upon the skies.

It is one of those magical summer nights when a thunderstorm has rolled in.
The wind is blowing strongly which brings the scent of magnolia and rain to your nose.
While the rest of the world sleeps quietly, you sit on your porch alone with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
You clear your mind and suddenly the grandeur of it all comes flooding into your consciousness.
A bright flash of lightning illuminates all the world around you and a crash of thunder fills your ears. The pitter patter of rain is the sweetest of melodies after the thunderous overture.
The trees dance rhythmically with the rise and fall of the wind and rain, rejoicing in the sweet, warm water cascading from the heavens.
While all of this is going on you simply take a drought of wine, crush your cigarette and lean back in your chair with a contented smile on your face.

As a young man I heard what was told,
Fill up my pockets with silver and gold.
Silver and gold will end all my troubles,
Silver and gold will make it all right.
Silver and gold will fix all my problems,
But silver and gold can't bring you back tonight.

Well I work all week long and what do I get?
Tired and lonely and old.
But at least in my grave,
I'll know that I have
A little more
Silver and
Gold.

When spring begins again my friend
The world so fresh and new
Green life springs up to meet the sun
The grass gets kissed with dew.
The summer sun shines down again
the world so green and lush
Life gets easy for us all
As fall begins to blush.
The leaves turn red and crimson-gold
The air takes on a chill
We prep for winter's brutal cold
To steel our inner will
When winter comes, we hunker down
The fires burn so bright
The wind and snow test our resolve
But we resolve to fight.

The snows will melt
The sun will come
We do it every year
It may be the end for some
But life will show no fear.

Well I was born in the heat of the summer
And I was born in the bounty of fall
I was born in the depths of the winter
But I won't be buried at all.

I was forged in the noise of the factory
I've rolled on the roughest of seas
I fought bravely on many a death ground
but never been brought to my knees.

I've climbed the tallest of mountains
And I have laid drunk in the street
Yes I've brought in many a harvest
And I will not know defeat.

I'm the countless that went on before me,
The countless who have yet to come.
The will to survive, the blue in your eyes,
What you pass along to your son.

You shmucks try and politicize my life

Cause the people they have lots of strife

Spend money for the power

While it grows each passing hour.

You feed your greed
Not those in need
What is your purpose do you even breathe
Can you see
Instrumental

What can I do, what can I say?
You keep yourselves so far away I have to say

You say I vote to speak my peace
But your nonsense will not cease

To choose from two and vote for you  
Take the devil by the horns and show him what to do
Read between the lines inspite of what
Instrumental

You think the people they don’t know
Just sheep to shear and crops to grow.
Though single sheep we are indeed,
A pack of lions are in need.
I shouldn’t warn you but I will
Your time is short, so get your thrills
Your time is short, you give me chills
Your time is short, your time is short
The Lions come, Your time is short

My friends were all off on their own adventures
No more evenings tearing up the town
Boyhood days would never be forgotten
But cops and buzzards were all they left around.

So I set out from my home for greener pastures
Where I could work and rest my troubled head
I spent my days just trying to fill my table
And spent my nights just trying to fill my bed.

Then time began to move on oh so quickly
The women they sure seemed to do the same
Work got slow, it seemed that my green pasture
Had taken light and sprung to orange flame.

So I packed a bag and left that town this morning
The road rises up to meet me where I tread
My mind is free of cares, I'll worry when I'm there
But I'll be rambling till the day I'm dead.

I cut out this morning,
To float the river down.
I know you all will miss me,
But I am Richmond bound.

Tell my girl in Roanoke,
Not to weep for me.
I'll be back to see her,
After Autumn leaves.

Tell dad that I'll miss him,
And I won't get too loud.
I didn't join the navy,
But I'll still make him proud.

Please tell our mother sorry,
Her baby had to leave.
But I will learn and do things,
That she will not believe.

Look in the mirror,what do I see,
Reflections of a man,staring back at me.
He's old and tired, haggard and worn,
After he's gone of course I will mourn.

Though he will die,
He'l live on through me.
His blood in my veins,
He'll continue to be

And after I'm gone, I'll pass him on.
My son will be part of him
That't the way the world goes
But nobody knows
Where it all leads in the end.

Rolling hills and sprawling trees
Easily lost in expanses of green
We lose all our troubles, worries and cares
Sometimes ourselves in the frost-bitten air

The smoke from the fire rises and curls
The quick flowing stream tumbles and swirls.
The tent in the meadow, my humble abode
Like these old mountains, my problems erode

The sun sprints west as nighttime steals in
I hunker down to escape the cold wind
The fire and I swap stories and smokes
He tells me the stories of long bygone folks

When the cold is too much, I call it quits
I take a quick pull and crawl in my tent
Out here I can't feel the weight of the world
My shoulders are free, my mind is restored.

We're losing soul,
We're losing touch,
We lose ourselves,
We lose too much.

We're losing ground,
We're losing earth,
We're losing joy
We're losing mirth

We're losing friends
and losing time,
We're losing lives,
but gaining dimes.

We're losing friend,
You know it's true
I'll tell you whats the cost
We're losing me and losing you
But friend we haven't lost.

The t.v. drones in the other room, but all that I can hear,
Is the music in your soft voice ringing in my ear.

The world goes by at the speed of light but all that I can see,
Is the way, that your green eyes seem to pierce the soul of me.

The snow's so high, the winds so cold, but all that I can feel,
Is your warm skin against my own, I can't believe it's real.

The flowers bloom out in the yard but all that I can smell,
Is your perfume upon the air, and how you wear it well.

Dinner's gone, the wines been poured but all that I can taste,
Are your sweet lips that linger near through some act of grace.

My hands are all I know,
They're all with which I feel.
Callused, scarred and water logged,
My hands will never heal.

The work I've done, the work I'll do,
Will take it's wicked toll.
My weathered hands age right along,
with my weathered soul.