2 Drinks
1 Bowl (except weekends)

Take care of your teeth
Eat a fruit and vegetable

I'm sick of feeling stuck in a vestibule
trapped in your armoire
Can't stop searching through your chest of drawers

Looking for reasons not to escape
I worked hard to get here
I just want to sit on my deck
drinking coffee, fernet, and beer
but I'm too busy with my Winchester mansion
to ever settle

Don't know how to avoid gaping emptiness so thoroughly anymore
when mowing grass seems to be my biggest problem anymore
I just don't have the energy
I'm too tired after a morning of forced psychic connections
with folks that would be strangers
if today we had our choice

I played mandolin on the street when I could barely play a chord
and now I get anxious when I play with an open back door
Somehow lost the lifetime of encouragement I got there on Calle Main

All walks of life gave shaking life advice to a kid and his friend
The mayor stopped by and gave us change
instead of trespassing us from the village storefronts

We didn't recognize her but a crazed man filled us in on what a compliment it was afterwards

actions speak louder than words
but if they're too subtle I ain't hearing
I probably missed the whole **** thing
forgive me, forgive me, I'm lost

Please move like a river on fire
these ships are all coming in for commerce
there's a sale on staying on the shore
forgive me, forgive me, I'm gone

But, If you're not here what will you do?
I guess I'll just battle, battle, battle
gotta keep my arrows sharp
and my teeth gnashing
keep dancing till the dirt trips my legs
and you're not rich enough
to give me poison
please take it back
before it's hopeless

No one's more ambivalent than me
its all the same no matter who says it
we're all angels, who don't have to be angels
let's sin, and see if it's so bad

In between notebooks
writing on the back of bank statement envelopes
My money would be in wise temperance
if I didn't haunt auctions for cursed instruments
I got a bargain baglama in route from Greece
it's just the chase
the replacement of writing songs and hard work
I could at least join the fox hunts
but don't forget coming from those that are forced to hunt
Sometimes envious of that pressure again
but don't resent cause it's just weakness
What I can't force myself to emulate
the neo-Malthusianism of my anointed material condition
_________________­

I'm back at it
running out of space
Might have to switch to that student loan
refinancing scheme from Chase
I won't even open it cause
I'm just waiting for society to value
education as a better use of time than
bailing out bankers gambling on the
backs of the poor and middle class that take all the risk
You swindle their paycheck and taxes too
Worshiping at the alter of the greenback printer
Sell your grandma and your grandchildren's future
__________________

I think I ran out of unimportant mail to write upon
I need to do my taxes so I can stop stressing
about hoarding unopened letters
I'm afraid I'll find some catastrophe like a disease
or a stolen identity
There's too much to fear in the 21st century
Yes, how weird
there's no aristocratic family lording over my plot of land
I'm not even a renter anymore except
to the bank and I get my food from multi-national global kings
Much less personal than the ****** that used to rule our lives
Now they're depersonalized into the corporate body
Escaping heaven's mandate
I suppose
Through layer and layer of fabric reality
the market, democracy, technology
is the belief that this whole world is fake
Ascribing deity to digital creators
Bad faith actors
Pretending it's other than profit you desire
"Profit's just a means"
but you need more means to make more means
What's the real product you're peddling?
Do you not have pride beyond the money making aspect?
Why do you highlight such shortsightedness?

150 years ago was the 1870s

Namaste señoras,
          namaste

Bleakness in my future, but not for me alone
In fact, through my friends and modest financial luck
I think I may have escaped the worst of it all

You did your hardest climbing and are resting on a cliff side
My eyes focus too ******* the bubbling tar pits below that
threaten to swallow up the progress of the last century
Instead I should rehumanize my eyes
from this microcosmic eagle sight

An eagle soars above it all between snatching
voles, moles, snakes, and other wretched beasts
To her it's all a day's work
It's us humans that envy her flight and dignify her job
We can choose symbols ourselves

I hope for the best in the world while
knowing nature doesn't care
Whether it's the trees and mountains or
the fountains of hive mind free markets
It's only people that give value to the world

About when I graduated in 2009, America tried on a strange glow up for the next 10 years. Dive bars, chain restaurants, and bumping clubs started to be seen as tacky by young adults. New Ideas, seemingly home grown and more authentic sprung up;  craft breweries, farm to table restaurants, concept bars, and quirky shops selling only alpaca wool socks. The walls and floors were brick and rough wood. The tables were stone and the lights were strings of bare bulbs, dimly dangled over minimalist décor and ferns.