A haggard angel
Stands behind my back.
Is it me or you?
For three decades
She had graced me
With words of love
And fits of anger.
I helped create her
And yet hurt her .
And suddenly, she turns
Away from me,
Still loving me, I think.
But all she wants,
She tells me bitterly,
Is to be alone.
She leaves and I wonder
If she will ever return.
I stand on a garish train,
Thunderstruck, unmoving,
As I watch her storm away.
Suddenly, I feel what she does—
The pain and sadness.
I created her long ago
And know why she is livid.
And now she returns the hurt,
Leaving me as the empty one,
My insides vacuum up sorrow.
Am I now the angel,
Fallen and haggard?

Truckin' onions down the Grapevine
Jake brake blaring
I am almost HOME
sang the feller drivin' onions,

Singing common man songs
just getting' along

Makes up words when he can

He's an uncommon man
but he takes a lot of pride
in what I am.

They're playing sad Merle Haggard songs
on the radio

Rollin' onions down the Grapevine

Airbrake smokin' smell heavy
fifty miles by now,

Singing trucker man songs
Just getting along

all downhill from there

He was an uncommon man
but he took a lot of  pride
in what I am.

They're still playing  Merle Haggard songs
on the radio
There's onions on the freeway
Clear on down to
Button Willow.

I guess old Merle died too, today.

Vinyl Chloride*

I try to soothe
my haggard mind
late at night,
I try to run from you,
because your damage
soaked all my bones
and all the happiness I owned.
Your name dug my grave
ahead of time,
I'm sorry, but you crossed a line;
You cannot trespass my heart,
you cannot say you loved me most
because when I bled in the dark,
your presence was a ghost.