Come closer into the light.
  I need to smell your beauty
  to quiet demons in my head.
  God's tears cleanse our souls.
  Come closer still, touch me,
  calm my tremors still my hands.
  Closer hold me closer and we'll
  transcend broken in our world.
  Dance closer, watch the stars.
  Hear death's music ever closer.

When the bar lights blink off and on
  last call announced half hour before
  we work the odds as drunken sailors.
  Singing sirens calling from the door.
  We waltz into the night rain then we
  ***** our naked way to the sacred bed.
  We love the best drunk strangers can.
  I wake in light a prisoner in my head.

When the bar lights blink off and on
  and last call announced half hour ago
  we calculate the odds as drunken sailors.
  The bar is full of sirens calling from shore.
  These beauties must've appeared recently
  cause I never saw them earlier. We take
  their measure and like dancers we choose
  partners and meet near the door and waltz
  away together into the night. We find our
  way to beds holding on to this life raft
  as desperate lovers often do. We love
  the best two drunk strangers can do.
  We wake in morning light blinking.
  We'll always do this dance again.

In the Hippie days
American destruction
by Columbia U ways
C and P instruction
brought us to knees
beat the middle class
poor take our keys
USA was a flash.

I've lived my life as a clown
  in a circus that is my own.
  Seltzer water and horns have
  robbed me of my dignity.
  There's still a piece left in
  a corner of the big top that
  is my mind. We love there
  dark naked and beautiful.

I enrolled in college
accepted in Clown U.
My parents are ecstatic.
I finally see their view.
Ivy League it's not but
I might get a 4 point O
join Cirque du Soleil
free tickets to the show.

I'm a clown dressed in a suit
in a circus tent on Wall Street.
We'll take sucker bets all day
and spin our webs all night.
You'll leap out windows and
we'll cash our chips and laugh.

I never meant to hurt you.
I'm just a clumsy lover.
Throw down your gun.
Don't be so reckless.
I hit the wrong hole and
didn't hear your screams.

5 am we're in the cage.
It takes us a mile below
to grab the coal from Earth's
stubborn hold. We wage war
and explode it loose and gather
it in buckets like we do love.
We end the days in bars. We
drink our fill and sleep with
her, the reason we do it all.
She endures me like the mines.

5am we crowd in the rickety cage
   take us down to hell's cold entry
   into the mines. We stoop and dig
   claws into the rock to drag coal
   into the carts we roll to a rich
   man's greed and we end our days
   in poor man's bars swallow coal
   dust into our angry hearts keep
   score waiting for God's smite.
   We sleep with our sacred wives.

5am we crowd in the rickety cage
   to take us down to hell's cold entry
   into the mines. We stoop and dig
   claws into the rock to drag coal
   into the carts we roll to a rich
   man's greed and we end our days
   in poor man bars swallowing the
   dust into our angry hearts where
   we keep score and wait for God.
   We sleep with our sacred wives.

Someone had to be the first
  to enter your shallow grave,
  steal Virginity, smell blood.
  Ever after my flag is planted.
  I'll never betray you. I promise.
  We'll live forever in a shanty
  clinging to a mountain of coal
  we'll birth miners. I promise.

I'm 70 and still work the mines
to feed my soul and family.
It's all I have to hold onto.
My coal face is cracked like
the rocks we fight each day.
My friends are mostly dead
from black lung and cave ins.
I toast them with a shot
each night in my empty bed
and pray for death tomorrow.

I'm 70 and still work the mines
to feed my soul and family.
It's all I have to hold onto.
My coal face is cracked like
the rocks we fight each day.
My friends are mostly dead
from black lung and cave ins.
I toast them with a shot
each night in my empty bed
and pray for death tomorrow.

Gather believers in coal mine
freight elevators to deliver you
into Hell's cold bowels to work
bent in half and pluck black nuggets
of West Virginia gold to scatter
on dead men's threshing floor.

My **** loves your need
Until you make it bleed
Giving up the baby seed
Done the final deed.

We all must be equal
  inside the collective.
  One last ****** sequel
  proved to be defective.
  Just make us all agree
  to give up our right.
  Never need to be free
  blood paints our fight.

We lasted just a moment
    in my 72 years long ago.
    It seemed like a play date
    more than our marriage.
    ****** and beers and ***
    kept me inside the lines
    usually. I was naked at
    a party and climbing up
    trees to spy on you and
    recording private moments.
    I color outside the lines now.
    Nobody notices or cares.

It's a lonely revolution
with me against the world.
I keep it laughing so it
won't **** me in despair.

Coming of age
turning the page
into ice and rage
escape the cage.

It's huge
melodious centrifuge
stealing rhythm
with no misgiving
from each to give
to each to live
fabulous Commune
a marvelous tune
share our beds
lice in heads
millions die
millions cry
starvation
is salvation.

Communism 101

    Hours on the clock
    monkey's on my back
    the greatest reset
    never take that bet
    no time to chit or chat
    no time for this or that
    we'll all live in communes
    singing the same sad tunes
    while we all starve to death
    giving up our collective breath
    for the leaders inside castles
    we take time to collect our
    tiny weapons that will exact
    vengence and burn the guilty
    to their places in hell and
    we will finally rebuild a
    city to be proud of after all.

I wish I weren't so angry
but I watch my world *****
and pillaged by Communists.
The USA is now USSR shaped.
We fear where we were brave
meek lambs on slaughter floor
they killed our middle class
put in communes for the poor.

You were glorious and spectacular
   more fun than a barrel of monkeys
   a thrill a minute with roller coasters
   and Ferris wheels and side shows, cotton
   candy and near beer to persuade dates
   to the tunnel of love and a kiss or 2.
  
   Now the splendor is just rusted iron
   and rotted wood and peeling paint and
   graffiti and broken windows. We live
   old and fat and bald in misery we got
   used to long ago. We ride this Beast in
   terror and thrills to the bitter end.

A magic box where all of your
ugliness and cruelty are forgiven
when you recite the sin list to
your priest and perform penance.
Guilt  lives in shadows of the
heart always whispering madness.

I call stupid drunk
from the phone booth
outside the Taco Bell
and slur my apologies
to answering machines
and confess my sins.

I'll meet you tomorrow
   wearing the bitter sorrow
   on my sleeve you can leave
   still refusing to believe
   I'm sorry for my betrayal.
   I die inside my confessional.

I confess and eat penance
having sinned I must dance
again with my true mistress
awed as you slowly undress
tempting Eve in the garden
God is lost no way to win.

I tear my paper heart in tiny
pieces of confetti to shower
on you at your wedding to
him, tin cans on the car on the
way to our honeymoon.
I thought it would be us.

My conscience is a loud cat.
Quincy wants this and that.
Always now never in a bit
3am wakes me up, the ****.

I met you in a bar.
We crawled to bed
too drunk instead
slept the night.
We woke blinking
in noon sunlight.
****** our love
into existence.
We never knew
the consequence.

We wear white hats
and ride white horses
to rein in the sheep
to right wrong courses.

It's on your face
as you look at me
a stubborn ****
for all to see,

a floater left
a game of Clue
I came to smoke
inside the loo

I know who left
the thing alone
I'll not say who
used the throne.

I'm in the zone
between perverted
and in confession to
finally be converted

At the corner of Love and Lust
all the broken hearts still bleed
buried in empty graves of trust
never had a chance to find seed.

Destroy my eyes and ears
tear my tongue from me
I'm just a man of straw a
cornfield seer who will see
the future better or worse
give it a blessing or curse
I live forever after death
steal the livings' breath.

I drink myself to death
then retire to my bed
satisfied my life lived
wake in morning dead.

There's a stench in the air
    that you can't stop smelling.
    We live in squalor with rats
    for pets and corpses swelling.
    Social workers come round
    to count living and dead
    and promise more help but
    just give us maggot bread.
    The swells attend fundraisers
    in latest styles dressed to ****
    feast on caviar and champagne
    while my dying child goes still.

Wheels spinning and lovers sinning
   in the dark of the tunnel of love.
   Kids giddy on wooden horses while he
   wins her heart with a stuffed unicorn.
   Guess your age. Guess your weight.
   See the freaks for your amusement.

   We live among acres of corn, slaves
   to it dawn to dark, too tired for love.
   Endless winters making children to
   bring another crop to market and we
   live for the same things we all do.
   Moonshine in lemonade at the Fair.

Brick piled on brick in my life 'til
  I had no choice. I joined. I trained.
  I killed. I saw my brothers killed.
  I found pieces of myself in ******
  a respite from the hell I lived.
  I served 3 tours and landed alive.
  I hugged my parent's shadows
  and found a dealer who welcomed
  me home with a veteran's discount.
  I joined broke brothers on edges.
  I was numb and saw the horror just
  beyond my ****** vision. I lost
  hope long ago and will live slight
  life until I find the courage to die.

The best we can do is AA in church
  basements with **** coffee and drunk
  horror story competitions. Sign our
  sheets and we'll be gone on the hour.

I'm in my cups looking at yellowed photos.
   I laugh and cry. You died. I drink my wine.
   I'm with you once again crazy flying down
   the winding road top down Triumph TR3
   free young men with our lives before us.
   Aimless with high hopes and fearless we
   ride life's rails wherever they carry us
   as long as we live. You left me memories.

You drank yourself to death.
There are easier ways to die.
I get the appeal of slow suicide.
Almost like it's accidental.
We miss your outrageous
sense of humor and your
generosity and loyalty
and devotion to family.
I wish everyone of you
could have known Mike.

One more glass of wine
  this time machine moves
  before you killed a liver.
  We'll laugh until we cry.

  Morning kills our reverie.
  Now awake in tears again.
  I'll never forgive your
  weak end of the journey.

no strutting peacock
  no proud pigeon
  no politician
  nobody's rock
  no PHD by my name
  no aftermath of fame
  no spotlight flame
  nobody to blame.

We huddle in our houses
watch statistics on TV
numbers scare us into isolation
can't breathe the air or touch.
We kiss through masks and love
from afar on video calls.
The Vaxed hate Unvaxed
and no one trusts elites.

I'm a cowboy without a full moon.
  My world completely all fenced in.
  I'll be a wild west show pretty soon.
  Pretend sheriff wears a star of tin.

  Towns are cities concrete canyons
  Midnight cowboys rent their guns
  by the hour to rich companions
  wake drunk by noon in neon suns.

You bought your ticket to
this dark house of waste
lie on the filthy mattress
just one sweet final taste
heaven smile and statistics
tease your last goodnight.
You dream into darkness
then walk into the light.

You bought your ticket to
this dark house of waste
lie on the filthy mattress
just one sweet final taste
crooked smile and statistics
tease your final goodnight
You fade into the darkness
then walk into the light.

Summers last forever at 9
building dams in creeks
swinging on vines free
in woods and crawdads
little monsters we love
as pets in mason jars
for a minute or two
then set them free.