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.

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.

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

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'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

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's ugly as mortal sin
as we crawl to our end.
Bette clued me in.
Blood thin as vapor
skin parchment paper
toothless beauty queen
we were so beautiful.
We sing this Hymn.

I launched at the starting gun
the course was always planned
trained your feet to run
mile 20 muscles cramped
I had the 26.2 tattoo
  on my fragile ego.
Round here I never
forgive me ever
I'm my own worst enemy.
Dad always said so.
Stand up straight, Boy.
Crawl across the finish line.

I'm 70 and blush like a 10 year old
    crushing on the girl with snake hair.
    She's electric and boombox loud laughs
    and shakes me from my very foundation.

    I have my life packed into boxes ready
    to sell for pennies at the yard sale.
    I can't dance. Rhythm was never my thing.
    I don't want to fall in love with her.

    This valentine inside my chest betrays me.
    I'm always ready to fall in love with crazy.
    The ashes smoldered and now come alive and
    We'll burn with lust in uncertain tomorrows.

Welcome to Crazy Town.
Everything upside down.
Church for **** priests
steal altar boys' feasts.
I ****** Christ's bride.
I have nowhere to hide,
broke her sacred heart.
Crazy Town comes apart.

Maybe I'm just a madman
screaming poems from attics
nobody hears or understands
the fragile needs of addicts
who suffers the pain of others
burned and broken down
orphans without mothers
raised by a circus clown.

Drunk old man's postulation
  on the beginning of creation:
  angry fierce crude hot lover
  energy exploding forever
  we made a God who made us
  to teach His splendid Opus
  we made a heaven and hell
  and sins to count and tell.
  We all transition to death
  rage against final breath.

I chirp in your vicinity.
You are giant and loud.
You seem bothered by
my call to my true love.
You hover menace like
with rolled up magazine
and I hope you'll find
your own true love.

Jesus Christ died for
   no ******* reason but
   a best seller fiction
   full of fairy tales
   supper and betrayal
   with a kiss and whips
   40 times in his back
   and a crown of thorns
   nailed to the cross He
   carried to His destiny.

I cut me into pieces
  to fit your puzzle
  no rhyme or reason,
  shapes like Picasso's.
  I'm old and confused
  looking for your kindness
  in my ancient attic boxes
  rotting under leaky roofs.

We had *** again on cruise control
silent grunts so not to wake baby
to prove my love for a sacred hole
We'll do it again next week maybe?

I'm 12 and in bed for the night
    listening to WSAI. Dusty Rhodes
    is the DJ playing music of Cream
    on my crystal radio in my ear.
    I'm frozen there forever. I will
    never wake from futures Dream.

Shapes don't matter anymore,
  no one a ****** or a *****.
  Now everything is vertigo,
  no color left, all is indigo.
  Violence is now a life style.
  North star's been gone awhile.
  East is west is north is south.
  Picasso made ******* a mouth.
  Madness is our New World rules.
  We are all Government mules.

I try to keep my life inside the lines.
I drink Alice's potions and it all bends.
Can hardly see where I'm going now or
where the whole **** thing finally ends.
The Queen of Hearts says off with my head.
The Wizard of Oz speaks with certainty.
Toto exposes his act behind the curtain.
I'm in a Cuckoo's Nest; drugs my gravity.

I work the streets at night
dressed for business in cars
I do my best to look pretty
makeup hides my scars

They always pay in cash
never kiss me goodnight
beats cleaning toilets
without the delight.