well who does she think
she really is

wearing them ****** pink
hot pants again

well naked as a jaybird when
she is

talking to all them
strange navy sailor men

that come here from
the Aussie Lands

working for them
fancy Krugerrand

Barbie's undercover of the book that never quits
Manipulative and menacing but, she never spits
An evil being, a beauty queen, more than some t.v. b*tch
I wish I had a rheostat, I'd lower/light her switch

Barbie's chasing boys again, her husband doesn't care
She's riding barefoot on the back of a costar or a queer
She tilts her head/hair back and forth, pretends she doesn't care
It's that silly kind of carefree movement; majic's in the air

And I'm

Watching Barbie in the afternoon
I've not much more to do
She's so much more than a piece of meat
Barbie, so petite
Well wouldn't it be great to meet,
to see her face to face
Forty years fly bye too fast but,
That's the Barbie pace

She knows her children have a mind thew grew all by their own
They have to learn from their mistakes even when they've grown
She wants to help her daughter out by jumping in a lake
But this ain't mike, tom, chris, or jake; this could be a mistake

Barbie's in a bubble bath, she's naked as a jaybird
With happy smile, ear to ear, she relaxes and spreads cheer
More bubbles flow from a bottle emptied quickly
I only can imagine underneath her skin now prickly

Watching Barbie in the afternoon
Barbie, she's so sweet
So much more than just a piece of meat
Barbie, so petite
Well, wouldn't it be great to meet
to see her face to face, Barbie
Share!

I barely know you that well
But would you like to take some time away
Throw pennies down a well
And make wishes that we'd never tell?
When it comes to being confident
I'm lacking in the subject but it
Doesn't mean that I don't know how to love
If there's something beautiful in this rotten world it's a dove
Who flies through the day and the night
With wings ******* white
Trying to find the one to who will make him stay
And make a nest with eggs
Feed his children on the off days
So if it's something like that you're looking for
I'll have introduce you too the door
Only after we've had our fun
Because I really want to know you
But it's hard for me to show you
Everything that I'd want to give
It's not what I'd suggest but it's the way some like to live
So take your coat
and hang it up
Or throw down your purse and lay with me till the sun comes up
Either way it doesn't matter to me
It's just another thing to lose
Something I'd rather not choose
But it's something that people live for

Whatever happened to the christian girl
Who took a solemn pledge
To remain pure like silver
And to never go up against
The devil and his drones
To become a mindless clone
To the alcohol and green
She says she feels all in between
I think she left home way too soon
Like some modernized sixties cartoon
Well I know that a man ***** you
****** is a real shame
But that doesn't mean you can take good friends
And make them feel the same
Hate isn't something I'd wish upon another
So please just stay out of it
And avoid all the clutter

So drink all the wine in my simplistic home
Don't worry about the time we've got a loan
It is just another thing to lose
Don't think about tomorrow I'll take your shoes
I know I'll wake up the next morning
And know i'll never get to see those hazel browns again
Because you like to your eyes closed when you sin
It helps you not remember what you did
I'm not really one to talk
But I think we should take a walk
And get the help that we deserve
because even god can't help us when we refuse to learn
And you'll try to look both ways
Before crossing the busy street
At least that’s what it'll say
On your suicide note to me
I'll miss you very dearly
If only you could see clearly
And not through that red eyed whiskey glare
It's yet another thing I refuse to share

You know which way to go about it
You say that you can live without it
But when it comes to being a good son
You have eleven bottles down at a quarter to one
Now your beating your mother
And cursing the only other
Person that wants you to live
I really wish you had something more to give
Than a sly remark and a troubled slur
Like a baker who let his workplace burn
You'll get back everything you lost
You can't even get better
So just take up that sweater
And go sit in the backyard and slit your wrists
The police are knocking at your door they're coming in
Only three days in prison
And your back to the same old ****
I bet you had a life
That was relatively good
Although I know nothing about your wife
Everything seemed to be where it should
Can you count the fingers
On my left hand?
You just want shove it in my face
And kick my *** where I stand
Your sisters don't care
And your father is barely breathing on his bed
You niece is in denial
And your nephew wants you dead
Can I ask a question?
Have you learned your lesson?
You better hope to god you'll never hear this poem
Because let me tell you
I want you gone

The couple that's not a couple broke up last week
The girl was a bit troubled
And the boy just smokes his ****
While another girl doesn't eat
And another man can barely sleep
Because there is really too much on their minds
Like the french man and his muse
They are all compromised
And the kids that drop their acid
Before they're thirteen
And the parents who keep the knives at bay
Cry in disbelief
The girls who's actually eighteen
Is mentally ten
No one knows what’s happening with her mother
She might be dead
In a few months time
They won't know if she’s fine
The father takes his pleasure
In being philosophically confusing
And the son lies about his drug use
Its all a bit soothing
To think they all started out
In the same old place
Naked as a jaybird
With their mothers to thank
How they all have changed
Moderation is key
It really shouldn't be
Be I'll talk about me

I'm an eighteen year old ******
Just trying to find some love
Not someone to ****
Just to think fondly of
My uncle is a drunk
And my mother might die
My grandfather doesn't remember me
And my sister can't even try
To be a normal kid
Like her younger brother
While my father scolds me
About the **** like its another
Faithless crime
Like he did when he was a kid he
Sipped his wine
And now my fathers’ father
Can barely think
He just gargles down his mouthwash
And spits into the sink
His heads makes up theories
About the president
And we are all communists
Its real complicated
And here I am at two AM
Just trying to deal
With all of these thoughts
It really can’t be real
I think sometimes it's easier just not to feel
I've had a few girls I've thought fondly of
With each of them in different ways, I fell in love
One was a pure christian girl
Who left me for jesus
Another was deep into drugs
She overdosed and now I never see her
There was one who lived in Chicago
She was full of hope
One who took pills for pleasure
But now only smokes dope
Another who takes photos
Who only dreams in black and white
We are just best friends
I hope one day I
Well one day I'll take the train
To somewhere new
With my guitar and my ripped up shoes
I think I'd really love to start again
With a new name, a new life
Some new friends

I'll write you all letters
Explaining my guilt
I'll never forget you
I promise you all that I will
Try to visit again
On a warm summer day
My hair will be past my shoulders
And my heart taken away
By someone who is as close to perfect
As the word itself
And when I look into their eyes
My brain would start to melt
Like the eagle and the poacher
It's just a kind of game
You never know who's gonna win
And what’s to blame
Is it because we live in a land that land makes medicine illegal
Or the fact that we deny any form of help to the most vulnerable of people
We think we own the world
When we are really just a race
Who took the fact that we have thumbs
As the right to claim first place

Take this message in a bottle
And throw it out to sea
Hopefully through all the pollution
They'll find me
With a joint in my hand
And my guitar in the other
I'll tell them I've quit cigarettes
And this is just another
Way to cope
With the every day life
I know they won't believe me
I'm a criminal in their eyes
I'll fight for all my friends
That have been taken down
By wars or drugs or policeman
Their souls I never found
I guess it's time to move on
A new chapter will begin
Maybe this time I'll let the light
Come shining on in
I know I've let my mother down
She probably hates me
The feeling might be mutual
But that doesn't even phase me

For me there's just so many things to say
I can't even wrap my head around
What happened new years day
I was alone in the bathroom
Drunk beyond belief
Taking a drag off a cigarette
And then a hit of ****
It was me and three of my friends
Two were having ***
The other had a friend over
The were on the couch touching lips
I called up a friend
He said he wasn't busy
He said I should hang up
He knew I was way past tipsy
We talked for hours
then I went back to the room
The reeked of smoke and ****
With a hint of the blues
I called up a friend of mine she paid me a visit
She gave me a big hug
I really, really miss it
When I saw her face
I almost started to cry
She left, I love her
She's the best friend that I
Have ever had in this world
She knows about me
She helped me off the drugs
And my dependencies
When it was again just us four
I played them all a song
The tears all just came up again
I played along
We all went outside
And smoked the last cigarette
Smoke the rest of my ****
And went off to bed
It was a sad night
But I had things to learn
Like who will go out of their way
To help me reconfirm

My identity that had been lost
About two years ago
I don't think I'll ever find it
To whoever cares you should know
I'll miss you
When I'm nearly dead
Whenever that is
Remember what I've said
You can't love another
Without mending a broken heart
It's something I wish I'd known
Right from the very start
It would have helped me out a lot
Way back then
With my insecurities
That I can throw into the wind

Wish oh wish upon a star
Wake up where the days are close
Behind you
Maybe one day they'll get the message
That everything I do depends on them
Return to where it all began
Try to wake the dead and frolic now and then
Stay up in the fields and take a look
A flower floating through the forest
Floating in a bubbling Brooke
I guess that's where I started
My old friend
I hope I get to see you
One day before the end

Biscuit and sorghum syrup happy faces with Georgia peach butter and blackberry muffins , childhood favorites that tickle the palette !
For a bag of Fall persimmons , a handful of roasted pecans I would gladly cross the Alcovy River naked as a jaybird !
Rutabagas , turnips and cracklin cornbread would be my staple of choice if marooned on an island , a Frosty Root beer and mothers egg custard !
Peach ice cream and scuppernong jelly , fig preserves and tomato gravy !
Columbus grits and Claxton fruitcake , Vidalia onion rings , Elijay apples !
In my next life I relish the very thought of becoming a Cardinal , turned loose in a muscadine arbor ! The most heart stopping  , meanest scarecrow ever made would be no match for a wise old crow in a watermelon patch ! Mockingbird busy in a old plum tree , a honeybee in a clover field as far as the eye can see !

Is she like Calypso
in The Camomile Lawn,
knelt down and speechless
by the fire, resembling
Jennifer Ehle so closely,
as the camera lingers
at her being naked as a jaybird,
and quite comely at that?

Or is she perhaps
more like Felicitas
in Flesh and the Devil,
a dead ringer for Greta Garbo,
who brazenly encouraged
illicit love and rivalry, only
to go quietly by falling
through thin ice?

Sometimes the siren's call
is more a winsome variation
in its silence.

you say you see my light
is it behind my eyes
or hidden in between my crooked teeth
does it seep out through the scars
littering my arms
the constant paper cuts on my finger tips
does it crawl out through the paper fine
skin i tear off my lips
or do i bite off my light when i
chew my nails down to the quick
does the light hide behind my cuticles
and i the only reason why i can’t see them
is because they are hidden by the blood
of the skin being stretched back too far
does my light hide in my little toes
or is it hidden behind my smile
the one place i wouldn’t think to look

you say you see my light
and i have scoured my body
fully clothed and naked as a jaybird
with my failing eyes
with and without my glasses
sometimes being blurry is better than the
harsh light of a new days reality
and i want to run away
but my flaws
they leave a bright
burning black and blue and indigo
trail behind me
and it pains my heart and soul to see
that the brightest part of me
is all of my
insecurities

you say you see my light
and i wonder why that is
are your eyes bad as well
are they as bad as mine
do they see other things too
like the knuckle shaped bruises
the scratches from last night’s nightmares
the shaking hands
and the scars
so many **** scars
but your eyes see only beauty
and i think you see it in me too
though i don’t know why
this is a notion i cannot conceive
maybe you’re just saying that to make me
feel better
but i know you’re too kind to tell such a lie

you say you see my light
and i can’t help but to wonder if
i manage to shine even half
as bright as she did
but that’s selfish of me
it is a terrible character flaw of mine
i just want someone to see past my
proverbial rain cloud
and the darkness i shroud myself in
though my clothes may be bright
my soul and heart are dark
and i just want to be a bright light
like a star
but instead i am like
an abyss
i **** all the light in
and give nothing back
i am a greedy boy
a greedy black hole
please fill me up
with your light

you say you can see my light
and i cried when i saw that comment
don’t think that was your intended reaction
but i have always been rather emotional
a ***** boy
a girly boy
a crybaby
but you say you see my light
and i am trying to believe you
i really am
but it is so hard
all these loud negative thoughts
they invade my mind
dance and scream and *****
me with pins behind my eyes

you say you can see my light
and if i were an angel
all my grace would have run out
i pour my light into other people
and keep none for myself
i am a burnt out husk
but you still make me feel beautiful
please i beg of you
take your weathered old hands and pry open
my eyelids
make me see the light
help me to look in a mirror
and not hate what i see
help me to see my light
i want to see it

you say you can see my light
and i am trying my hardest to
believe you

I decided some time ago
To go naked from now on
It saves a lot on my laundry bill
Plus I admit it's a bit of a thrill

The town has gotten used to the absurd
Of me being  naked as a Jaybird
Although there still are ladies fainting
And lots of babies crying

There's no better feeling than letting it all hang out
Plus it gives the bridge club something to talk about
Even if it's just a little bit
Did I mention it's cold as I'm writing this?

Though I might have taken it over the edge
That day at the grocery to buy milk and bread
The cashier thought me deranged
When she saw where it was that I keep my change

One thing good came out of all of this
They treat me now like nobody's biz
Although I've never been that cheap
They now give me everything I need for free

You are my sisters child not mine.
I think you were almost four back then.
it was so very long ago.
Your beauty astounded me.
You had me smitten then
and if truth be known
As you do now.

We were having a shore lunch by the lake.
The lake trout sizzled
in its butter on the barbeques.
When naked as a jaybird
You jumped from the dock.
Disappearing into the lakes deep waters
Into the world of minnows and trout

I jumped in to save you
but you were already at the surface
swimming in doggie paddle fashion.
Refusing my grip
in fierce independence.
A trait you still possess.
I saw the big sign
Danger No swimming
but I let you go staying close to you.
You were kept buoyant
by the fruits of the young
by life’s power that flowed from you

And for an hour
you stayed in that water.
You won’t remember I am sure
But I saw you forming
the great woman
that you became
As you scorned my help.
And swam to the dock
lifting yourself
onto its platform.
That’s the moment we clicked
Man and woman child
friends forever
an eternal unbreakable bond.

You stepped out into
You went into a corner and didn't invite me back in
It was there, enveloped in your own selfishness
The darkness of your guitar
I watched you decide
That you felt unsure.

I used my paint brush to try and help you see
The ways in which it didn't have to be
My skin tanning
My hair lightening
I made a new playlist
I'm not sure how this will unfold.

I feel very deeply
That I've already expelled a lot of emotional energy
I did all I could
To lead with simplicity
I'm not sure where you went
Or why question marks fill your head
You actively stopped engaging
You stopped doing what you were doing
My friends say you are embarrassed
Young
And selfish.

All of this I already knew
My eyes water from the sunscreen
A few more days till I return
And all I can say is
It will be interesting to see how you handle it all.

I've been crooning quietly
To the wailing of my own song
Drifting in the water
Looking like I'm having a good time
Not you,
too.

Your face is happy
and smile is glad
You're not scary
and never ever sad.
Sweetie, you're beautiful.

Your eyes are like the stars
and the hair is so lank
Your voice is so sweet
like a jaybird, I think.
Darling, you're cheerful.

You are the beauty queen
even though a little bit shy.
You're like the full moon
in the midnight sky
Sweetheart, you're wonderful!

i
lay here
in
the
wide open plains of
The Serengeti's
while
i was
naked as a jaybirds
thus
to
hear the
crunching sounds of
bone and flesh
being crushed
in the jaws of
the
snickering hysterical laughing
spotted hyaena clan

NAKED BUS

She catches the London bus
in her fist.

Gnaws it...then throws it
through the window.

Lucky the window wasn't
closed.

She chews it  when
teething.

Chews its redness
- off.

She is amazed to see
the real thing for the first time.

For her
her toy has grown into a giant.

Then she discovers double-deckers.
Counts: "One double-decker bus...two double-decker buses

...24 double decker buses!"
It is unbelievably so!

Doesn't know she is counting
the same bus twice!

And now to add to her
amazement she

encounters a green bus!
Will the excitement never end.

"The bus has changed its clothes?"
she says unsure that this can be so.

But now confounded by a bus
all in white!

Even we have never seen
a bus in white.

It looks like it has taken
all its clothes off.

A **** bus!

But to her it's worse
far worse than that!

"The bus has taken
it's skin off!"

She refuses to go on
this skinless bus.

We wait for a "normal"
bus to somehow appear.

And appear it does
busy being a red bus.

The world of buses
restored to its proper order.

*

it was just a left over toy of a London red bus that a tourist would buy...it would fit in your fist. It was just around and when she was teething she would gnaw at it...it became a security toy! She thought, I guess, that this was the normal size of a London bus so you can imagine her amazement when the real thing blossomed into being for the first time....the tiny toy had become a monster. She would gasp in wonder that things could be so. So just when she had got used to this then she saw a green bus for the first time and she equally couldn't believe that they could be any other colour than red! Then there was the time when the world went crazy and they're were double decker buses. She just kept coming out with the remarks and then the white bus threw everything she knew outta the window! Over 30 years later a white bus crossed my path and indeed it did look naked as a jaybird or as Tilly then put it- skinless!

I never thought of it again until now....there is no memory store I can go to in order to write a poem...it has to organically grow back into place and just the happenstance of a bus being driven to put on its paint clothes or to get dressed with logos kickstarted it all over again.
It the kind of thing a poet/father will take out of his wallet and show you an emotional picture of his daughter.

jaybird shrieking
cursing God or Gravity
- her egg still falls

and the baths. My feathered
friends won’t splash to cool off
on a raging hot day. Not a drop

of water to swallow
as the grass turns to hay. No
dancing song from my lawn on
a languorous July afternoon. Soon

I won’t hear the chirping
beaks dining out cheek to cheek,
amongst the cotton tail bunny. So funny
seeing him pick the bits that fall from

the outdoor café. He looks
for grey pedestrians, that shove
their bushy bodies in. Mass Wildlife warns a
mysterious illness leaving the song

birds with crusty eyes -
crusty as my cinnamon crumble
apple pie. So, many died. And I ask
how is this? Since the virus the Robin

and jaybird are my friends. Now,
here I sit on my splintered deck –
sipping lemon and gin
all by myself again!

Poetry in motion,
                Single basketball  player
                        shooting hoops
                               Motor cross
                                    dirt bike
                                        competition
            ­                              doing loop de loops

Bounce bounce
           lay up the ball
                we hope the bike
                      riders do not fall
                              children birthday party
                                         bouncy house
                                                     kids at play
yes it is
      a beautiful day
            The butterflies
                   are teaming
                        Floating on bye
                                 surprised child
                                       screech is a loud cry
Birds are singing
            everywhere
                   Not a worry
                        not to care
                               This story
                                     it’s just a slice
                                           of God’s glory
 Commemorate
            this day with
                   photos that say
                           I hope time
                                it’ll always be
                                     a cherished
                                           memory of mine
Walking the park
                A jaybird a lark
                        Wildflowers
                              In the glade
                                  Thick trees shade,
                                            friendly dogs
                                                        walk on by
With pride they
           sniff each backside
                and say hi.
                   His favorite of those
                        lady Daisy
                            rolls over and
                                  kisses his nose.  
                                          they’re in love
                                                as the story goes