Even with my eyes closed

Even with my eyes closed

Funny how I know it’s harder, it’s harder now.
Young girl in my young girl days, thinking I could live for always.
But like an ocean tide, I’m drawn back inside and I know.
Seasons pass like sand inside a glass and nothing, nothing returns.
Standing with the friends I’ve made, I’ll race them to the grave.
Well who won, won the extra days?
When you take away the years toll on the waters wide, shallow high and low.
In the autumn sky, happy to know I’m going home.
Even with my eyes closed, funny how I know it’s finally, has it finally begun?

Cabaret

Cabaret

Shards of glass cut through my gaze
broken streamers hanging at my legs
drunk and giddy full of fate
at the cabaret
smokey stares from the bar
do stray bottles tumble
I feel the misty spray
what a perfect, perfect day for the cabaret
from afar he sees
Venus rise overwhelmingly beautiful
he sighs the look of love was in her eyes
puts his hand upon her leg
looking closer his lust begins to fade
what a drag the queen did say.
could this be a dream I’m in? ( Fellini would be proud )
gluttony enfolds the scene
give them one last round ,
shining faces dance away
swinging skirts between the panted legs
kaleidescoping
then shassez in a blink the glasses fly
suddenly joy becomes a fight
there they tossed and turned a sight.

Cotton alley

Cotton alley

One time
you made me cry
be proud that I
remember
my chin is sore
the bruise is gone
but the spot is tender

gave my hand a sister coy
to Cotton Alley where
you did enjoy
your wicked games
you curious boy

tied my laces up together
when I fell
you laughed
until your belly was sore

in the brick laid aisle behind
the five and dime store

that’s how
I made you blush
but doubt if you
remember

were my tears genuine
or thoes of a skilled
pretender

nothing precious
plain to see
don’t make a fuss over me
not loud
not soft
but somewhere in between
say sorry
let it be
the word you mean

I was a little pest who
never took a hint
could never
take a hint

you pinched my fingers
in a door
tossed my coloring book in a
rusty barrel

pulled spiders from my hair
fingers in the door

my favorite blue blouse
stained on the back
running from a berry war

can you hear me scream
in Cotton Alley
scream in Cotton Alley
in Cotton Alley

Ellen

Ellen

Eager to please was just the way that he was
though his attempts there falling short,
expectation
see he would tell of all his conquests,
was he bragging?
but in the evening all alone
Ellen unplanned delays
saving for someone who really cared about you
invincible they say
married to your name
she was the kind between a child and a lady,
quick was her temper
like a blaez from an ember
no one had measured to her standard,
so in the evening all alone all alone
how do I tell them to open their minds
and to take a chance
maybe on finding life’s treasure stubborn they stay set
in their ways really not wanting to be lonely not alone.

Grey victory

Grey victory

There was light and atomic
fission Swelling wind Rising ash Tide of Black Rain Cement seared
shadow traces Reminiscent of their last commands Instantly one
thousand flames arising Ill scent the burning hides surrounding A
settlement debased entirely Enola Gay had made a casual delivery
Please build a future, darling With our bomb Cherish and love it For
the sake of Earth bound kingdom come The undersides of fallen metal
trusses Evil debris of human bodies Each window’s glass shards pelted
Secure confines Brittel collapse Neighbors lay beside Each other
unknowing Faces scorched of all familiar bearing, Too few hands Many
wounds for closing Marred by Thirsting Anguish Fear lamenting Here we
stand At the door to gold atomic age Don’t spoil your face with worry
Trust in Earth bound kingdom come.

Orange

Orange

Lineage close dDissolved In its birth
Tragedy Prelude a balance Is a synergy Of reason Malicious hope As
techno atrocities Lapse their effects Associate these ends Their
clarity Demands your revenge Please compensate Not Deny Jungle Revenge
Infanticide Crosses Very thin walls Latent casualties Arrive From
fatal initiation No longer recessive Genetic aliens abandoned Plain
deceit IN the mirage of A just one time cause We’d all changed The
clocks No ladies auxiliary to kiss Their blistered cheeks Gone.

Gun shy

Gun shy

I always knew that you would take yourself far from home as
   soon as, as far as you could go. By the 1/4 inch cut of your hair and
   the Army issue green, for the past eight weeks I can tell where you’ve
   been. For I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me there
   was soldier’s blue blood streaming inside your veins. There is a world
   outside of this room and when you meet it promise me you won’t meet it
   with your gun.
   So now you are one of the brave few, it’s awful sad we need
   boys like you. I hope the day never comes for “Here’s your live round
   son. Stock and barrel, saftey, trigger, here’s your gun.” Well I
   knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me there was soldiers
   blue blood streaming inside your veins. There is a world outside of
   this room and when you meet it promise me you won’t meet it with your
   gun taking aim. For I don’t mean to argue, they’ve made a decent boy
   of you and I don’t mean to spoil yourhome coming, but baby brother
   you should expect me to.
   “Stock and barrel, saftey, trigger, here’s your gun.” So now
   does your heart pitter pat with a patriotic sond when you see the
   stripes of Old Glory waving? Well I knew, I could see, it was all cut
   and dried to me there was soldier’s blue blood streaming inside your
   veins. There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it
   promise me you won’t meet it with your gun taking aim. I don’t mean
   to argue, they’ve made a decent boy of you and I don’t mean to spoil
   your homecoming my baby brother Jude and I don’t mean toh urt you by
   saying this again, they’re so good at making soldiers but they’re not
   so good at making men.

Among the Americans

Among the Americans

Dance to the sun
A kiss to the earth
Embrace a stone
Come the small black book
Come the brandy cask
One strange disease
The well worded paper
Signed by the drunken
Hands of thieves

And suddenly
They were told to leave

As the snake uncoiled on a road
The length was eighty miles
Wagons’ weary horses
Lead the feverish exiles
Barefoot in the early snow
On a ridge
Where they beheld their home
Coarse and barren
Not the haven
Promised by the Father

Jaksa Chula Harjo
Jaksa Chula Harjo
Jaksa Chula Harjo **

The Red Sticks first and
The Dancing Ghosts were
Pierced with arms of fire
And the weeping widows
Left could not avenge
So the Western Star manifest its will
Drove them clear into the Pacific O

Gone the way of flesh
Turned pale and died
By your god’s decree

For he hated me

** Cherokee name for Andrew Jackson
The 7th president of the U.S.A.

A room for everything

A room for everything

You were looking away from me, western skies calling you.
Colors spilling, running dazzling you.
I was looking the other way, voices call from the east,
I saw my roots of the trees there planted at my feet.
It could be I’m searching for a place so small with room for everything
where worlds on worlds revolve.
But how can we wait? I wouldn’t hold you back.
Suppose I was the clever one and words came easy to me.
I could say I was writing a song about you and me.
Maybe that verse is yet to be found, but waits inside of me,
a secret room a tangled web to unweave.
But how can we wait knowing our ways, how can we hold on,
still you know it’s not too late.

A campfire song

A campfire song

A lie to say,
“O my mountain has coal veins and beds to dig.
500 men with axes and they all dig for me.” A lie to ssay,
“O my
river where mant fish do swim, half of the catch is mine when you
haul
your nets in.” Never will he believe that his greed is a
blinding
ray. No devil or redeemer will cheat him. He’ll take his gold to
where he’s lying cold.

A lie to say, “O my mine gave a diamond as big as a fist.”
But with every gem in his pocket, the jewels he has missed. A lie
to
say, “O my garden is growing taller by the day.” He
only eats the
best and tosses the rest away. Never will he be believe that his
greed is a blinding ray. No devil or redeemer can cheat him. he’ll
take his gold to where he’s lying cold. Six deep in the grave.

Something is out of reach
something he wanted
something is out of reach
he’s being taunted
something is out of reach
that he can’ beg or steal nor can he buy

his oldest pain
and fear in life
there’ll not be time
his oldest pain
and fear in life
there’ll not be time

A lie to say “O my forest has trees that block the sun and
when I cut them down I don’t answer to anyone.” No, no,
never will he
believe that his greed is a blinding ray no devil or redeemer can
cheat
him. He’ll take his gold where he’s lying cold.