Poetry And Other Musings...

Midnight On The Midway

A dusty field in any town

The carnival is closing down

I'm sneaking a smoke with my buddy Earl

Between the bumper cars and the tilt-a-whirl

And we're watching locals limp out the gate

They're walking out broke and going home late

And I caught the eye of some pretty town girl

She tossed her hair, colored lights on blonde curls

And Earl says "town after town they all look the same"

Now it's midnight on the midway and I just wish I knew her name

A rainy night, the bunkhouse leaks

The season ends in just three weeks

I'm stashing my pay and rationing smokes

Working all day cheating good honest folks

But I'm getting off this merry-go-round

This long caravan of the lost and found

And I might miss Earl and his long toothless grin

But I'm through playing games nobody can win

And Earl said "every dime lost is ten cents we gain"

Now it's midnight on the midway and I'm still sweeping up the rain

A muddy field in any town

The carnival is closing down

Cradle And Grave

In our age of innocence, we tumble through our youth

All our childhood a memory of something we survived

In the search for evidence, we stumble on the truth

Fucked up and jaded in the real world we've arrived

And we try to find time in between all the work

For the love and the peace and the quiet we crave

But God winks on the sly and the devil must smirk

At our brief walk between the cradle and the grave

Born in search of happiness, we squander all our days

Burn like firewood the dreams we dreamed to make the fire start

Turn it all to ashes and we wander through the haze

Sucked up and swallowed by the void in our own heart

And we finally find the time at the end to begin

To know love, to make peace, to be humble and brave

But God's in on the joke and the devil must grin

At our long run between the cradle and the grave

A Dream Of Wings

What if all the stars

Are my ancestors' watchful eyes

Imagine if the moonlight

Is my mother in disguise

Life is just a question

But I know the answer lies

Beyond the great divide

And so I watch the open skies

For vapor trails or angels

Hiding in the soft sunshine

Or a dark storm on a night

so void and starless

I keep my eyes wide open

In case God should send a sign

That I'm not all alone

here in the darkness

That I'm more than mortal stardust

In the cosmic scheme of things

For I caught a glimpse of heaven

Once I had a dream of wings

Afterglow

Well, I blew up like a firecracker

In the summer, 1979

Out on the block on the fourth of July

With my brothers and some friends of mine

And I heard Brenda call out my name

Saw her standing on her front porch

Then she was running down the sidewalk

With a sparkler like a flaming torch

We danced barefoot to the radio

At the county fireworks show

And later when I walked her home

I kissed her in the afterglow

Well, we went together through September

It was summer love after all

She broke my heart on the first day of school

We were friends again by early fall

And I still hear her call out my name

See her skipping off her front porch

When I look back through all that summer haze

There's still part of me that carries the torch

We danced barefoot to the radio

At the county fireworks show

And later when I walked her home

She kissed me in the afterglow

Heart-Shaped Music Box

Momma kept her memories in a heart-shaped music box

Hidden in a dresser drawer, closed up like a tomb

In soft folds of old grey winter sweaters

I found it there the day we cleaned out her room

And both my brothers said we shouldn't peek inside

But I took it to myself and picked the locks

And all that afternoon, I smiled and I cried

For a broken ballerina in a heart-shaped music box

She was just a tiny dancer, nevermore to pirouette

I saw her twirling once when I was just a kid

There used to be a song, a melody I can't forget

But that day there was silence when I opened up the lid

The shine of something copper, the glint of something gold

The high school ring she wore when she was just eighteen

A picture of my sister, gone too young at two years old

A silver dollar wrapped in dime-store velveteen

Twenty-seven earrings, not a single matching pair

A ticket to a canceled Elvis Presley show

A pale blue ribbon tied around a lock of golden hair

And a toy soldier I thought I lost long ago

Memories and mysteries I found in equal measure

All through the apartment, just the sound of ticking clocks

In the cemetery now like buried treasure

My mother's singing bones and a heart-shaped music box

Ghost In A Ghost Town

Sometimes at night, I hear that lonesome whistle

But there hasn't been a train through here in years

I take a ride out to the old abandoned trestle

And I walk that dead man's track until it disappears

Into a young oak grove where only phantom rails remain

I'm a ghost in a ghost town and I'm waiting on a train

Sometimes at night, I hear a rolling thunder

But it never brings a storm to end this drought

Heat lightning flashes in the distance and I wonder

Would I trade blue skies above for the love I live without

Will there ever be a flood to wash away this pain

I'm a ghost in a ghost town and I'm waiting on the rain

I'm a ghost in a ghost town, dragging round my rusted chain

Graveyard Dancer

In the late October chill

She skips over rows of stones

All the ghosts up on the hill

Sing their song of hearts and bones

And they fear her no more

She's only there for the parade

A pretty graveyard dancer

Come to hear their serenade

And once she had a love

And once they would have married

She dressed him up in black

Not to be wed, but to be buried

Autumn wind sighs in the trees

Like a cello's mournful sound

Voices rising like a breeze

From the stillness of the ground

And she hears in the night

A love song lost by light of day

A lonely graveyard dancer

Twirling, twirling, dark ballet

Sunday Drivers

I tore a page from the back of a bible

In a motel room in Birmingham

I wrote a poem about Cain and his brother Able

Has there ever been a kid the good book didn't damn

Every first-born son of Egypt

And the one they call The Lamb

And me, a lonely orphan of the God of Abraham

Bumming change from strangers

Thumbing rides with highway angels

Sunday drivers out of church just pass me by...

I snuck a seat on the back of a Greyhound

On a rainy day in Tennessee

A crowded coach on a highway rolling westbound

Driver stopped the bus and took a good long look at me

He said 'you ain't got no ticket

Boy, nobody rides for free"

And he left me standing stranded out on SR23

Bumming change from strangers

Thumbing rides with highway angels

Sunday drivers out of church just pass me by...

Went for a ride in the back of a cop car

On a trumped-up charge of reckless youth

I worked all summer on a gang pouring hot tar

Found guilty on the evidence that I was living proof

Even though I raised my right hand

And told nothing but the truth

I got ninety days in County, three squares and a roof

Begging change from strangers

Thumbing rides from highway angels

Sunday drivers out of church just pass me by

If I Ever Get To Heaven

You say you were called to witness, so who are you to stand and judge

The way you talk about forgivenes while in your heart you bear a grudge

Against the lost sisters and brothers knocking on your church house doors

As if the sins of all the others, Sir, are any worse than yours

You say they'll never get to heaven, as if God is short on grace

But if they ever get to heaven, I wonder will they see your face

You call upon the Holy Spirit, raise your hands, praise God above

But if you're made in His true image, why have you so little love

For all the lost brothers and sisters gathered at your church house doors

Well, let me tell you something, mister...Jesus ain't no friend of yours

You say I'll never get to heaven, you say I haven't got a prayer

But if I ever get to heaven, I don't expect I'll see you there

Riding And Crying

All my favorite songs are the ones somebody dies in

Is that too much to ask from rock and roll

The greatest western movies are the ones the cowboy cries in

An outlaw ought to have a troubled soul

All my life I've played that lonely role

I've been riding and I've been crying

There's something out there on the highway dying

You can hear it rising on the hot wind sighing

I've been riding and I've been crying

My favorite writers are the fearless independents

The ones who leave their blood on every page

The young romantic poets rhyming of love and transcendence

The dreamers caught up in this dreamless age

All my life I've set out to outrage

And I've been riding and I've been crying

There's something out there on the highway dying

You can hear it rising on the hot wind sighing

I've been riding and I've been crying

Too Young To Know

First time I saw her, she was sitting at the wheel

A blonde-haired freckled beauty in a yellow Oldsmobile

She was leaning out the window, she was laying on the horn

I was pissing in a field of young Nebraska corn

Come on and get a ride, boy, if you want one

I didn't ask her where to or how far

I was hitching east and she was driving west

But I crossed two country lanes and climbed into that big old car

We rode together, singing with the radio

She said, boy, you're singing songs you're too young to know

Somewhere in Utah as the sun was going down

She pulled off the highway in some small four-corners town

All the streets were dark and quiet and the moon was in full bloom

We ate pizza from the box in a roadside motel room

Come on and get a kiss, kid, if you want one

I asked her if she heard what she just said

I was just nineteen and she was thirty-nine

But I strippd out of my jeans and slipped into that big queen bed

We moved together with the lamplight burning low

She said, boy, you're doing things you're too young to know

Last time I saw her, she looked like a lonely ghost

Dancing barefoot in white linen on the California coast

She was golden in the sunshine, twirling in the crashing waves

I realized in that moment, life's a dance upon our graves

Go on and go your way, kid, if you want to

I didn't wait for her to say it twice

I walked the beach road until I caught a ride

And I left her out there dancing on the edge of paradise

I might have loved her all those long, long years ago

But in her eyes I saw all I was too young to know

My Low Life And Times

I killed a man, that's what I did

And really he was no more than a kid

But he threatened me with a cold blue knife

Said he'd have my money or he'd have my life

Down a dark dirt road, all for twenty bucks

In a graveyard for old rusted pickup trucks

He had black eyes and a face cold as stone

All I had was fear and a blade of my own

And I left him there with a long bloody gash

That boy lost his life and I kept my cash

And if I've not paid for my crimes

In all of my low life and times

When I leave this world my sentence begins

One day we've all got to pay for our sins

I shot a man, that's what I've done

But he was the one who pulled out the gun

And he said I'd do just as I was told

Or I'd die that night at just nineteen years old

Down an old bone road, all for a cheap thrill

With a hard-on so hard he was willing to kill

He had snake eyes and a grin of dark lust

But I grabbed his gun in a moment of trust

And I left him bleeding but nowhere near dead

Zipped up my jeans on the run as I fled

And if I've not paid for my crimes

In all of my low life and times

When I leave this world my sentence begins

One day we've all got to pay for our sins

OVER THE YEARS AND FAR AWAY

If our lives have all been pre-ordained

Where does that leave a lucky guess

If possession is nine tenths of law

Then I don't want to know the rest

We take our strength from the ones we love

When all is said and done

We face the grind of the everyday

For our one moment in the sun

When yesterday is all that's left

Don't let the picture fade

Remember me how you feel best

Over the years and far away

Travelling south on a long highway

Towards the promised greener grass

With a suitcase full of uncertainty

And a shadow from the past

There's a free wind blowing through my hair

There's the stretch of the open road

But like all good things, the story will end

When the writer is out of prose

When yesterday is all that's left

Don't let the picture fade

Remember me how you feel best

Over the years and far away

Don't judge my deeds in too harsh a light

Stones never hurt as much as words

There are things I've done I now regret

But they were done on my own terms

There's an order in the chaos that we call life

Just look into this mirror of truth

And when you accept that there are things we can never change

My reflection will stare back at you

When yesterday is all that's left

Don't let the picture fade

Remember me how you feel best

Over the years and far away.

A corny one about a story my mom used to tell me.

Raised On Rock And Roll

Momma taught me how to dance

Before I learned to walk

I knew the words to Love Me Tender

Before I could even talk

And I remember how she cried

On that August afternoon

When Elvis Presley died

The King is gone, gone, gone too soon

And we stayed up all night dancing

We did The Madison and The Stroll

She came of age in the nineteen-fifties

She was raised on rock and roll

She was raised on rock and roll

And she always used to say

"When I was seventeen..."

She knew a boy who drove a hot rod

He had hair just like James Dean

And if he only hadn't died

Then she would have worn his ring

She always thought of him

When she heard Frankie Valli sing

Late one night I heard her praying

Father, please receive his rebel soul

He lived his life like a teenage movie

He was raised on rock and roll

He was raised on rock and roll

Momma taught me how to dance

Before I learned to walk

And I could sing Be-Bop-A-Lula

Before I could even talk

I've got a hot rod heart and a jukebox soul

I was raised on rock and roll

I was raised on rock and roll

The Last One Home

Who told Momma where I went

That night I stayed out long past dark

She found me crying in the cold

At the empty baseball park

Her winter coat around my shoulders

Her fingers through my hair like a loving comb

She said I could run away when I get older

She knew I would always be the last one home

Who told Momma where I went

That day I played hookie from class

She caught me wandering in the woods

And she whipped my little ass

And now she's three years gone and buried

An orphan nearly grown, I was free to roam

A backpack and a broken heart was all I carried

I knew I was born to be the last one home

No one came to meet the train

That night I came back into town

No welcome home, I walked alone

In the soft rain falling down

I went out to the cemetery

I climbed that hill and stood over her stone

I came to her at last, not in a hurry

She knew I was gonna be the last one home

The Stake

Hers was white magic and a strong love potion

As sweet as wine, nothing bitter did she pour

She filled my cup and I grew drunk on true devotion

She forever mine and I am hers forevermore

And on the streets of town men talked of her in fearful whispers

But they never spoke her name, only quiet words of blame

All the ladies of the church cursed her as a weirdling sister

And they chanted shame, shame, shame as they put her to the flame

Drunk in some back alley, I hung my head and cried

My soul without its mate, my spellbound heart did break

I hid like a coward on the night she died

But I swore revenge on all who set her burning at the stake

She was a woman of divine perception

If a witch she was, nothing evil did she host

Among that kind, she was a beautiful exception

I saw her last night and I danced with her lovely ghost

And on the streets of town the children sing a rhyme about her

But they never say her name when they play their silly game

The townfolk stare at me and say ol' Joe can't live without her

And they say she called my name when they put her to the flame

Early in the morning, before the sun arose

I stole the streetlamp oil before the town did wake

I slunk like a coward in my sleeping clothes

And I took vengeance on all who set her burning at the stake

Good Enough

She was never too good for me

I just wasn't good enough for her

And we were never going to be

Anything more than we ever were

In those cheap motels on the weekends

When her kids were with her ex

Friends when we weren't fighting

Fighting when we weren't having sex

And that should have been good enough for me

Just like it was good enough for her

But I wanted more than we would ever be

And she wanted less than we were

Doo-Wop Kids

Well, I was born too late to be a doo-wop kid

But I combed my hair back just like the greasers did

I wore a motorcycle jacket and pressed blue jeans

I was too young to drive but I read hot rod magazines

On the corner smoking cigarettes and drinking soda pop

Me and my best friends singing Elvis songs and doo-wop

A woman hollered out a window, you kids better stop

All that caterwauling or I'll call for a cop

And when the cop came round, down the alley we hid

We were born too late to be doo-wop kids

But I was brought up right on old-time rock and roll

My momma loved country music and blue-eyed soul

She used to play those old records on the stereo

And I stayed up late at night listening to the radio

In the evening in the summertime outside the pizza shop

Me and my best friends singing boogie woogie be-bop

An old man shook his fist and shouted, you kids better stop

Standing in my doorway or I'll call for a cop

And when the cop came round, down the sidewalk we slid

We were born too late to be doo-wop kids