had to get this spasm down quick.

capture the draft
of monaural mystery
begging the raft hunt baggery
bolshevic midnight grunt
history buff magic
system wide michegan
generate
pistol

OTR

there are certain things that resist entropy
la cucaracha and sagebrush
Bruce Willis cannot own this
There are the things that disappear
like the Usual Gang Of Idiots that I remember:
Berg, Drucker, Aragones, Prohias, Torres, DeBartolo etc
picked up a copy of Mad at the stand- $5.99 Cheap!
They never used to have ads.
The Letters and Tomatoes Dept. is still intact
the dirt roads and the barbed wire, the cowshit and the clouds
you cant choose the place you lose
some stick around.
I could take you to the quakies
but your name might disappear-
the stream may take the trees away next year
it hurts to be alive
it's scary to freefall wonder
if you lose your certainty
you may need some ole time religion
or some medicated apathy.

breezy

A little blues harp goes a long way. Zero blues harp goes even further. I had to say this to my boss when he suggested my music needed more harmonica. We were listening to Prairie Home Companion. Sometimes this show makes me smile, but more often I get so annoyed I want to smash something.
I fantasized about being a breezy person at the grocery store this morning. I imagined I could be the kind of guy that catches a ladies eye. I had a vision of myself cheerfully shopping and engaging other people with a lightness.
I took my groceries to the parking garage in the basement. Two sporty cars came racing into the garage doing a lap close in on each other. What the fuck is this, I wondered. I realized that I am at a certain age, and that I do hate young people more and more. I think their styles are moronic, their vision uninspired. I'm one to talk. The sandcastles of my imagination are forever sabotaged by my blue collar inner voice.
I fantasize about a certain discipline to create each day.

 

After:

 

Before:

 

Finally a goddamn piperack
now i just need some spackle for my butt-crack

Pliers In Fishnets and Heels

 

A strange thing can happen to sprinkler men in triple digit heat

My office

 

The Dark Arts of Wirsbo

I heard three quick shots last night at around 2:25. I hit my indiglo to check. It sounded like it came from uphill by the Safeway maybe- or that AME church. About a minute later I heard a car racing down MLK out the window. The getaway perhaps? I waited for sirens. None.
I wasn't gonna be able to go back to sleep now. Not out of fear though, the stray bullet would have come through the ceiling by now. I went to bed too early. Four pints of IPA after work- some Indian food, slept like a good British soldier.
I started thinking about all the shit I'm gonna need for the new install in Lake City. I'm gonna want Ben to crawl into the space in the garage and roto-hammer the wall and get pex out under the stairs for our point of connection. He's a limber young motherfucker. I'm not too fat to squeeze through those studs-yet. I'd figure I'd dazzle him by complimenting his skill at the dark arts of Wirsbo. He'd get a kick out of that phrase. Then his ass would be bent up in a dark hole under some stairs. Yes, a good place for him. It brings a smile to my face. I'll be outside thinkin' up some more shit.

The Skirt

aw come on dont be that way
find time for your muse
even if she's taken all your money
your time and spirit
even when she's taught you learned hopelessness
she's led you on, told you you were the only one
turned you out for all to see and adore forever
so you chase that skirt around the ghost town
wasn't she just here?
wasn't she just on this empty barstool last year?
No, she's been out with all those younger guys.
She may visit from time to time
but you better get used to the view
of the lonesome landscape and cafeteria food

collapse

 

A believer of John Cheever

he took scissors to his self image like a troubled teen
wanna fuck every bitch how can you hide your face
how long can you live with a poison drip
pretty good at faking a smile jolly good fellow
heard something on writers almanac about a guy named Cheever
used to drink too, and felt like he had his nose against the pane
a voyeur to everyone else's well lit happiness.
Somebody stole my schtick

archives

My bank and my paper have gone. I'm gonna try some vitamins. Im gonna try a little hope. Gonna go through the motions for everybody.
The poor take drugs like tiny vacations. Everyone needs some restorative leisure.
I'm still dreaming about some mystery, unknown permission.
i'm still here making a cobweb for the archives.

Beetle-rot Steeples

there are too many passwords
I just dont wanna do this any more
too many uphill battles
Chief Joseph of the home made rock and roll crowd
passions punished, desires thwarted
I got burnt arm hair smell like Icarus
one failed parachute-
and the jowls and stare of a working brute
i forget what I'm supposed to dream about
I look forward to pissing beer on the beetle-rot steeples
and needled floor of the sawtooth mountains
Stare at the campfire and do my best at the family's interrogation.
Better find my moment, better find a place to live in it.
But for now its time to go to work.
Better get the shit in my truck figured out.

Hie March

I reeled outside the bar
the thought kicked my throat and forehead
if something should happen to you
in a february abyss, the darkest mornings
realizing we are short lived sparks
still part of everything, there is no alone
moms and dads sustain, friends remain
until it doesnt end again
it's fear that wins in months
that rhyme with scary

Sin Of Envy

deadly sin where to begin
envious of the globetrotters' push pins
making a wish list as a way
to walk in the artillery rounds
and die swimming upstream
cant afford that dream so pretend
come on you little ox
this is your marathon
get yer yoke on

Swearing

bible and motorcade
the reins of violence
brass and rubble
the pagentry of insulation
a celebration of myth
perhaps a change of course
an inevitability of course
wait and see
hope is ok with me

Folk Song For Sherwood

Sherwood Schwartz used a crazy font
On Gilligan's Island and on the Brady Bunch
On one hand goofy and also groovy at once
Sherwood Schwartz used a crazy font

Sherwood Schwartz had a laughing track
One strange guffaw keeps coming back
Vietnam was far away and booby trapped
Sherwood Schwartz had a laughing track

Sherwood Schwartz had trouble with Reed
on script and storyline they rarely agreed
a hidden lifestyle and a jones to feed
Sherwood Schwartz had trouble with Reed

Sherwood Schwartz is still alive at 92
he's from Passaic and he is a jew
he wrote the shows and their theme songs too
Sherwood Schwartz is still alive at 92

Calling All The Charlatans

Somewhere in time between nights end
And the new days shoes I wake up in
Turn my face to yours, chase the darkness out the door
I don’t suppose we gave it host
Or meant to, now it’s in too close
The light grows short a few more spins
The days grow wide and bright again

Calling all the charlatans,
we’re falling for the cunning ones
One too many standoffs have begun
Shaking all the statues down, aint it funny how that came around?
Every pilot blinded by the sun.

I didn’t mean to cheer so loud
Where being cheerful’s not allowed
Future is a tightrope wound
The slowest learner hits the ground
I burned the scene with you asleep
The one good mattress soul to keep
Light grows bright a few more spins
Days implode and night begins

Calling all the charlatans,
we’re falling for the cunning ones
One too many standoffs have begun
Shaking all the statues down, aint it funny how that came around?
Every pilot blinded by the sun.

The envelope was written wrong
The numbers shouldn’t take this long
The night time drives the sky and then
The morning sheds its starry skin

Calling all the charlatans,
we’re falling for the cunning ones
One too many standoffs have begun
Shaking all the statues down, aint it funny how that came around?
Every pilot blinded by the sun.

Madison Valley Forge

Got to shake off the early afternoon beer- the deadly January depression hovers like an executioner. There are uninterpreted signals from every direction. There is an unfriendly neighborhood. Must walk around to shake this chemical process. Got to focus on something positive. Its important to be recognized. Its important to be needed. Connection is temporarily suspended. Who do we have? Do we still have each other? Good, I can see you.