Smoke Along The Tracks

when springtime comes
in early blossom
and the snow salutes the rain
i will see you there in bluebirds calling
far beyond my pain

when yesterday, returns to find you
and the touch you knew, comes drifting back
look for me in twilight shadows
just there, along the tracks

that ol smoke goes on forever
like a song that never ends
we were lovers once, or so we thought
a blinding comet through the black
til lost we got, and lost each other
still here i'll be, should you look back

when yesterday, returns to find you
if you're there,
remembering
I'll be here, just where you left me
remembering too, in summer's twilight
in that smoke along the tracks

oh little lost one, when will you find me?
my scarlet jewel, where could you be?
are you there, in summer thunder?
or autumn's wither, a trembling leave?
when winter's frost, bestills the silence
know for us, yet still i grieve

if yesterday, returns to find you
will you still remember me?
I'll be here, just where you left me
i'll be here, remembering
i'll be here, in moonlight's gleaning
in that ol smoke, along the tracks

trite

can't look ahead to the next game, Jim
gotta stay focused on this one
our guys gave a hundred and ten percent
-left nothing on the floor
you know, Harry, you can never count these guys out!
wow! he got all of that one, Lance!

i think we're all agreed,
there's no place for partisan politics on this issue, Katie
the good people of this country deserve better
we need to come together
or then, the terrorists win, don'tcha see?

one small step for man,
one giant-yeah, we know, we know!
amen

he broke my heart, Martha!
shattered it into a million pieces!
oh, he's perfect, Jane!
all i ever dreamed of!
roses are red, violets ain't purple

the door swings both way's mister!
don't let it hit you on the way out!
if you're gonna live under my roof,
you'll abide by my-yeah, we know
amen

i swear!
if i hear one more bullshit
worn out fucking tired cliche, or
see one more silly smiley emotican,
i'll hit the roof, i tell ya!
fly the coop
pull out my hair
i'll go mad, i tell you!
and be outta dodge by sundown!


yeah, well fuck you and the horse you rode in on!

along the highway

(not sure if i've previously posted this, but fuck it, i'll post it again, jus cuz i can)

I remember your eyes
in the fields I pass breezing
the same wave in golden luster

The farms of years lean
sway the barns
bending the horizon
into unkempt shadows, that
tell me of your crooked smile

the cities harmonize
your laughter in their
crowded stretch
and life knowing windows

The windmills,
giant and playful
in broken rhythm
are the time we somersaulted
a soft cool hillside

rivers tell me our dreams, and
still know hope in quiet solitude
beneath the bridge
where the ghost of an ancient
still floats his line

and there, stretching
and shimmering
in dawns first light
are the tracks that carry
the ghost of our spirit
on an otherwise empty train
to Taiwan

Ponds are small wishes
held tightly in our hands
once again young

the day plays its melody
to the things neatly harboured
in our sad remembrance
and once vibrant vision

and I smile
with only a hint of sadness
far shy of regret
while my window down
gulps remorse
and casts it into the ditch
where crows may feast

Broken Pieces

as i walk through this field of candy wildflowers
where once you laid your head,
i gather, but not in the tradition
of storybook religion
but rather, in the style of the gypsy

i scoop! grab! plunder!
six to a pocket, five to a head band
three behind my ear
while pieces of petal, broken wings
and splashes of pollen
jitterbug the bee's drunken tango

and this, all this-i carry
like a wren planning for twelve
running jag-legged and jester crazy
to high on a hillside
where the tallest tree
fans my withered remembrance

and it is from here, high on this crack jangle limb
i lift my tethered heart to a father wind
casting my broken pieces to random hope
before shaking myself innocent
of such petty larceny

then raising my eyes in a soft drawn curtain
i loll my head and laugh
that in this, i am still yet a child
holding to a tangled hope, that
just once, you'll pass by, notice these broken pieces
-smile
and know

easy

it's not my way, see?
but yeah, maybe that's the trouble

my way is to fill the sails full of rage and want,
bulling forward with a bone in my teeth,
while driving the tempest
and chewing the storm to bits
neath my maniacle beard of flames

Lord Nelson's flag ship gone mad
while my wake clutters with the flotsam
from a battle without victor

but today, here and now
before this horizon of unseen storms
i raise a different flag

i lift silk to the sky of challenge,
choosing the warfare of pacifism

today i anchor the schooner
and take a day sail upon the whims
of what be

i will ride easy, gentle
without compass or cannon
and go
where the waves will ride me

scars

bar room toughs all schlitzed and jacked
sneer through heavy brows
and brass knuckled teeth

a stitched jagged line
folded poorly beneath an ear
threads a story still growing
in the shadows of Memphis

a soldier buys his Bacardi soothe
with just a push of a sleeve
showing how little
shrapnel thinks of muscle

a sort of glory, I suppose
and not to be wasted

the former champ's thrice broken nose
a second baseman's
spike shredded calf

all ribbons of a man who fought

my scars, though, hide in lament
shamed in broken trust
stitched in crooked pity

where there is no amigos
no locker room
no challengers
no medals nor purple ribbons

here on this rock
the northern wind salts my wound
while wave upon wave purge the black blood
that streams into crystal blue indifference

a rhythm that couldn't care less
that my grave sports no wings

here it is under a stucco sky
in the shadow of languid pine
that i finger my scars
and miss the affliction