RIPE BERRIES
Sometimes when I drink I think
that I could live inside like other people
It looks so warm and so safe
and I want so much to be there
But like a bird flying on ripe berries
I sober up against the pane
Tag Archives: Alcohol
REMINDERS
REMINDERS
Sometimes my body has to remind my mind
yes sometimes my body has to remind my mind
Remember her touch and the times out of mind
and the times out of mind
Remember the tastes and the times out of mind
and all the treasure that we both would find
in those times out of mind
all those times out of mind
And the mind, being mind, says
never mind never mind never mind
I pushed her away but another I’ll find
never mind never mind never mind
I sent her away but another I’ll find
never mind never mind never mind
And the body says
never mind, mind, you never mind
never you never you never mind me
never you never you never mind me
All my great pleasures you’ve again undermined
and you don’t think I mind no you don’t think I mind
And it’s easy for anyone half blind to see
you’re lonely as hell and depressed as can be
pouring chocolate and booze and sugar in me
And we’d be both better off if you’d only mind me
we’d be both better off if you’d only to mind me
SACRIFICE
SACRIFICE
The Kubla Khan’s from minds
broken loose by
and all too soon broken by drugs.
The alcohol that so many have found as
the key to their heaven and their hell.
And all the wounds of daily battles with
truths wrestled to a fall
Makes me wonder if writers
like mothers
and forests
sometimes lay down their bodies
that their children
may grow
MY COUSIN WAYNE
MY COUSIN WAYNE
When Wayne was thirteen
he had the finest blondest hair
the finest features and the finest mind
of all the cousins round
A city boy and cooler about everything than all of us
until we took him hunting
When his first shot hit the rabbit
he ran and cried and held it till it died
At eighteen he quit school with A grades
a month before grad to get a jump on a job
met a girl and bragged of achievement on first date
Over achievement it turned out to be
quick marriage, quick, two children three
Army for security, liquor for the pain
it was twenty years before I saw him again
He was in a downstairs bar
sitting there as coarse and thick as adobe brick
I wanted to roll it all back
reach in for the lost fineness and yank it all inside out
And hold him like the rabbit when he cried
still innocent when it died
EXCLUSED
EXCLUSED
Erato can be more than a bit erratic
and daily living lead to static
So sometimes when my lovely muse
seems my tender soul to abuse
and my simple mind confuse
I seek some gentler, kinder muse
And somewhere warm to sing the blues.
(and sometimes a little booze)
Whereupon my main muse, is not amused
and lets me know she feels abused
and certainly, not sufficiently exclused
and it’s choose! choose! choose!
and it’s choose! choose! choose!
As if, having been chosen
a poet could still choose
GRASS FED
GRASS FED
Shakespeare knows what we gotta do first
but let’s get rid of the feed lots next
Oats was made for breakfast
and corn was made for whiskey
cows was made for eatin grass
and calves for runnin frisky
Surely not for standin around
burstin their livers on a lot of hot feed
that they don’t need, and we don’t need
The beef might be
a little tougher to chew
but our hearts and our jaws
would soon be back to as good as new
And it might
come in real handy
not to be steroid de-sexed
when it comes to what we’ve gotta do next
DEER GONE
DEER GONE
A tough shot, 600 yards at least, running left to right
in the open sights of the 303. Aim to the top of the
third jump ahead, move the gun in a smooth arc
and squeeze slow
It was a kill
I saw it as great skill
a source of blood fed pride
and the deer… well it just died
The Indians used to see it as a kind of revolving door
the spirit of the animal would come back soon
enough in another body if you used the one
he had given up to you with gratitude
There are not many deer in these parts anymore
I wonder if they are trapped
waiting for the gratitude
Indians lost in whiskey
and we never knew