O'POSSUM
Darn river going to slow
for to carry my
great body down
O'Possum I beseech thee
git on out
from the woods
you been hiding at
pull me down aways
for I am stuck on a rock
ain't no island
of my choosing
it digs me here
between the ribs
mighty uncomfortable like
O'Possum, I am tired of waiting
enough of this playing dead style game
don't you know
I can hear your heart beating
for to rumble up a little storm
out there away in the pines
whenever I press my ear
to the riverbed
and get fish in my eyes
it's rhythm deafens me
and I can't even dance
with this mountain pressing
on my liver.
O'Possum won't you please
wrap your tail
round my big toe
tug me
on down away
to the sea
so for I can hurricane
so to quake
AN
AGE OF IGNORANCE
How many trees
has a guy gotta climb
around here
so’s he can be noticed.
A
DOG'S NATURE
Tell me, have you ever
known the sight
of a dog chasing the legs of a horse
cause he's got
in his little skull
the idea that this,
this, is another dog
giant beautiful and lazy
as all of his sunniest daydreams
barking and snapping at her ankles
cause a dog's ain't got
any other way to
express itself
when it gets a hoof
to the nose
he only wishes he could say
Oh, sorry, I thought you were a dog
but the real kicker is
that horse wouldn't understand him
even if he spoke perfect English.
COME
ON IN THE WATER'S WARM
Lets go sailing,
we can build ourselves
tall ships out of all this
snow we got laying around
just waiting for the dogs to come out
of their holes.
It's so hot in those countries
we plan to call home
our boats will melt
before we make it ashore
we'll be stranded
for a night out
in the open sea
with nothing to curl up
besides the reflected ocean moon
and everyone knows
you can't make love to the moon
I knew there was some why
to bring you aboard
O cap'n my captain.
SHOW
ME THE WAY
Explain it to me
in simple terms
monosyllabic if at all possible.
Explain it to me
how you would
a bad grift gone wrong,
help me measure
the geometry behind this
sticky situation,
all triangles trying to
fit through spheres
and make music in the process.
Legs rubbing together.
Please explain it to me
in simple cricket song
cause sometimes its all
I can understand.
LEVIATHAN
BOUND
How do you chain down a snake?
Tie it's body up in knots
drive anchors in its bones
sink it to the bottom
of the river
in a lead coffin
build a damn so's the river
turns into a lake,
that's how you do the thing.
FAKE
IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
I'm gonna keep walking
over the desert
calling myself a cowboy
even though I ain't
got a herd
for kicking up clouds of sand
to be driven into town
and sold off
five dollars to the grain
even though I ain't
got a horse
for riding off into
the burning kingdom
to raise all sorts of
constellations out of the
lake of fire.
Even though I ain't
even got a pair of spurs
on these old boots
for striking the dirt
with a jingle jangle
loud enough
to wake up the beast
at the base of the world
yeah I'll just go on
calling myself a cowboy
cause at the end of the day
you gotta call yourself something.
ON
HEDGHOGS
Be careful when you
rub a hedgehog
if you're not
well he might get excited.
LOOK
BUT DON'T TOUCH
Its real easy
to let that ponytail
carry my eyes from here
to all the way up,
past where the mountains touch the ground.
But its a whole lot harder
to climb up after it.
I been trying to reach the root of that tail
since I was a little tyke
and I saw that horse go traipsing through
the evening light
it's ass lit up gold
it was heaven overflowed.
Problem is
that tail keeps on growing long and longer
as that horse keeps on galloping
from city to town
leading a
thick glossy black river
without any kind of proper name like
Miss – her – sippy
I would build a steam boat to sail that river
up to the source
plant my rag of a red flag
and call her sally
but this is a river
that no fish
will ever sleep in
no matter how hard they fry.
It gets tangled
in the holes in my boot heels,
If I don't slow down
and braid it carefully
tying in
the sparkliest stones I find
while I'm stumbling on down
the trail
doing my every best
not to get caught up
in a knot
trip up and eat a mouthful of hair.
Yeah this tail is as long
as that snake who
just had to go and
wrap his belly
all around the world
all the way from Oakland, to Warsaw
and back again.
But one fine day I'm gonna figure out how
a man can fly at night
and follow this here
trail of stars down bellow
I been tending for too many years.
⁓L.R. 2018