Between The Lines

I miss the nights
That line up
In the new part of an old city
Where street lights feel like rain
On cooler summer night
And my homeward spin
Takes me from a warm crowded room
Onto cobblestones
That echo from my engine
Roaring to life
In spite the effort
I have put
Into making the right moves
And swaying between the lines.

Beside Me (day 3009)

I took the worms
That had begun to gather around;
Flesh eating
Blood suckers,
Lost in red velvet feelings.
I took them to mass
Where we prayed for health
Like sordid strangers
Walking along
Black and white city streets.
I took them with me
For I had begun
To understand them
As they wriggled
Turned over in ecstasy
Amidst and amongst themselves
And beside me.

Beirut (day 2721)

Every time I hear of the city Beirut
I dream of what dreams are made of
There are city lights that wave at me
With a luminosity that cuts through my being
Little chairs with patrons chilling
In a modality unknown to me
But harming with smiles
That feel half drunk and half alive.
My feet rattle off ancient cobblestones
On the better walks of town
But I find the dead alleys
And imagine how many eyes are watching me.
I have companions here
Who sing with instruments only found
Along this edge of the world
And in Gypsy caravans roaming the deadlands.
My lover sleeps with the curtains open
And silk pyjamas that are usually draped
Upon the wooden chair that’s older than I
She burns a scent I can only find here
With old books I cannot read
But admire the covers and the ghosts within
She kisses with a heavy lip
And smiles with a curious snarl
That keeps me here dreaming.

Foggy Mirrors (day 2601)

It’s a damn shame
You used to ride around with foggy mirrors
In my largely used mind
Spinning wheels that ran me up
To a hundred miles an hour
Your headlights were my exposé
Dangling freely from the eye
Of my rear view mirror
But now the brakes have been applied
Shifted back down to first
Greens and reds and stop and go
City streets commanding slow

Feeling the Same (day 2482)

The sun has taken to settling out my madness
I couldn’t see the light here for a while
When I looked for each new day
A black crow came by to have a say
When I knew I wouldn’t be seeing you again

There was a memory tuned to another song
It swept like daisies in an open field
Call me when you wash away
Everything we ever tried to say
Then it won’t be so hard to take my straight design

I am ready to work here for my little means
What can I say? I think I’m getting old
Haven’t seen a city wall
Since I hurried on my way
A rush important I still cannot feel the same

Dancing Song (day 2453)

Weave for me two glasses of wine
I’ve sat here long enough to know
Two shakes of it that’s always good
Dance with me a little jig
To the circus show down River Road
To knee high grass, fields afar
Through frosty fire escapes above
That keep this city awake at night
Jamboree, say you’ll marry me
‘Tis right we speak so open free
For when the moon says good day again
We’ll switch to gin and carry on
I like your style, your silver hair
It makes me think of icy air
Get right close so to swing
This dancing song floats us along

The Boxer (day 1933)

You were a boxer
Every Thursday night
After Big Jim’s Saloon
Took a bottle and you
Out to a cobblestone night.
A muffled mind with intention,
Fireworks covered in mud,
And a slow slur that wound up
Like Roadrunner
Walking a tightrope,
The top rope
Of a dark, four cornered ring.
You liked the big city
Because your slow down
Never coincided with a dead end.
Your betting days
Flashed jackpot on your bedroom wall:
Red, green, and yellow.
And your highschool sweetheart
Hung alone on peeling paper
That crackled back at you
As you walked naked
From your bedroom
To a comfortable routine
You knew so well.

Days Roll By (day 1829)

When you hang around here
I roll in second gear
Not pushing too fast
Caught in the wind

Days roll by
Into weeks and miles
When your hanging ’round
Baby, let’s roll around

And my parking brake
Is the great escape
City lights and the vista
With music on easy beats