EDEN WAS A GARDEN

There's a pine warbler sitting on a hollow limb
he seems to have the whole morning out right in front of him
and everything he sings from the branch that he's sitting on
seems to hush the leaves and the colors all around.
First he sings and then he goes.
And what it means? It's hard to know.

Baby works down right off of Barbur Blvd
and writes down everything on the back of a business card.
Everything she writes will turn into a song or two,
she puts it on the stage and all goes still.
Now if she sings a forest clear,
she puts a tree right in your ear.

Now why can't it stay with me?
Why don't you tell me cause it makes a fool of me
Well Eden was a garden you know.
The birds were in the trees until the place was gone
they scattered to the wind and then they just kept moving on.

Just the other night the clocks were moving awful slow.
I heard a woman's voice coming up from the street below.
I got up from my bed, the song was so enrapturing
and found my real to reel just to see if I could capture -
by the time I turned it on, and turned an ear
that voice was gone.

Now why can't it stay with me?
Why don't you say it cause it makes a fool of me
Well Eden was a garden you know
the birds were in the trees until the place was gone
they scattered to the wind and then they just kept moving on.

 

---

ONE MORE ROAD

Baby let's take a ride tonight,
just you and me and the dancehall light.
We'll ride out to Albuquerque and see
what's waiting there for you and me.

All of our friends have left this town
and there ain't no reason to stay around
unless you want to smoke weed and sit on the ground.
Honey it ain't for me.

Sometimes a whistling train will make me want to go.
Sometimes it's music playing on my radio.
Sometimes we gambled and the money never showed.
But everyplace we end up seems to lead to one more road

Let's ride on out to where the sand is white
and the moon is high on the windowlight
We'll watch while the nighttime see is pearled
and walk outside and sleep on the world.

When the sun comes up on are car so brown
you'll look me up and I'll eye you down
and we'll be grateful to the bones we're not waking up
in the same old bed with the same old luck

Sometimes a whistling train is warning in advance
Sometimes it's music from another room by chance
Sometimes in spite of everything that we've endeared
The longer that we hang around the longer it gets weird.

Baby let's take a ride tonight
while the highway's got nobody in sight.
We'll pull off to the side if we get tired,
and we'll try to get fed or we'll try to get hired.

I've got no desire to run on forever
with a romanced hobo heart that tarries
but i'm going to take this slot machine by the lever
and hope that we pull down three big cherries.

I've walked the spanish steps across the streets of Rome.
We sat and listened while the old brown river flowed.
All trying to find connection looking for a home,
but every place we end up seems to lead to one more road.

Sometimes a whistling train will make me want to go,
Sometimes it's music playing on my radio.
Oh baby doll in spite of all that we've endeared,
the longer that we hang around the longer it gets weird.

 

---

WHY MODERN RADIO IS A-OK

I was down at my favorite watering hole
with a buddy of mine that was out on parole
and we were flipping through the jukebox,
talking how we’d been and how we are.

He’d got a library card and he’d pierced his tongue
and a buddy in prison had turned him onto Neil Young
and he thought that it’d be best to play some for the entire bar.

Now he didn’t know, but while he was in jail,
I’d had my heart broken by a woman to wondrous to tell
and we‘d fallen in love to half the songs that jukebox played.

So when he flattened his dollar on the side of the machine
and I saw “Comes a Time” come on the karaoke screen
I’d realized there was a couple things I had forgot to say:

Don’t play Neil Young
Don’t play Van Morrison
Just let some high school emo band start versing and chorusing
Because there’s no way it will break my heart as far as I can see
and that’s why modern radio is A OK with me.

He said a pop song used to be a powerful thing,
you could turn on the a.m. and John Lennon would sing
or Frank Sinatra would be talking to all of the girls.

And you could think like a hawk or think like a dove
or think of a winter afternoon when you fell in love
and ten songs on a record sounded like a string of pearls.

Now my buddy rattled on till an hour'd gone by
and I thought to spit a mouthful of beam in his eye,
maybe leave him for dead, but a friend is a friend to stay.

So I listened to him talk about Johnny and June
And how "I don't know where I stand" is a true love tune
I bought another round just in time to hear him say:

They don’t play Sam Cooke
They don’t play Merle Watson
They just trade some Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham for a broke-down Datsun.
And there’s no way it'll break my heart as far as I can see –
And that’s why modern radio is a sack of monkeys to me.

He said it makes me so mad I want to get up and shout it
and I smiled and said I hadn’t thought that much about it
We walked out the street and parted ways.

I might‘ve gone to a movie, but my money was spent
so I went on home, and Lord knows where he went
but I wrote myself a letter to all modern dj’s:

Don’t play Bob Dylan
Don’t play "Loose Ends"
Don’t play anybody that’s ever read Sir Patrick Spens
Because there’s no way it'll break my heart as far as I can see –
And that’s why modern radio is a-ok with me.

 

---

THEY SAY

Outside the big red sky is getting dim
shooting pool and talking, making new friends.
But in the morning they're coming around
and in the evening they're bringing me down
I started asking what are these words in their lungs
if there's a time, if there's a time to be young
They say it's over.

Found my way in the morning out the door in the dark
soft rain and cops chasing a kid through the park
and in the evening feeling so tired in my shirt
and in the morning walking the hallways at work,
you start believing all of these tunes being hummed
if there's a time, if there's a time to be young
They say it's over. Oh Baby it ain't.

Well people talk talk talk and their hearts are getting
weathered they remind you with a grin now that nothing
lasts forever, well I've spent a lot of time a lot of time I've
been stuck and I can tell you what they're saying when
they tell you good luck, they say it's over.
They say it's over. Oh Baby it ain't.

 

---

BIG LIGHT

Sometimes I get a little lost.
And the good life is so hard to see.
Sometimes all I can see is the cost
when the prize standing right in front of me.

And it ain't easy to get along
when you've got things going wrong
and there is no luck to be found besides.
Spend my natural prime, thinking money and time,
wondering where they go, and they go.

That's when I need you to put me in line.
Come tell me something, any words are fine.
Fill up these four walls with old melodies.
Let me know if the big light is shining on me.

Some nights when the wind is blowing soft,
it's been so long since a dream filled my head,
there's a beauty in every streetlight and every moth,
but all I want to do is lay down in bed.

And it's along road to travel down
when nothing good seems to stay around
and I'm a solitary man with my pride
at the end of my mind, talking unkind
feeling in the dark, in the dark.

That's when I need you to put me in line.
come tell me something. any words are fine.
fill up these four walls with old melodies
and let me know if the big light is shining on me.

That's when I need some time spent with you.
Come tell me something. Any words will do.
Fill up these four walls with old melodies
and let me know if the big light is shining on me.

 

---

SONNET 46

Some freezing rain is falling on my shoulder
and a winter wind is blowing through each lung.
Some things about this weather make me older
some things about it make me feel so young.
There's a quarter moon that knows the hours i'm keeping
and a glittered highway showing back its light.
There's a baby at home in my room that's sleeping
and a woman that won't be alone tonight.

So let the lads and lad-ettes keep Ibiza
and morning walks home, cocktail on their chin.
I'll spill my own drink listening to Aretha
with my girl and a fireplace in our den
If being young is one prolonged farewell
I'll find it undiminished somewhere else.

---

A HEARTBEAT

Every night I'm staring out my window wondering what to do.
I ask myself what would you think about me if you only knew
that I'm looking for a little more than a drink and a walk up the street,
and I've got something more in mind when I get you in the passenger seat.

I've got a heartbeat baby a heartbeat baby that belongs to you
I've got a heartbeat baby a heartbeat baby and there's nothing I can do

When I was young my mama sat me down and told me how it goes
You'll walk the world but most of what you're looking for is under your nose.
Now I've spent plenty of time getting lost in the citites where the hours disappear
and I've got something more that's burning up my neck and pounding in my ears.

One cup of coffee, two shots of whiskey neat, ambulance sirens blasting down
a side street, here you come a walking like a punch right to the gut but I guess
until I tell you then I have to keep my mouth shut.

And listen to the heartbeat baby a heartbeat baby that belongs to you
I've got a heartbeat baby a heartbeat baby and there's nothing I can do.

 

---

WOKE UP THIS MORNING

Well I woke up this morning with love in my heart.
It'd been a long time, It'd been a long time.
Well I woke up this morning with love in my heart.
You know it's so hard to find it. It's good to be reminded.

I was moving around my empty hotel room.
I had the front door open wide at 4 o'clock in the afternoon
It had rained all night and the leaves dripped on the tree
the whole day felt straight ahead, and not a bit of it belonged to me

And I'm not sure if it's anything to do with you
And I'm not sure if I'll feel it again, or forget.
And I'm not sure if it's anything to do with you
but if I had to bet, but if I had to bet.

I woke up this morning, everything tastes good to me:
Captain's wafers from the hotel bar, a styrofoam full of lipton tea.
I could see the pavement where the sun was shining hot
making little heat waves of rainbow across that empty parking lot

Well I woke up this morning with love in my mind.
I had started to wonder I had started to wonder.
I know a thousand people that will tell how the end of the whole song goes.
I'm thinking that nobody knows. I'm thinking that nobody knows.

---

I WAS A FOOL

Out in the evening past the bridge and below
frogs and cicadas left and right growling low.
I've spent so much time round here when spring is done
been here a thousand times, not heard a single one.

Birds in the morning while I'm shoveling the snow
coffee pot wheezing soft as my stereo
All of the things I've had whether I've known or not
All of the things I've known and then somehow forgot

When I was young riding aound
beer in my lap, one window down
bird in the tree, kiss on the mouth
I thought that I had figured it out
I was a fool. Then I met you.

Dusk was the longest hour when I was a kid.
Beautiful things sometimes can seem pretty hid.
Funny the things that make you want to walk the land
are the things sometimes you barely understand.

Found lots of crooked road before I found you
hard to curse any road but sometimes you do.
Feeling all strung out, drawn up from head to gut
I was calling out, I didn't know for what

When I was young riding aound
beer in my lap, one window down
bird in the hand, kiss on the mouth
I thought that I had figured it out
All of these things so hard to find
up in my face, lost to my mind
hand on the knee, kiss in the mouth
I thought that I had figured it out
I was a fool.

---

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

It's a long walk down from my door to the Cadogan Hotel
but I make it every night when the sky gets dark.
The serpentine is black and doesn't show a single star
And I'm just off work and walking through the park.

Girls in evening clothes are talking on the phone,
Got their bags from knightsbridge and their walking home.
Can't distract me honey I know where I'm going
to sit down with a g & t and watch the night so long.

Well the drinks they pour at this bar never run too cheap
and I've got no plans to meet anyone it's clear.
But the history in this postal code runs deep,
and it might be lost on most of the ones in here

I can't say for certain honey where I'm bound.
I've got no rich relations, got no extra time.
But when they shut this bar tonight I know I'm going
to walk down by the riverbank and watch the night so fine.

I don't know how other folks get by.
But there's one thing that I've learned for fact.
There's a music you can only hear
when you're starting from scratch.

A roach's wings are fluttering soft and clear
in the midnight of this quiet flat.
There's a music you can only hear
when you're starting from scratch.

---

EARLY AUBADE

I'd like to thank all of the stars just for shining out tonight
like a hundred scattered eyes in the aether.
I know that it ain't normal thanking stars but it ain't normal seeing stars
outshine the London streetlights either.
So make up your old bed and check the drawers for clothes
cause everything outside the world is telling us it's time it's to go.

I could wish against the dawn of day, sit and wish that we could stay
in this room we could wait till the tears come.
Oh but that don't work for me and you doing things the way we do
it'd be a conch shell stuck to our eardrum.
With every passing minute as a faint heard roar
of a rolling ocean talking about some road we'd never seen before.

I've often wondered about a room, about these four walls standing,
keeping better folks than us from the cold rain.
Wondering if every joke that's told, every cigarette that's rolled,
every song sung, sinks in the wood grain.
If every whisper on the floor and every christmas carol
saturates the surface like the whiskey soaking into a barrel.

Now If I could I'd pull them down every wall by the panel
and I'd build a tree in our back garden.
Maybe we could sit beneath it naked reading Paradise Lost
while the green leaves color and harden.
But watch now how the sun is gathering in the blinds
and the time is coming quick for you and me to leave this big old room behind.

Now when the roses bloom this year and our soul's up in our ears
with some newer music sung in a strange place.
oh and all the songs will move through us, giving music to the thrush
and every trash can alley a new face,
we'll let them linger to their end and watch them go without grieving
cause that music as it moves, will let you understand it best when it's leaving.

And the last thing we'll leave is a love song for this vacant room
sunk in the walls, and trapped like the ocean enshelled - with everything else we ever exhaled.

---

THE WEE HOURS REVUE

SOMETHING LEFT TO SAY

hey child it's a quarter to four you know it took a little time with my head on the floor before i understood why i needed to find the door. Summer's here to rattle ceiling fans a lot of people leaning up against the moving vans - you know there's pollen on the bottles laying in the garbage cans. Well the wind is hot and all the leaves are green and now i'm reading what you say on the computer screen, but i knew that this was coming back when we were seventeen I don't want anybody saying don't look back i'm not going to go to pieces when i ride around this town. the things you've done have made me what i am and that's catching the bus and half singing the tears of a clown. so we can walk around and we can laugh all night it's hard to fit a lot of years in a friday night    cause there always seems to be something left to say well we got a little money and we took a drive we broke down flat on the M25 after freshman year, they say you're lucky to be alive well you can be asured that we were not the first to look across that parking lot and put a curse on any space and time that brings and end to May. Try to fall in love, try to get control you try to find a little bit of that in rock and roll and that's almost enough when there's nothing that you know to say. I don't want anybody saying don't look back i'm not going to go to pieces when i ride around this town. the things you've done have made me what i am and that's catching the bus and half singing the tears of a clown. so we can walk around and we can laugh all night it's hard to fit a lot of years in a friday night cause there always seems to be something left to say.

YOU DON'T BELONG TO THIS WORLD

As the night comes in, I watch the buildings out the window start to fade. There's people down by the street that knew this neighborhood before the bricks were laid. If they couldn't get away in a car, I guess they walked to the bar, and ordered up a rum and lemonade. It gets me thinking about just passing time and trying to get by, leaning out the window just to listen to the sirens go by. You don't belong to this world so many people are coming on strong I won't belong to this world, not if I belong to you. Some kid is playing guitar down by the subway while i'm waiting for your train he cocks his eyes round about and rolls a toothpick in his mouth and sings out "you don't have to stand in the rain," then a noise from down the tracks turns my distractions to verbs and as the cars come to a stop i watch you step to the curb. You don't belong to this world so many people are coming on strong we don't belong to this world, now that I belong to you.

ANOTHER SUMMER

I walked down Myrtle avenue to meet my sister for some company. and she said she heard my other half had escaped from penitentiary. Well i got home about nine a.m. and somebody had changed the locks. i walked outside and spent three months sleeping in a buick that was up on blocks. maybe there's nothing left to do, i've tried to kill myself, i've tried to sing about you, they say the only way to win a mama's girl is with praise... well maybe not today cause it's another summer not having you here to hold me it's another sunset not knowing where you're at and i know better baby than to say nobody told me, so if you're lying down next to another, then girl i tip my hat. I walked down to my sister's house and told her my true love was gone. She told me she was going to walk up in the hills and get a mountain girl all her own. well she left town that afternoon and put her house keys on the shelf. nobody knows but i followed her trail and pushed her off a cliff myself. maybe there's nothing left to say, it could've been a little much to treat family that way they say the only way to win a mama's girl is with style... well i can try it for a while cause its another summer not having you here to hold me. it's a another sunset not knowing where you're at and i know better baby than to say nobody told me, so if you're lying down next to another, then girl i tip my hat.

I DIDN'T MIND IT AT ALL

Don't need no ticket i'm not waiting on a train, no i'm just standing here if so i don't have to stand in the rain if that's alright. I chopped wood all morning watching the treetops in the mist and a strange woman came up next to me packing cigarettes against her wrist and i said yes - talk to the press But hey hey i didn't mind it at all. This woman i loved, you know she looked me right in the eye and said i'm going to have all your children if you get me a coffee and a piece of pie and i said fine. I walked her up to see the city lights, she had me whispering in her ear turns out she didn't know that much english, but i was listening loud and clear and i was in deep Oh i put her to sleep. But hey hey ask me why i'm walking all night long hey hey I can't even recall. I woke up in the morning with a big surprise surprise that girl was gone, i was alone with dewdrops in my eyes and i was singing hey hey ask me why i'm walking all night long hey hey been so many days form my old home hey hey i can't even recall.

NEW YORK THIS MORNING

I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all alone the sun on central park in my eyes and the pigeons on a savings and loan. I wish in was in NY this morning drinking from a paper cup. robusta beans and fashion magazines and people everytime you look up. I'd go right out tonight. I'd probably take the bus right down to St. Patricks Cathedral  and light a candle for us. Well i never thought we'd build our love of rags and bones and nails, i know sometimes my words come out like empty shotgun shells. But i shave my face step over the laundry in the stairs. it's that time of year, for watching comets in the air. I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all by myself in the land where father and son relations just deepen like a coastal shelf. I'd go right out tonight. I'd probably take the bus right down to St. Patricks Cathedral and light a candle for us. I know everybody's looking for something. a piston's holding out for a spark. but i'm not waiting on nothing if i'm walking the sidewalks after dark. I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all alone the sun on central park in my eyes and the pigeons on a savings and loan.

BABY'S GOT IT IN THE GENES

When you see a roadside bar or an old button down with a cigarette scar think of me babe, cause i'll be thinking of you. It's not that you'll know where i'm at, i won't be calling up your house or nothing like that, i'm an old man now, and thinkings what I do. i took my car this morning, going to get new shocks, i saw a woman out watering her winodw box and a couple of kids, i thought could have been you and me. Something sparked up in my brain to tell you the truth, i bought a box of raisins and a baby ruth and sat down on the curb - twelve o'clock turned into three. I can't explain your touch by saying "baby's got it in the genes," well girl that don't amount to much, but it sells a lot of magazines. Living without you, well it ain't so bad i got a memory of you i didn't know i had, and it's rattling around, being called back out of the deep. I'll be the first one to tell you not much can last, but i knew that full well before you came and past so why are you on my mind, tonight, when i'm trying to sleep? Cause I can't explain your touch by saying "baby's got it in the genes," well girl that don't account for much, but it sells a lot of magazines. So if you sit down heavy with your pen and ink or you're talking to yourself while your scrubbing the sink, well then talk to me girl, cause that's when i'm talking to you.

WINTERLIGHT

Monday evening sun is shining, stripes of light come through the blinds across the floor Walking down the sidewalk, Christmas wreathes are hanging out from the liqour store. Pretty soon, that old muddy snow out on the way is going to turn into June, and folks will start thinking about their wedding day. Those holly leaves on the doorway girl, are just as green at Christmas as they are in June and it might be a little rough to the touch, but that's the kind of loving i want to give to you. So where do we go when we're feeling like we're leaving all the places that we miss so much? When we're looking for a summer and a steering wheel that's too hot to touch? cover up tight. you've got a winterlight. There's something about those bare-limbed months that get me thinking about promises that i can't forget. Flowers then are hard to find, the winter limbs like wires behind a busted tv set will teach you things about absence and passing away. The robin sings, but doesn't start until the middle of May. So where do we go when we're feeling like we're leaving all the places that we miss so much? When we're looking for a summer and a steering wheel that's too hot to touch? cover up tight. we've got a winterlight.

HELP ME IF YOU CAN

Three men in a bank turn to locking up the doors - blocked off by the police in the road. They don't know trouble like i do in being twenty-two and knowing you. The only difference between me and them is they've got somewhere to go. Sorry if i'm talking too much, it's been a busy time of year and you look like somebody that might understand. Well I've been seeing all the things that people like to forget with a brandy glass and a cigarette. it takes a toll on the body if you can't find a helping hand. Well I know you'd understand if you would Help me if you can, because i'm looking out for a baby and i just might try to make a baby out of you. Some people fall in love and some people go to jail and some folks sit alone listening to Blood on the Tracks. I punched a man this morning with a badge in his hand selling candy bars for the Civitan, so some folks are going to have to stop knocking on your door before ten. Please apologize to him if you can Help me if you can, because i'm looking out for a baby, and i just might try to make a baby out of you. Now won't you let me be an honest man and let me talk to you like a lady, and we just might find ourselves putting on some traveling shoes.

DRIVING AT MORNING

Looking through the windshield, everything is lightening Ash colored two lane in tow, highway lines are heightening But i've been driving all night, wondering what to do cause i've got miles of county lines before i'm through the fog on the offramps is thin, exit signs are turning green Empty cup off coffee in the floorboard, i can feel it in my bloodstream a transfer truck is moving lanes way up ahead red tail-lights blink i start to think i'm going to find a bed. the sun comes and goes through the trees like notes making a minor chord Defrost almost animates the dust across the dashboard the sun reflected light projected all i see is flashing like a filmstrip right in front of me.

SOOKIE

i know this time i really got us into a problem and i know the times that you were only trying to help me out if i could find you alone you know i don't even know what i could say to you but that don't stop me from wanting you to hear me out you'd be surprised you know i'm sleeping out on the sidewalk and i've been kicked out of every church in town i'd ask where to find you but these days i'm trying not to talk cause it won't be long before your mama's going to hunt me down i know i've got some work to do i've never walked this far before i hitch a ride from town to town just hoping i might end up at your door when i think of or room, i hardly feel my blisters i feel my pulse start up when the horizon is turning pink believe it or not, i even sometimes miss my sisters when i'm on the needle or i've had too much to drink ain't nobody want to talk to you here unless you say your name is lady-o Lord knows i've even wished i had a little shelter there my preacher friend told me there's an APB out on the radio... looks like tonight i'm going to sleep out under the air i know there's going to be work to do i've never walked this far before i'm under some bridge right now just hoping i might end up one night at your door

MERCIFUL MAN

I guess i might start walking back past the fenced in pontiacs like a lover waiting to be reconciled there's a couple up ahead above a laugh the woman said "nothing lasts like the memory of a child" But oh i hear the footsteps below a girl with a soldier late walking home If only my eyes know the truth then i have seen better days then youth maybe this time moves in horizontal lines. Cause i'm a passenger in the van maybe i can be a merciful man i feel the hot air sound of tongues and i've got London in my lungs and i'm feeling like a sketch of a roller coaster car with the vinyl foam and tar waiting uphill for the chain to catch. And oh i hear footsteps below a bottle across the pavement and the quiet voices go

I'VE GOT A REASON

In the other room, I can hear a voice over the stereo, Singing some reheated highway blues song. In a year or two, I could be a washman bent over a broom All by myself and singing love songs to an empty room. I've got a reason to need you I never imagined us feeling alone before. Is it not some season in hell to go out on the town and find somebody to love? What a pretty day, i'm biting my nails and watching talk shows i sit by the window as the water drips from the rails but I will make you sing woman, until the skin turns to wax, its the facts that follow me down. Hey kids, don't knock on my door, you know, i'm lately feeling melancholy. It's alright to feel to bad about the times that you've had and i'll tell myself without somebody. I've got a reason to need you I never imagined us being alone before. Is it not some season in hell to go out on the town and find somebody to love?

FROM AN AIRPLANE WINDOW

Up here, the cities patterned like the flights are quiet blazing clusters now at rest; Streets of parked cars, curtains pulled, little nests of potential goings on reduced to lights. The city manufactured golds and whites that substitute for color faded west limit eyes beneath them to see at best only a star or two on moonless nights. The scattered towns burning up and down like a candle and sleepy heads put out like a wet cigarette - my own sleepy head is more than i can handle, but those tangled grids of light are more than i can forget. Well the sky to the ground, it almost looks like a mirror. "almost" i say, cause it ain't hard to tell which is which: one's measured when a black hole / pole star bends light nearer to itself one's measured when a body is looking up from a ditch. There's a feeling in my mind that's either fire or fire forever for now and I can tell you friend, the only home i've known is consuming desiring and always burning out somehow in a bed of stars half charted here below*** I've got the turn signal clicking with the highhat on the radio, there's an antique voice fixing to sing to me soft and low it's like Dante and subways and words left in the air, you've got to go underground if you want to get anywhere.