Cold Walk To The Tavern

Truck doesn’t start
too cold
a long walk
to the tavern

An old jukebox
Johnny Cash
Patsy Cline
and the Rolling Stones

Too tired to dance
sit and stare
at a picture
over the bar

John Wayne
Marilyn Monroe
a neon Budweiser sign
a machine full of warm cashews

Folsom Prison Blues
Strange Sweet Dreams
Jumping Jack Flash
gives me a headache

Something To Tell You

An orange light
Glows like a cigarette
I forgot to smoke.

I light one and look
For a picture of you
I took

At your sister's wedding.

I sit in front of a window
And wait for your headlights
To appear in the distance.

I have something to tell you.

A dog barks.
A star falls.

I must have fallen asleep
Because you say
Baby you shouldn't have waited up for me.

Distance

Dead tree
Under

Gray clouds

Cover
Sunset

Field
Of tall grass
Yellow flowers

(sad
sweet
used to be)

You stand
Watch me

Walk into
Howling wind

Gone

patient
orange
sky

silent
cold
lake

trees
steal
light

I sit in a cabin and think
or wonder where the hell you went
the other night
and why you didn't come back

if you ever will
and does it even matter
to anyone but me

1971

My father thought he was a revolutionary. He robbed banks, blew up buildings and marched and sang we shall over come some day. My brother and mother and I followed him around the country. He couldn’t stay in one place for very long.

My mother met him at the University of Michigan and said that it was love at first sight for the both of them. My father was organizing anti-war rallies and he was a pretty big fish in a fair sized pond. He met guys like Eldridge Cleaver and Jerry Rubin. He said they were good guys but he was little jealous of them. They wrote books and became National celebrities and he was getting older and wasn’t making much money. My mother comes from a wealthy family but my father was full of pride and my mother's parents didn’t like him so he wouldn’t accept any assistance. He was a cook at the student union while he went to graduate school. He was writing his dissertation about a anti-war priest, I forget his name. My father's heart wasn’t in it though.

He wanted to be a warrior but he wasn’t one. He wouldn’t have lasted two days in the Bolivian mountains but he wanted to go and do his part. He thought that it was a great struggle between right and wrong, good and bad, black and white. He was confused my mother said. But his heart was in the right place and he loves you and your brother very much. He got in with the wrong crowd, but he thought that they were going to lead him to his destiny. He told her he had connections. She told him to be careful but he wasn’t and now he's in jail.

Excuses

If I were making excuses I would tell you that I've been drinking too much for years and when I met your mother I was married with a family and she pursued me. I would also tell you that I used to come and see you when you were a little girl until your aunt made it uncomfortable for me to be around. I sent you birthday and Christmas presents for years until I was told that you weren't receiving them and to please stop sending them. I should have kept trying and that's on me. Truth be told I've made too many mistakes to count and they all don't involve you. I wasn't that great a father to the kids that grew up with me. I think it's important for you to know that you have a brother and a sister. They don't know about you but if they did I would think that they would like to meet you. I know that this is all a lot to consider and I wouldn't blame you if you told me to go to hell but I can help you if you need help and I would like to if you'll let me. I know this is all a day late and a million dollars short but I am what I am and it would be foolish of you not to use me. There are things I can do for you and you can hate me anyway. I will understand and I have always and will always love you for what it's worth.

Sam Shepard Said

I would trade
My Pulitzer Prize

For a rodeo belt buckle.

Under A Quarter Moon

In the woods
I sit under a tall tree,
Count the stars
And wonder
What happened.

What We Dream About

home is what we dream about - trains don’t wait for us or stop where we stand - we run to try to catch them and jump - the tracks are here for all of us - something we see and trust - smell and feel the breeze as we flash - past mountains scarred by memories and blessed by sacred songs and chants - inevitably a guard makes the rounds - lights a torch and looks for us or someone just like us - we watch the ground through a crack and try to ignore the pain and cold - our clothes do not fit because they shouldn’t we did not choose them - we're not meant for regulations imposed - by authorities we neither acknowledge nor respect - the law is waiting - we know - just a little further up the track - they will not take us home they will take us back - runaways are easy to identify - kneeling in pitiful yellow uniforms we sigh while washing cement - worthless shameful christian work - some sort of punishment - we were happy once not that long ago and we remember - so we must keep our treasonous thoughts to ourselves for now - that’s okay we can run away again tomorrow

You Can Only Watch So Much Television

In the evening
Or the end
Of night
(it makes no difference
when you're up all the time)
I hear
A song
Play
That never stops
Or really changes

Until the lamp dies

I change the bulb
But the light is gone

Just like her
(and it won't come back)

Until
Time stops
(and time never does)

Twelve Hours

When the sun set last night we sat in the kitchen and you said, I love you, but I can't live with you anymore. I thought about that for a few minutes and walked to a bar and drank myself sick. When the bar closed I sneaked a beer out the front door and stumbled to a lake and sat down on the bank. I watched a dog sniff at a hole. I yelled, hey, come here! He ran away and left me there thinking that maybe I'm meant to be alone. You called me on the phone and said, are you coming home? I'm not sure I can walk, I said, and watched the sun rise over the water and a cluster of Oak trees.

Urban Cowboy

Sweet soft
Water fall
Rolling down
Your skin.

A hawk flies
Across a purple sky
Looking for
A gopher to kill.

I sit in a bar
Waiting for you
To never come.

At 2 A.M.
I wonder
Where you are.

The pretty bartender says
You have to leave mister.

Yeah I know
I say and smile.
I have a long walk
To nowhere to make
Right now.

I scored tonight.
Not enough.
Never is.
Nonetheless
I’m OK
For now.
So take care
And fare thee well.

Storm Chasing Fire Across The Valley

Clouds rolled swiftly

Over under and around

A doomed aircraft.

True That

It ain't no fun

When nobody loves you.

It ain't no fun at all.

Treatment

If I made a movie it would take place in the seventies in and around a large mid-western city and it would smell like marijuana and sound like the E. Street band playing Racing In The Street and there will be snow on the ground. Much of the action will take place in a bar. It will be a love story to a certain extent and there will be elements of science fiction when appropriate. There will be some gratuitous violence but no car chases. The main character will have a brother they will fight all the time and disappoint each other but he will be the only person the star can count on when the shit hits the fan and it will. His father will be a semi-famous painter who is preoccupied with himself and his next Jackson Pollack imitation and the adoration of his (pseudo-intellectual) fans. His mother will be an overworked nurse. She will try to steer him in the right direction and fail. His girl friend will be a bangin' hot whore. She will sell him out to the man that owns the bar. The ending will be ambiguous and leave the viewers confused. However, if I do my job, they will be able to figure it out if they discuss it with their husbands, wives, or friends for five minutes while they drive home from the theater and my next movie will be about a peace time army company or two guys who start a punk rock band.

Places And Faces

I remember places. I’m a cab driver, that’s what we do. Remember places, sometimes faces, I wish I could forget yours. Not an option. So be it. I was a soldier once a long time ago. Soldiers endure. Some things are tougher than others.

Cold Island

Tall tree
Leafless
This time of year

Hidden sun
Pokes out
Once in awhile

Snow falls gently
On grave stones
In December

Who knows
The dead
Are gone forever

I do
And you
Should know

I will
Love you
In the next life too

I'm The Kind Of Man

I’m the kind of guy whores tell their life story when I give them a ride from one motel to another.
I’m the kind of guy drunk girls fall in love with for forty-five minutes in the middle of the night.
I’m the kind of guy who knows where to party until the sun comes up.
I’m the kind of guy no girl wants to marry. I’m the kind of guy who dies like a dog, alone.

Cool Night In Arizona

Three flags lay limp beside an expensive so called classy establishment.

Under an awning three cars wait for their owners to give them something to do.

A bellhop reads a magazine.

A four wheel drive truck races through the parking lot.

A drunk bums a cigarette from the valet and staggers across the street.

Beneath a street lamp two girls barter with a cab driver.

The scene described is what it is. Nothing more. Nothing less. Even though, I made some of it up.

Hitch Hiking

Long road - nowhere yet

Long time sitting on the side

My thumb out - tough shit


I would kill a bum

For just one cigarette as

The mean old sun sets

Looking For Something

Like a beat up old car

I
Roll

(By roll I mean walk)

Down
A dirt road

To no town
Tonight.

If I Had A Dollar

If I had a dollar I would buy you a boat. If I bought you a boat it would be a toy boat. If we could get your toy boat to float in the tub we could close our eyes and sail to France. If we sailed to France we could hit the beach at Normandy. If we hit the beach we could pretend we're soldiers and shoot imaginary rifles at imaginary bunkers. If we shot imaginary rifles at imaginary bunkers we would kill imaginary Nazi's and become imaginary heroes and feel good about ourselves. If we survived the assault we could go to a cafe and drink wine and eat bread and cheese. If we filled ourselves with wine we could go to a hotel and make love all night and wake up refreshed. If we woke woke up refreshed we could take a train to Amsterdam. If we took a train to Amsterdam we could buy some hash. If we bought some hash it would be real hash and we could get stoned and stroll the red light district. If we strolled the red light district we could pick up a prostitute. If we picked up a prostitute we could take her to a hotel and play Russian roulette with our hearts. If we played Russian roulette with our hearts we would have a clean slate and a fresh start. If we have a clean slate and a fresh start we can ask God to forgive us for all the things we might do next.

Software

if this works
will you

release yourself
into my orbit

float around
like a satellite

send me messages
from where you are

Bar Chords

a guitar player told me
while we sat in an empty bar
on a hot afternoon
somewhere in arizona
listening to eric clapton on the jukebox

flirting with the bartender

that you can only write so many
drinking songs

how many? i asked

one hundred two hundred tops he said
and killed another bottle of beer

Skewed Haiku

My dog and I pause

Beside an old gray farm house
During a snowstorm

Iced over
Pond
Tree
Falling down
We walk around

What Could Have Been

In a time of great promise
We sat in a restaurant
laughing at a waiter
Who kept screwing up our order.
We didn’t care.
I drank wine instead of beer.
You told me that your father
Is the best man you know.
I told you mine isn’t.
You said that’s too bad.
The waiter set a plate of fish
in front of me.
I ordered steak.
I think he has a crush on you, you said.
I doubt that.
I think he does, you said, and took a bite of my fish.
Not bad, you said.

True Or False

My wife told me the other night that I am without stress and I am uncomplicated. It's kind of a compliment, she said.

For the past month I have abstained from smoking pot because I had to take a piss test at work.

About an hour ago I chased a girl out of Walmart and grabbed her by the waist before she jumped into a car because she owed me a hundred dollars for driving her across town in my cab to score some dope.

I settled for half the fare.

A cop told me after I told him what happened that I have no right to touch a client who doesn't pay me. What am I supposed to do? I asked. Don't get yourself in the situation, he said.

If I had a dollar for every time someone sat in the backseat and asked what is the most interesting thing that happened to you tonight? I could take the week off.

Fall

Soft snow falls lightly

In a park beside a lake

A man rolls a smoke.

Balcony

I looked up
And saw you
Looking down
At me
Smiling.

When you are young
You have no idea
What you will regret.

Now I am pretty old
And I have a
Reasonably good idea.

A Tribute To Mick Ronson

Frank Lloyd Wright
Called architecture
Frozen music.

Think about that for a second

And It will make perfect sense.