If Life Were A Folk Song: Richard Thompson

if life were a folk song
there would be more
romance
danger
magic
abominable snowmen
fires
ghosts
floods
orphans
feats of strength
maritime disasters
jesters
hard times
good times
crab games
shacks on a river
dive bars in the woods
mississippi john hurt records
righteous pain
cops and robbers
dry rivers to cross under purple moons
nights that never end
days that never begin
cowboys and indians
damn builders
union dues
mountains to climb and descend
interesting trees
cool hats
horses
dirty thousand-dollar pinstriped suits
dusty old leather shoes
all night drives
across state lines
candles burning at both ends
guitars
violins
guns
accordions 
drugs
and ne're do wells
hanging around
cheap apartments at dawn
if my life were a folk song
it would start in a minor
end in g
with a bridge in b flat
to float under
in a raft
or dive off
break my neck

Capitalism Run Amok

the price was high
free would have been too much
I paid our shares
we went inside
put on three-d glasses
and watched something happen
I'm not sure what
I asked you
you shrugged
I don't like to judge
but what the fuck

the price was high
as was I
on my birthday
we bet on the dogs
won a couple hundred bucks
went to a bar
and drank until I couldn't walk

the price was high
the band sucked
a pretty girl told me
to fuck myself
when I asked her
for a light

capitalism run amok

people often say how hard you have to work to get to the top

I'm saying you have to work pretty hard to maintain your station on the bottom

and you probably won't even get a vacation

a pat on the back for a job well done or a fare thee well when they show you the door

Unmade Bed: Leonard Cohen 1973

I say sorry and thank you for the lines I steal and write on a scrap of paper
while you give me head on a unmade hotel bed
my limo waits in the street to take you wherever you want to go
New Hampshire I think you said when we met
I recall the show a night ago
some of the songs sounded better then others
like the records I make
that seem so much more important then they really are
and what a wonderful perk you turned out to be
I think
I need you
I don't need you
I need you
I don't need you
and all that jiving around
when you make your getaway
I'll be relieved
and down the road I might remember
your semi-gaped tooth smile
that against the odds
only enhances your perfect nose
and your tie-dyed peasant dress
you take off
and throw on the floor
put on to fetch cigarettes in the lobby
and take off and toss on a chair
and when you find a real man
and are raising two or three kids
you will always have my voice on record or cassette
I hope my songs make you laugh and smile and dance and cry your eyes out
in the middle of the night
I'll throw you a toast
or you can throw one at me
to the night we listened to the storm
when we were almost young
a long time ago
won't seem so long ago
when we think about it
forty years from now

I'm Not Sleeping With You

do you think they can see us i asked the tree top tall thinking woman while we shared a pipe behind the barn
the people in that house could care less what a nigger and a jew are doing back here the tree top tall thinking woman said and what do you care
i don't i was thinking about you i'm not a jew by the way i said
whatever don't you worry about me although i'm too important to limit to one poem it would be like raymond chandler using philip marlowe in one novel she said
i'm no raymond chandler i said no shit she said and you ain't philip marlowe i said
i could be if you weren't so lazy you don't deserve a muse she said i never said i did i said
i'm not sleeping with you she said i never should have stole you from that blues song i said
true that she said you have any friends i asked i'm a loner she said and smiled like a million dollars
if i could record that i would but i can't i'm a reporter not a poet no matter what i might have said to get you to do what you did i said
you need to buck up she said yeah i'll get right on that when i finish what i'm doing i said and it might be awhile i thought
do you want anymore of this i asked i always want more of this she said

Dead River VI Howlin' Wolf

the dry river rolls under my bedroom window
when the wind blows
the trailer shakes
the dry river moans
it's hard to light a pipe
the dry river crosses a dirt road a quarter mile from a place no one should go if they know what's good for them
i followed the dry river into a valley
i thought i found a pot of gold
it was something else
i don't remember what
at the head of the dry river i meet a tree top tall thinking woman cooking hot dogs
she tells me to be careful
i feel a flood coming over the horizon
a big one
the stars are falling
i smell fire
i walk my dog across the dry river into a field of cactus i yell jenny! she turns around and looks at me turns around and runs away to a dumpster behind a bar that eighty-sixed me for falling off my stool six times at two am it doesn't seem like such a big deal
i sit in the dry river bed under a bridge reading a book of poetry by mao tse-tung
i walk the dry river with my daughter looking for flat stones to skip
at the foot of the dry river the tree top tall thinking woman is skinny dipping in the sand she looks amazing i wave she laughs and tells me i told you so you crazy bastard

Across The Street

a chicken yells cock a doodle do or some such nonsense i'm tryng to recall a golf shot i should have hit a long time ago into the wind in reference to a book i'm writing in my head
breaking eighty how not to act while you learn how to play golf and it's more about what happened after i failed to execute my flawed plan i broke my four iron over my knee walked off the course and waited for my brother in the bar and as crazy as this sounds it was the right thing to do you have to punish yourself to break eighty if you don't practice enough
i don't punish myself enough anymore i think while i wait for something good to happen the chicken drags a pretty girl into a cab i wonder if i should intervene is it or is it not my business the cab driver seems okay with it i hear dance music from the bar and wish i couldn't a tree behind the bar takes off like a rocket and flies away i could listen to a kris kristofferson cd but i'm trying to concentrate on this poem i smell bad tacos a busboy is smoking in the parking lot and that reminds me to get off my ass and light one a man opens the bar door walks into the parking lot looks around and goes back inside in fifteen minutes i will be out of here and it won't matter a tinker damn one way or another what happens to any of us

Swinging door

the door swings both ways
so don't let it hit your ass
you say
when you leave
don't forget
we met in the fog
i state
on the wrong side of the street
along time ago seems like last week
we were playing darts
in a dive
you smiled at the dude
who stole my hash in high school
i can forgive you
but you could be cooler
and make it easier
on us both
that ain't your style
i can respect that
but what are you
going to give me
i don't need much
but nothing don't
go a long way
and we're a million miles behind already
baby
the door swings both ways
so don't let it hit your ass
you say
when you leave
and don't come back
it doesn't
i think
but don't say
and you'll want me back
in the morning anyway
the door swings both ways
give me a break

Beyond Purpose

the purpose beyond the purpose is essential
the purpose beyond the purpose is sometimes abstract
the purpose beyond the purpose is often impossible
no matter how hard you try just ask a bunch of half ass artists
the purpose beyond the purpose is only possible
if you work like an immigrant and get luckier than shit
the purpose beyond the purpose isn't polished
the purpose beyond the purpose is easier to find
when you are a little tired and sad
the purpose beyond the purpose is a lie and a bitch
i almost caught up with her on seventh avenue last night
the purpose beyond the purpose is a dream that doesn't come true
the purpose beyond the purpose is a nightmare that does
the purpose beyond the purpose is a broken whiskey bottle
laying on the side of a dirt road next to a dead guy
the purpose beyond the purpose is finding out why
the purpose beyond the purpose is a whore in purple dress
flipping off a cop at two am behind his back
the purpose beyond the purpose is a conversation with your wife
about finance and your daughter and all the stuff that needs to be completed by the end of the week
the purpose beyond the purpose is what I am trying to do right now
the purpose beyond the purpose is what I have failed to achieve up 'till now
the purpose beyond the purpose is something you can lose or throw away
the purpose beyond the purpose is something most folks don't think about much
the purpose beyond the purpose is blond on blond

Townes Van Zandt

If my love was a song
The sun would walk beside her and across oceans of time I chased her
Across a bridge over the Missouri and into a valley until she vanished.
She may have been a ghost. The train was on time but I couldn't catch it.
The sun walked beside her across oceans of time I followed her shadow
Into a cave. I sat on a rock. She hovered above.
I asked her to sit down. She said that's not possible. Why not I asked.
She said you wouldn't understand. I think she's right and more beautiful
Than anything I could ever handle. So I swam to a cove and laid in the sun
And waited for something more dependable.
But when the moon rose over the horizon the sun still walked beside her.
I followed her shadow across oceans of time and a field
Over a cliff and into the water.
If my love was a song I could compose with a little help from the masters
The sun would walk beside her across oceans of time all the way to El Dorado.