29 March 2012

the yankees had no idea what to do


      a careful sound
in the back corner
of a concrete block room
      painted white
and reeling from discussions
of darkness
                and right

the numbers
      counted up
   from

one point (oh two) three nine
all the way to
             nine point two times ten (to the seventh power)

which
                 (currently)

         denotes    the witching hour

makes me think about

when ol’ jerry clower
                 went to kalamazoo

and the yankees
                  had no idea
what to do





21 March 2012

the network is the network


      i have guns too
you know
i tried to get him
      to stop

smoking

to quit

       joking


if your kids
       are going

if the violation
          referral
violence
         in sixty second commercials

      you know
most of the people
      are not very sharp
but they have good hearts
            they are nice people

and
            good customers

      explain a segment
of what you do every week
focus on one aspect

      the network is
               the network

don’t you get it
                            jerk?

some of the people manage it
      cut me in at the top

      if he asked me
i would have told him
             but
i didn’t
     because he didn’t ask
it’s not the best
      way
to complete
      a task

to take all day
            in the southern states

i don’t find memphis to be
   violent
except for the one day
   in 1968

that day
      was a bad day



08 March 2012

tonight makes a year



tonight i will leave no doubt
 tonight makes a year
i don’t know how you got out
                   away
from all your fear

no  
      i don’t know how you got out

these things
         take so long
   yeah
       these things take their toll

what’s the difference
                                                  who was wrong
                                 and who regained control?

what’s the difference
    that you were wrong?
  because you regained control

i could not say it then
                          so
i had to write it down

         and i know that it all depends
on why much more than how
yeah   i know that it all depends
     but
         why does everything depend?

you see
         i made the last mistake
        i made it up you see
that you bend
            you don’t ever break
and
that you’d never have enough of me


yeah
            you bend
you don’t break

but you’ve had enough
       you’ve had too much

well
      now
   i couldn’t see
all the signs
             right in front of me

and tonight
       there will be no doubt
because tonight
  is a year

      tonight there will be no doubt…







06 March 2012

when the notes were unwound


petty thinks she's pretty
        she thinks the sun’s coming up
thinks that time standing still
      ought to be
                     enough

doesn’t want you to know
    that just two months ago
she was still giving chase

           ‘mister man?
he'll wait’  

she thinks that bitterness
            and sneering are
            opinions
                        of her own

   wouldn't want it known
that she’s just
           singing along

or that now
           she’s alone

     petty takes great delight in the suffering
and the frustration

being right
           about everything 
the astute calculation in
                      her case for castration
based on the well-known precedent of

                              infatuation

she sat right down and
      counted every february
she had left

she nodded her head and
          said     aloud
‘yeah  that’s best’

the falsetto flames that burned down her memories
were chronicled
                in a letter-pressed
two hundred and sixty-one page libretto

like a hammer
             it’s heavy
and if you hold it right
         you can put out all kinds of lights
even if all you ever do is stare
                             at the hollywood types

but jezebel?
         she feels fine
she likes the way that it sounds 
   says it keeps both her feet on the floor

            and she’ll be the first one to tell you
   that the chairman of the board  
       is whitey mother fuckin’ ford
                   and that the good lord
   didn’t make no trash
but even non-verbals
are still attacks
      she’ll turn to you and say

‘don’t talk to me with your sweet teeth

           shhhhhh shhh  shh

the trees are speakin’ to me
      they’re whisperin

            gives me
    the
         anxiety

   those rustling leaves
are disturbing
            my peace’

i remember jezzy lost her head once
                   but she found it
and put it right back on
petty thinks it’s long gone
         don’t tell her
it’s not

      well
emett till’s mama left that casket wide open
       so the whole damn world could see
what they did to her boy
and this was years after gentleman jack
      told ‘em all to go to the hot place
after he punched the great white hope in his big   fat    face

and  bobby?                            bobby?

         well
says he’s giving up on green grasses
                      and girls who wear glasses 
go ahead
               say it
he ain’t afraid of the hurt

everybody knows he’s a sucker
for anything
       might be
comfortable in a skirt
         or a low cut shirt

that can warble a sound
               not a song
big   and round
         but something that looks enough like it

to get  
                           well
i don’t know man

found?

                    like grace only got amazing     when the notes were unwound