Preambling

The last of first
nightmare second
a stretching minute
the amount of moment
that fits in a cup
an hour where humble
gives the afternoon up
for gambling.

My angle is tangled
my end is preamble
dark of my morning
abbreviates evening.

I roll eyes and shoulders
over dreamy leftovers
I riff the raff right out
give good sense a shout.

I have a light inkling
to rise above sinking
to wave at the tip top
opposite of deep sleep.

Once my line is crossed
everyday is an everest
a trek from mid to muddle
on a saddle of troubles.

My angle is tangled
my end is preamble
dark of my morning
abbreviates evening.

I roll eyes and shoulders
over dreamy leftovers
I riff the raff right out
give good sense a shout.

I have a light inkling
to rise above sinking
to wave at the tip top
opposite of deep sleep.

Once my line is crossed
everyday is an everest
a trek from mid to muddle
on a saddle of my troubles.

The last of first
nightmare second
a stretching minute
the amount of moment
that fits in a cup
an hour where humble
gives the afternoon up
for gambling.
[A]
BbMa7 ///
BbMa7 ///
Am7 ///
Am7 ///
BbMa7 ///
F#m7 /// G7 ///

[B]
A9 /// A6 ///
Em7/B /// F#m7 ///
G6 /// C#m9/G# ///
Am7 /// Bb6 /// C#m7b5 ///

 

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National Anthem

Success is best predicted by zipcode
by the big shots living on the yellow brick road.

Who is ahead? Who is behind?
Whose cobblestone driveway is longer than mine?

[chorus]
No way to live
no way to survive
no way to find or fix the future
which way is out?

Our kids go to school but all they learn
is how to make more money to burn.

Beat black and blue by the tv news.
I can’t show my face without the latest pair of shoes.

No way to live
no way to survive
no way to find or fix the future
which way is out?

[verse]
We elected a clown because he was rich.
He’s driving the national truck into the ditch.

With hand on heart, stand for the anthem –
it’s the hissing of turbulence in a kinked up hose.

[chorus]
No way to live
no way to survive
no way to find or fix the future
which way is out?

 

[verse]
G69 /// D6 /// Bb6 /// Am7 /// F9 ///
A69 /// Gm7 /// C7 /// //// F13 /// ////

[chorus]
C /// //// [NV] D7 / DMa7 / Am7 / Gm7 /
F /// //// [NV] C /// FMa7 ///
D /// C ///
F /// ////

Masking

It’s a damn shame that
trying only leads to
more trying no matter
how slowly impotent.

It’s a crying crisis
of crumbling cookies when
just the word that might
heal is not let out.

Most people are like
interesting books not
allowed to be taken down
off the dusty shelf

and opened up for all
to see cool ilustrations
for readers to find so
many hidden messages.

Don’t let me obscure.
Demand that I stop
masking beauty in purity
burying visions in sleep.

Most like me shift
gears on a mountain
beach or weekend
from first to frantic.

Not Enough and All

A few a several
a hand a fistful
not enough and all
one could ask for
in a world of plenty.

How many days out of the long year
do you see the trees with blossoms and seeds?
They may be glorious for a week or two
then the riches are spent and summer comes due.

A few a several
a hand a fistful
not enough and all
one could ask for
in a world of plenty.

How many great ideas have you thought
with genius sizzling and spitting fire?
How many inventions, how many definitions?
How many times were you truly inspired?

Bullied by popularity
fooled by a trend
thinking that the now
will never end
how little how temporary
what never was may be again.

A few a several
a hand a fistful
not enough and all
one could ask for
in a world of pl

Kettle of Guitars

Your time is six
my time is seven
the end of hate
at half past waking
with a kiss on evil’s
wrinkled and stingy
forehead forgets
this day’s disasters.

Who is Jesus
but a hitchhiker
thumb out halfway
to the capital city
backpack full of
cliché and epiphany
sounds like a poet
but smells of

Good is with,
bad a fiasco.
loneliness a quagmire,
togetherness a mess
crowned at the harvest.

Kids line up along
main street with guitars
the angry ones mimic
their moms and dads
those with two eyes
and two ears utter
terrific lyrics and play
unheard-of chords.

A teacup full
of leaping forward
daily into stirred-up
rectitude
this recipe this rule
falls short of perfect
smack dab in the middle
of a kettle of fish.

Good is with,
bad a fiasco.
loneliness a quagmire,
togetherness a mess
crowned at the harvest.

Sure Don’t Be So

What the teacher does not know
is muddled into an open discussion
subtely swayed is her way under
guise of democratic logic.

The pastor of a trusting congregation
selects a favorite didactic passage
and frames it in pop assumptions
the conclusion is inevitable.

[chorus]
Are you sure? Don’t be so
positive without some emptiness
to temper your temporarily
full-bellied mind.

[verse]
Legs bare and clothing disrupted
a lover makes an innocent suggestion
that would not be considered seriously
outside the safety of the bedroom.

With an ultimatum smothered in
promises of what is only given
by mother to child the leader
snarls and points a missing finger.

Are you sure? Don’t be so
positive without some emptiness
to temper your temporarily
full-bellied mind.

Death of Assumption

[A]
There comes a sudden moment in
the cycle of social evolution
when the obvious shuts the mouth
of the freight train on the wrong track
and the old clickety-clack syncopates
and escalates into death of assumption.

[B]
I got married once
on top of a mountain of bias
rains came and washed
my mountain clean away.

When the green of summer grass
is no longer green but golden and
begins to ask annoying questions
about the beginning of things
the season dries up the roots and grabs
the scythe for the death of assumption.

I crossed the ocean
to the capitals of the old world.
Nothing made sense
especially not me.

Who decided what’s to be true?
Most of what we need we don’t
have a clue about how to pursue
and may find out in the end
what we though was need was not
going to survive the death of assumption.

I looked at my past
at my departures and arrivals
and was forced to drastically
rewrite my own bible.

When the new obvious
shuts your young mouth
you can be ageless
and believe nothing.

[A]
E7 /// Bbm7 / Am7 /
E7 /// Bbm7 / Am7 /
CMa9 / Cm / CMa9 / G/B /
F#7 /// G / Am7 /
EMa9 /// ////
D /// ////
Bbm7 /// G69 /// F#m7 /// B7 ///

[B]
Fma9 / EbMa9 / G6 /// ////
FMa9 / A / G6 /// ////
Fma9 / A / G6 ///
Fma9 / EbMa9 / D /// A /// G6 ///