GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

get it while you can:
good smelling females
sitting in "come fuck me shoes"
at manhattan type clubs
two-thousand dollar suits
cuban cigars
insider trading tips
sky box seats
sports cars and cigarette boats
year round tans and palm trees
send your money overseas
screw the fools who pay the tax
hide your money
just relax
good acountants and financial men
will take good care
of those who spend
their workers money
in frivolous ways
it's stolen, man!
we count the days
they work for us
then we bid adeiu
to broken bodies
and hire anew
the underclass
who support our ways
we aint been stopped
aren't you amazed?
so get it while you can.

BAR-FLY LOVE

bar-fly love is honest
he grabs her ass
she sticks her tongue down his mouth
they share shots-and-beers
they grind their loins to juke-box melodies
it don't matter that he has a few teeth missing
it don't matter that she's a hunchback
they don't notice these things 'til the morning
or afternoon, and usually it doesn't matter

they share unemployment checks or welfare
eat cheap food
sleep on yellowed sheets
shoot up with the same needles
shit in the same filthy toilets
wipe with the same stinky towels
but there's always a bottle of booze
to make love more real
and they fight and scream
but soon all is forgiven
and grudges are'nt held
it all lasts until one of them splits
or throws their partners shit out of a 3rd floor window
and even then they forgive and forget

but in the mausoleums of the suburbs
the perfect lawns and perfect coifs
the perfect rooms and clean towels
exists love based on other things
and imperfections are not tolerated
and unspoken hate bastardizes perfect love
and all is less honest
and perfect teeth tell perfect lies
as they stay together
and rot in the hell of their choice
and there is no end to all of this
and that is the horror of it

so choose bar-fly love
piss in the closet
vomit on the floor
fill another glass with cheap-ass whiskey
and know you will be forgiven
most of the time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARLIN'

happy birthday, darlin'
i remember waiting for you
your mom's tummy got so big!
i couldn't wait to get home at night...
and feel you knockin' around in there
i was waiting for the miracle of you

i cut your umbilical cord
and held your little pink body
all wrapped up in my arms
your mother loved you too
and took care of you so well
i gave you, your first bath
changed your diapers

put ice bags on you to break your fevers
it broke my heart to see you shiver
but i knew it had to be done
i remember four-in-the-morning feedings
i watched your pretty eyes get dreamy
and i burped you and put you on your tummy
then i rubbed your little back
to make sure you were asleep

and we watched you grow
we took care of your illnesses and scraped knees
i taught you to throw a baseball
to ride your two wheeled bicycle
and how to change oil on a car
your mom was always there at night
after working all day long to take you places
ballet, music lessons, sports, all kinds of things

i tried to pitch in as well, but i failed you sometimes
i hope you forgive me, 'cause i have no excuses now that i look back
i'm just glad i never stopped loving you
and that you were a good girl and forgave me for what i lacked

now, i see you all grown up
and i am so proud of you
you are an intelligent and beautiful woman
your husband is a good man
i feel that you are safe

i guess my job is done
but i'll always be here, if you need me
as long as i am able
so, on this special day,
happy birthday, darlin'
i love you,
daddy.

AMERICAN BANDSTAND

give me the stroll
and rock-and-roll
finger poppin'
just plain rockin'
at american bandstand

give me dick clark
the teens do bark:
let's get it on
go on and on
at the bandstand

quick on our feet
our clothes are neat
and greasy hair
is never square
it's piled up high
and girls show thigh
at bandstand

so let's be reet
and move our feet
to the beat
of bandstand

these were my days
the greaser ways
hot cars and girls
not a care in the world
at bandstand.

REBORN

how many deaths does it take in this lifetime
to finally be reborn?
my process has been endless.
i seek the final vision.
death and liberation is the last.
maybe it is eternal sleep, this liberation.
until then it is death and vision,
death and vision,
death and vision,
ad infinitum.
and there is pain along the way.
less in the beginning,
more at the end.
but wisdom makes the pain more tolerable...
that and practice, and death and vision.
so i wait to be reborn,
in finality...
and along the way,
i remember the early visions
and how they guided me to the now.

FIRST KISS

i don't remember my first kiss.
was it tender?
was it innocent?
was it sweet?
i think so.
for in youth,
all is magical and nice.
our hearts are not broken yet.
our eyes are open only to bright futures.
my first kiss...
i dwell on it.
i feel it.
i won't let it go...
even though it's a wisp of smoke...
a figment of my imagination.
like a tender flower,
it lives on in my fantasy world.
i make it my reality,
even if it is only a myth
created by my mind.
i put it in my heart
my first kiss.

HIGH STEEL

On day one a guy knew.
Climbing high steel was only for the chosen few.
In the old days a man road a "headache ball",
connected to a crane cable to the top.
The Chicago winds blew ominously.
There I stood, 13 stories high.
Vertigo ruled my guts for about three days.
I was 156 feet tall on the tower crane deck.
The old timers said, "You'll get used to it son."
I did.
I learned to walk beams without safety gear.
I walked with my body hanging off the beam,
into the lashing wind.
After a few years of thies, my face got red and leathery.
My hands became caloused and knotted from the cold.
I relished using a cutting torch and welding rod on these cold, Chicago days.
Iron workers and crane operators are a rough breed of men.
We spent ten hours a day on high steel, and four hours in the tavern every night.
We were paid well for our labor.
Pride and guts motivated us, and a lot of hard-earned skills.
When my body aches with the onset of the winds in the fall,
I remember high steel in Chicago.
These were the days of guts and glory.

ROCK MY WORLD

rock my world
get down and twirl
your baton stick
i dig your schtick
do it for me
little bee
i love you so
when you throw
those passes at me
with those big dark eyes
milky thighs
you're part of my dream
you're peachy-keen
my pom-pom queen
you're super clean
and nice and fresh
a cut above all the rest
of the college girls
in the football world
a barbie doll
sorority moll
so rock my world
just spin and twirl
do not much more
than a back street whore
with your stepford brain
while young men wait
for your hip swingin' gait
after the game
they go insane
but not me
'cause you're on tv
and my world was rocked
an eternity
of time ago

THRILLBILLY

I'm a thrillbilly, man.
I dig NASCAR, redman and waitresses in short skirts...no slacks.
Give me camel cigarettes, jack daniels black, and thrillbilly heart attacks.
I want tilt-a-whirls, shootin' red squirrels and lotsa fun with guns.
I can rope and ride, parachute jump and do the bump.
I like CAT D-8's, roller skates and I roll my own.
I dig sleeves of tatoos, drunken shrews, and bacardi rum.
Give me Travis Tritt, Johnny Cash and the monster mash.
I dig wrestling bouts and boxing fights and freaky frights.
Juke box nights, lotsa fights, and country bars, speedy cars are all for me...can't you see, 'cause I'm a thrillbilly man.
Give me country mean, Halloween and mean machines.
Every day is a weekend...ok?
I piss off the boss, 'cause I don't throw or toss with the likes of him.
I'm a loner wolf, a thrillbilly goof and I like it that way.
Ain't gonna come the day, it all goes away, 'til I draw my last breath.
I'm a mean rattlesnake, do you relate?
If you do not, take your lot and git outta here.
I'm a thrillbilly man, that's just what I am.
Damn it's good, to live in my hood, without a care in the world.
I work with the best, screw all the rest.
I earn my pay, whether it be night or day.
I'll figure a way...that's a thrillbilly man.

THE JAZZ OF LIFE

i improvise
the jazz of life
a total surprise
notes gentle now
become dissonant lies
the jazz of life
it comes and seeps
right into my soul
and takes me away
much like a bowl
of mary jane
and pipe dreams
the opiate of life
then sleep
to regenerate
the ideas
the needs
for the jazz of life
the high notes
and low
i take blows
and the riffs
to unearthly places
for i must live
i'm on the run
like nature's son
in the jazz of life
dig it, man
no note undone
play it now
be on stage
with your jazz of life
it must be played

SOMETIMES

sometimes at night
when others sleep
i mourn my life
i do not weep
for things undone
for words unsaid
i lie awake
in my safe bed

shallow prayers
seem empty now
i doubt my faith
i know not how
to pray with vigor
for eternal life
beyond the misery
of earthly strife

with pen in hand
i try my verse
some is bad
much is worse
but sometimes the lines
don't fall apart
and what i say
can hit the mark

this groove is good
the work is fine
i feel as if
i have my mind
to tell a story
for some to see
so sleep can come
bring peace to me

sometimes i try
sometimes it works
sometimes i fail
it's the writers curse
but know i feel
all that i say
i hope to write
another day

but if the reaper
takes me tonight
know i love you
with these words i write
we all end up
in a cold, dark grave
our words live on
our selves we save
sometimes

REALITIES

i sat on a bench in the gym locker room.
sweat poured from my body.
i watched it drip off my wrist bands.
it was sunday afternoon, and no-one was in there,
'cept a little porter.
he was mopping the floor.
i thought of the bleakness his future.
maybe he would get lucky.
who knows...good shit can still happen,
i guess.
he was young and thin,
of african american descent.
we made eye contact and smiled at each other.
i wished i had his youth.
he probably wished he had my money.
i decided to test my theory.
i told him i would give him every dime i had,
to be his age again.
he laughed and said he would make the trade.
i told him it would be a bad deal for him.
he shook his head in disbelief.
he said he'd make the trade.
youth is wasted on the young.
damn kids.

FISH FRY

there's a fish fry
at the VFW hall tomorrow.
(it's always on friday nights).
the parking lot is filled with mercury marquis,
cadillacs, and buick lesabres...geezer cars.
the flag is proudly displayed in more than one place.
families come there with children.
the drinks flow steady from the bar.
the prices are right.
and old time band plays music from all eras.
everyone seems to have a good time.
food is served from 4 to 8 p.m.
the veterans are of all races, and creeds.
they all seem to get along well.
they have one thing in common.
they served their country on foreign soil.
the bar closes at ten, so all the old warriors can go home.
they dream of their grandchildren and hope good things for their futures.
they dream of glory days, long past.
somehow, they remember their youth in fragments and inconsistencies.
the old soldiers remember the guns being bigger,
the fields of battle being larger,
the kisses from women being sweeter,
the country being stronger,
and i wake up from this day dream...
to watch these old soldiers hobble off to their cars...
like mid-day afternoon heroes at movie theatres of my past.
they and i know
they were so much more.

THERE'S NOTHING MORE TO SAY

i'm gonna' live hard
until i die.
i'm one, tough sumnabitch,
until i find my soft spot,
or it finds me.
it's been a damn thing,
for all these years.
it won't leave me alone.
it makes the tears come streaming,
down my ruddy face.
it has cut channels
that meander on my cheeks.
i own the face of a woeful man.
i guess i cannot deny this fate.
it shows both good and bad.
it shows my humanity.
maybe this is the best part of me.
my body parts are going south,
while my memory fools me too.
i'm glad i'm human,
i'm glad i'm here,
i'm glad that i have you.
with all my scars and blemishes,
i long to love each day.
i'll walk the road,
i've rolled my dice,
there's nothing more to say.

PERSISTENCE

i swung the hammer
and drove the nail
i did my best
stayed out of jail

these things were done
automatically
like blueprints made
for me to see

i still press on
no believer in fate
i seek rewards
at some later date

i drive the nail
hard and straight
this action is payoff
that helps me negate

my questioning mind
that confuses me
i won't be distracted
for i need to be free

i see my road
it's never too straight
i swing my hammer
it's never too late