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Waves

 

So many years so many hardships

So many laughs so many tears

So many things to remember

Cause they had 50 years

The kids have got their own kids

And their own kids they are grown

She told him not to worry

He’d be fine when she was gone

He walks down to the ocean

Bends to touch the water, kneels to pray

He writes her name in the sand

Waves wash it away

There are sea gulls circling shrimp boats

That turn inside the bay

There’s an emptiness inside

That never goes away

He walks down to the ocean

Bends to touch the water kneels to pray

He writes her name in the sand

Waves wash it away

 

 

Truale

 

Drive an hour from Dalhart

It’s one long straight line

There’s a ranch house out of nowhere

There’s a crossroad and there’s a sign

She was born in that ranch house

Her daddy slapped her alive

The doctor still in town

Too drunk to drive

Singing truale, truale, truale true

There were horses

Horses to ride

Dapples and grays

Wide-open skies

Pintos and bays

Running full stride

The wind in her face

It was like she could fly

There was oil oil oil

To be found everywhere you put a boot

There was oil in the ground

Oil in the ground

Oil in the mud

Pump long enough

See it gets in the blood

Singing truale, truale, truale ture

She came back when she turned 30

Just her and the girls

Never said why she left him

But she wore cultured pearls

Says to her father

No questions no lies

Drove a t-bird with the top down

A cold beer between her thighs

Singing truale, truale, truale true

There were horses

Horses to ride

Dapples and grays

Wide-open skies

Pintos and bays

Running full stride

The wind in her face

It was like she could fly

 

Baseball

 

There are soldiers in the way of harm

A girl holds a baby in a blanket in her arms

A man with a flag leaves for work

A woman pulls a thread from the hem of her skirt

Another Saturday comes and goes

Another south wind comes and blows

Another baseball field another pop fly

Another bunch of boys another blue sky

Boys laugh

Boys play

There’s a kid at bat there’s a kid on first

There’s a mother in the stands dying of thirst

There’s a father brings a coke there’s a swing there’s a miss

There’s a father brings a coke there’s a father gets a kiss

Another Saturday comes and goes

Another south wind comes and blows

Another baseball field another pop fly

Another bunch of boys another blue sky

Boys laugh

Boys play

There are soldiers in the way of harm

 

 

Thursday

It’s warm for November it looks like rain

She drives the interstate

Stays in the slow lane

Two babies in the back

Huggies in the front

No place to sit cause its full of baby junk

She grew up in Dallas

Had a baby real young

What’s his name left

When she had another one

She said “I got these babies they got all these names

I hurt inside”

Then it starts to rain

It’s a Thursday morning

She feels so alone

There’s a hole inside

It’s like a country song

But it feels a lot sadder than what the radio plays

So she pulls off at Waco for some coke and some fries

Idles in the drive through

The babies start to cry

She starts to cry

When she hears “daddy gone?”

The girl in the window

Says “mam is something wrong?”

It’s a Thursday morning she feels all alone

Got a hole inside its like a country song

But it feels a lot sadder than what the radio plays

 

It’s a parking lot in Waco

Where she sees things clear

Got a backseat full of babies

Got a Frosty full of tears

Then the babies quit crying

The rain lets up

She’s up the on ramp

Behind a long haul truck

Its warm for November it looks like rain

She drives

Monday’s child is fair of face

Tuesday’s child is full of grace

Wednesday’s child is full of woe

Thursday’s child has far to go

 

Change

There was a dry goods store

A flower shop

A barber with no nose

One alcoholic cop

A beauty parlor

Where they sat in chrome chairs

And it smelled like they burned

Some poor lady’s hair

There were toys in the window

Of the five and dime

Little girls stared

Little boys whined

At the toys in the window of the five and dime

Things change

They change a lot

Things change

They blow cold they blow hot

And if looking back is all you got

It doesn’t matter any way

Those same little girls went to work in those stores

Those same little boys went away to wars

When they came home

All the jobs had gone away

back to the places where they fought so far away

Things change

They change a lot

Things change

They blow cold they blow hot

And if looking back is all you got

It doesn’t matter any way

There was a dry goods store

A flower shop

A barber with no nose

One drunk cop

A beauty parlor

Where they’d sit in chrome chairs

They’d hide beneath the dryers

Just sit there and stare

Pony

When love was a Mexican pony

That you and I would ride

From the desert in the dark

Cross the river to the other side

Border guards waved us through

Andale ninos they cried

When love was a Mexican pony

That you and I would ride

 

Then love was a porcelain angel

In a church in Mexico

Dressed in silk

With painted tears

We worshipped what we did not know

Love was a porcelain angel

It was the moment we kissed

It was incense it was grace

It was the sound of the serpent’s hiss

Love was a Mexican pony

You and I would ride

From the desert, in the dark

Cross the river to the other side

Then love was a Sunday morning

When our white flags flew in smoke

Just before the call to Mass

Above the cigarettes and jokes

Love was a Sunday morning

When you and I would pray

And press our hands together

The way we did when you went away

Border guards waved us  through

“Andale niños” they cried

When love was a Mexican pony

You and I would ride

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen

Fighting door to door

At Jerusalem’s gate

Millionaires play baseball

Oprah talks about fate

A galleon full of treasure

Is found off Panama

A new season of Sopranos

Soft women at the spa

Sitting in the kitchen and you don’t give a damn

Whoa

Girls in cotton dresses

Windblown to the hip

Girls in cotton dresses

Their phones close to their lips

A white thoroughbred is born in Kentucky

Bombs fall in Kashmir

Waiting for the war

In your underwear drinking beer

It’s easy to love

It’s easy

Kind of

Skinny boys with rifles

Flying off to war

Skinny boys with rifles

Fighting door to door

 

 

Iron

It’s iron he hangs and he loves his work

Drives hours each day and he’s never been hurt

Got a back of steel and burns on his sleeves

Of his shirt

He drinks too much when stuff gets heavy

He can’t think straight, his mind gets hazy

He stops at a sports bar

Everybody knows he’s a flirt

So he’s driving to work it’s like his head is split open

With last night’s drinking and last night’s smoking

And he never got home and now there will be hell to pay

She’ll be yelling and he’ll be screaming and the kid’s will be crying

It’s like a house full of demons

He says to himself,

“why do people live this way?”

So she says to Luann “he’s the father of my babies

“He’s the father of my babies

I know you think I’m wrong I know you think I m crazy

For sticking around when he’s drunk all over town

But you don’t see he can be so sweet

He only gets mean when he gets in his drink

He’s good to the kids it’s just sometimes he gets down.”

 

 

So the iron drops bad

Nothing seems to fit

He gets busted on his welds

Wants to just quit

Wants to curl up tight on the cold white ground

Cry

But he works full shift

Picks up a six

Its almost Christmas

Roads are getting slick

She is going to be at the door

It is going to be a hell of a fight

So he’s an hour out of Lincoln

No shoulder on the road

And it is dark snowing

He ought to go slow

But he pushes the ford

It planes it slides like a sled

Tires hit the edge and he spins like a top

The truck slides low in the ditch till it stops

It hurts where he banged his head

He sits in the cab and he cant read the gauges

And the wipers whip

Like wind over pages

Its loud

Static on the radio

It gets too light to see

He just stared

Gets too light to see

And then he got scared

Then the light was gone

Its just wipers

Wind turned snow

So she says to Luann “he’s the father of my babies

“He’s the father of my babies

I know you think I’m wrong I know you think I m crazy

For sticking around when he’s drunk all over town

But you don’t see he can be so sweet

He only gets mean when he gets in his drink

He’s good to the kids it’s just sometimes he gets down.”

So he pulls back on he drives real slow

Throws the last of the six out the window in the snow

Something changed he saw light when he should have seen dark

And that’s the last time he drank

Still a hell of a fight

But she knew he wasn’t lying when he told her bout the light

She knew he wasn’t lying about the light

It is iron he hangs

He loves his work

Drive hours each day

He’s never been hurt

Got a back of steel

Got burns on the sleeves of his shirt

Prelude

 

Steel

 

Sitting on the train to Machu Picchu

The passenger car explodes

Not enough time to say good-bye

Not enough time to know

What’s gone wrong?

God have mercy

I believe my heart has failed

Smoke rises through a hole in the roof

The dead say fare thee well

I swear doctor

Don’t you have anything?

Like morphine for this pain

I swear Jesus take me now

Cause I am about to go insane

Looking back at the world as one who is leaving

In a dream come right out of hell

Smoke rises through a hole in the roof

The dead say fare thee well

No one is just an observer

The same bell tolls for the served and the server

For the strong the weak

The weary and the brave

Everybody ride come judgment day

Cause trains explode

Steel flies

The sisters ring the Catholic bells

Smoke rises through a hole in the roof

The dead say fare thee well

Sitting on the train to Machu Picchu

The passenger car explodes

 

Angels

Angels flutter around her heart

Love can heal they softly call

When trouble comes to the ones she loves

Her angels come

They ease suffering

Heal pain

Her angels come like healing rain

Love and angels conquer all

Like rain her healing angels fall

Love and angels conquer all

Her healing angels softly call

Amen

Call a truce

Call a war

Everyone is a bastard

Everyone is a whore

Everyone is a saint

Everyone is redeemed

Everyone is at the mercy of another one’s dream

Late at night when dreams are king

I get nervous about what dark brings

I call her name she holds me tight

She whispers everything’s all right

Call a truce

Call a war

Everyone is a bastard

Everyone is a whore

Everyone is a saint

Everyone is redeemed

Everyone is at the mercy of another one’s dream

 

 

Mercy

A Rondo in C Maj

 

 

 

Dixie

 

I wish I was in the land of cotton

Old times there are not forgotten

Look away

Look away

Look away

Dixie Land

 

 

Cotton

 

Daddy hoes the cotton like I do

Daddy picked the cotton by hand

He used to come home hot and dirty

Told me how he hated black land

Told me how he hated black land

One day he just walked away

Walked down the road

Kicking up dust

Right in the middle of the day

Walked down the road kicking up dust

Left me and momma that way

 

Somebody help me sing hallelujah

Somebody help me sing hey hoe hard

Somebody help me sing that’s enough cotton

Somebody help me sing praise the lord

 

Momma cleaned house for the white folk

Man our house was a mess

But we had food

We had shoes

Had it better than most I guess

She had sister back in 40

When she married a man named Teal

The high blood took her back in 53

She’s buried on the side of the hill

With the coloreds on the side of the hill

You see back then that was the deal

 

Somebody help me sing hallelujah

Somebody help me sing hey hoe hard

Somebody help me sing that’s enough cotton

Somebody help me sing praise the lord

 

I’ve got rows of cotton in the morning

I’ve got rows of cotton till night

I walk these rows with a hoe in my hand

Hoe for the rest of my life

I’ll hoe for the rest of my life

I’ll hoe for the rest of my life

 

 

 

 

Moon

The moon got lost tonight I think

A nod, a nod

A wink,  a wink

The horse is blind and needs a drink

The moon got lost tonight I think

And you and I look, look away

And in the not, not looking may

See what is hidden by the day

When you and I look, look away

 

Look, look away

Look, look away

Look, look away

 

Late, late nights

The red lights blink

Blink, blink

The sky is ink

The last of the bourbon

And the ice clink

The moon got lost tonight I think

 

Look, look away

Look, look away

Look, look away

 

Mennonite

 

He was a Mennonite

Came from Mexico

Went to work for his uncle

Out In Weslaco

Building trailers hell he could build anything

Anything out of metal fix any machine

Praise be to Jesus

All glory and accord

But when you are twenty-one years old

You get kind of bored

Staying home every night

Worshiping the lord

 

He bought a pearl snap shirt

Stitched with horses and stars

A handsome pair of boots

Started driving past bars

Where women wore short skirts

Made out in cars

Drank beer by the quart out of mason jars

They drank beer

At the county line bars

 

Marco Polo Marco Polo

Off to explore

Christopher Columbus

Off to find a new shore

A young Mennonite walks through a bar room door

 

It said “I heart to dance”

On a tight t-shirt

Tucked in the waist of a short short skirt

She was standing at the bar

Holding court

A push up bra for extra support

The boys fell like pigeons

Fell like leaves

Strong pale legs

Red boots to her knees

 

Who’s to say what love is

Is it horses and stars

Is it boots and beer the back seat of cars

On the floor board

There’s a short short skirt

Wrapped in the arms of a pearl snap shirt

 

It’s been five years

Never was hard

He never much thought

More about the lord

She just quit

Going to bars

They got married had kids

Never was hard

 

Who’s to say what love is

Is it horses and stars

Is it boots and beer the back seat of cars

On the floor board

There’s a short short skirt

Wrapped in the arms of a pearl snap shirt

Signs

One cardboard sign says I’ve got no home

One sign says I need booze

One sign says disabled vet

I was not born to lose

One sign says I am no quitter

One sign says you got a smoke?

One sign says need gas for the Lear

One sign got a joke?

Hey, hey

They are on the corner every day

Saying hey, hey

 

One sign says I am pregnant

One sign is upside down

One sign says lost my husband

One sign says lost my crown

One sign says I love Jesus

One says the end is near

One sign just says please

One says will work for beer

Hey, hey

They are on the corner every day

Saying hey, hey

 

She sang meet me in st louis

Meet me at the fair

But don’t tell me the lights

They shine

Don’t act like you care

 

One cardboard sign says time to pray

One sign says I need booze

One says I can’t walk no more

One sign says I need shoes

Ones says if I had a dollar

If I had not lost my crown

If I had a horse

I would ride

For higher ground

Hey, hey

They are on the corner every day

Saying hey, hey

 

Palestine Part Two

Her people came from Nineveh

His people came from Rural Shade

They met in the tent

Of the traveling Nazarene

She took his big hand in hers

Led him from the tent to the piney woods

Just sixteen

 

A few months later they got married

A few more months Rosasharn got born

While he was out cutting pulp

A logging chain whipped

He never walked again

It was an accidental thing

 

So he drank when they had money

She worked as a serving girl

In the rich folks houses in town

Rosasharn grew up

Cutting pictures out of magazines

Of houses big and clean

 

Rosasharn run away

With the boy sellin bibles

Crossed the line toward Shreveport

Turned 16

Calls her mother from the payphone

Laundromat in Natchez

It’s not exactly what I dreamed

 

Palestine, Palestine

Oh Palestine

We’ve got Satan on the run

Shouts the Nazarene

 

 

Who’s Going To Be Your Man

Traditional

Who’s going to be your man

Good lord

Who’s going to be your man

 

Say The Right Words

 

Angel Hair

There was angel hair

Christmas lights

Been so long was it Christmas lights

Or maybe it was Christmas Eve

So cold outside what would make a person leave

On a cold highway

Ice that is black

Make a person leave

Not come back

Not a day goes by

I don’t think about you

 

It was a place so sweet

A place so right

You were standing in the window

In the blinking light

Were there tears on your face?

Was it ice on the pane?

And the radio said

You ought to use chains

On a cold highway

Ice that is black

Make a person leave

Not come back

Not a day goes by

I don’t think about you

 

Been so long I don’t know

Not a day goes by ten years or so

Not a day goes by

I don’t think about you

 

It is a short time coming

A long time gone

I try not use words like wrong

I carry a torch

It burns my hand

I’d like to lay it down

In the promise land

But there is nothing in site

No way back

It’s a cold highway

Ice that is black

Not a day goes by

I don’t think about you

I don’t think about you

 

Not Another Mary

Driving home at sunrise

Just in time for work

She says she is not another Mary

This is not another virgin birth

Not another Mary

She wears an all right wrinkled skirt

Not another Mary

Just in time for work

 

Last night he told her that he loved her

Something she already knew

It was something that she wanted

But she could not say I love you too

I love you too

She thinks man this sky is blue

So he finally said I love you

She could not say I love you too

 

Who knows what to say?

Or what to do?

The sun so red

The sky so blue

Sun so red

Sky so blue

She could not say

I love you too

 

Driving home at sunrise

Just in time for work

She says she is not another Mary

This is not another virgin birth

Not another Mary

Just in time for work

Not another Mary

Not another virgin birth

 

Palestine Part Two

Her people came from Nineveh

His people came from Rural Shade

They met in the tent

Of the traveling Nazarene

She took his big hand in hers

Led him from the tent to the piney woods

Just sixteen

 

A few months later they got married

A few more months Rosasharn got born

While he was out cutting pulp

A logging chain whipped

He never walked again

It was an accidental thing

 

So he drank when they had money

She worked as a serving girl

In the rich folks houses in town

Rosasharn grew up

Cutting pictures out of magazines

Of houses big and clean

 

Rosasharn run away

With the boy sellin bibles

Crossed the line toward Shreveport

Turned 16

Calls her mother from the payphone

Laundromat in Natchez

It’s not exactly what I dreamed

 

Palestine, Palestine

Oh Palestine

We’ve got Satan on the run

Shouts the Nazarene

 

Bridal Chest

There is a workshop

Full of noises

Things are cut

Things are bound

Things are built

Built in secret

The bridal chest

The wedding gown

 

Bring the maiden

From the cloister

Bring her free

Bring her bound

She will stand

With her ancestors

The bridal chest

The wedding gown

 

Pay the dowry

In dolls and dishes

That’s the dough

This day of crowns

That’s the dough

It is el dinero

The bridal chest

The wedding gown

 

Bring the captain

From the lee shore

Leave his ship

To run aground

Leave his crew

To hungry fishes

The bridal chest

The wedding gown

 

Pay the dowry

In dolls and dishes

That’s the dough

This day of crowns

That’s the dough

It is el dinero

The bridal chest

The wedding gown

 

Snow

 

First light city streets are white and pristine

Waiting on the tracks of the early machines

This city is so pretty when the snow falls just at dawn

Hey paper boy how about them Celts

This snow keeps falling think it’s never gonna melt

This city is so pretty

First cup of coffee

A Sunday Globe

A table by the window

Watch the plows in the road

This city is so pretty

From ships in the night good sailors from the sea

Walk the streets at dawn

Down on Beacon Street

This city is so pretty

 

They are so far from home

Snow is deep

The road is long

Snow is deep

The road is long

So far from home

 

There is a stranger on the street

He is way out of sorts

He says hey mister I’ve come up short

You got any change

The lord loves a giver I believe

Small change to a stranger

Change on the street

Change to a man

Thought he’d never get beat

There are a thousand ways

A person in the snow gets lost

 

They are so far from home

Snow is deep

The road is long

Snow is deep

The road is long

So far from home

 

There is snow upon the ocean

Snow upon the land

Talk about forgiveness

Help me understand

Why I hold on tight

Do not let go

I walk these streets frozen in snow

 

First light city streets are white pristine

Waiting on the tracks of the dirty machines

First light city streets are white pristine

They are waiting

 

 

A Song to Himself (Juarez)

 

He wears a blue suede cowboy hat

Got a Juarez women stretched out on his lap

He sings an old song

A song to himself

He sings waiting round to die

 

One border whorehouse looks just like another

But he first came to this one with his father and his brother

Now nobody cares one way or another

He sings an old song

A song to himself

He sings waiting round to die

 

There is a plump woman-attending bar

He holds hands with another plump woman named Starr

Lays a twenty on the table by the pigs feet jar

Sings an old song

Song to himself

He sings waiting round to die

 

A beautiful woman

Wraps around his shoulder

Eyes painted like clay

Except colder

She says “hell of a deal, ain’t it- getting older”

He sings an old song- a song to himself

He sings waiting round to die.

 

Waiting round to die

Waiting round to die

The thinks “who in the world would write a song like that?”

Then the two plump women start laughing at his hat

So he pulls another twenty out

Just like that

Sings an old song, song to himself

He sings waiting round to die.

 

 

 

Orphan

 

She used to say she was an orphan

Never was exactly the truth

It’s just her mother got tired,

Tired of her hanging round

So she ended up living in a home for girls

A straight hair kid in a house full of curls

A straight haired kid always hanging around

 

She’d sing swing low

Sweet chariot

She’s coming for to carry me home

 

So the first chance she got she said I do

To a tall town boy who said me too

Honorable mention all district quarterback

He said I’ll carry you away

She left him drunk on a stool in a county line bar

Going on about high school

How he was a star

She just got tired, tired of him hanging around

 

She’d sing swing low

Sweet chariot

She’s coming for to carry me home

 

She got a job at the dairy queen

Had two baby boys two more diamond rings

The husbands they were brave

But she split that one horse town

Just got tired all the people hanging around

Split that one horse town

 

Now she lives outside LA

With a broke down baseball player

Played double A

Religious man

Never drinks or swears

She’s tired of all this talk about her

Getting saved

Tired of all the talk about revelation days

She’s tired, tired of him hanging around

 

She sings swing low

Sweet chariot

She’s coming for to carry me home

 

 

Slots

 

She lives in a trailer on the outskirts of Reno

Plays quarter slots

In the local’s casino

Every round goes higher, higher

She sings soldiers of the cross

 

A drink in one hand

Coins in the other

They drop in the slot

One after another

Every round goes higher, higher

She sings soldiers of the cross

 

When was it?

‘48 ‘49?

She was a girl

On the Hill County line

In a church with no screens

She waved a paper fan

She sang soldiers of the cross

 

She needs lights

She needs action

She needs change for a ten

She needs Camels please

She needs gin

Every round goes higher, higher

Sings Soldiers of the cross

 

She sings we are climbing Jacob’s ladder

We are climbing Jacob’s ladder

We are climbing Jacob’s ladder

She sings soldiers of the cross

 

 

Pretty World

 

Before the sun

Before the heat

Before we untangle from our sheets

Before this summer day unfurls

Pretty world

 

Before the paper is dropped at the gate

Before the coffee before we are late

Before dreams are lost like midnight pearls

 

Pretty world, pretty roses

Pretty smile morning light

Pretty eyes lazy curls

Pretty world

 

Before the traffic before the jets

Before the sound of your footsteps

Fades away like summer girls

 

Pretty World

 

 

Odessa

 

He was an Odessa boy with a daddy in the money

Played for Mojo back in the boom

Drove a corvette

Took what he wanted

People learned to give him lots of room

 

He never learned to work but that never really mattered

Cause the dark crude flowed

The wild oats scattered

Dark crude flowed

He fought he flattered

And he got what he wanted

It was the only thing that mattered

 

Life was easy

The big jacks pumped

Pulling cash from the Permian field

Cabinets full of high-grade scotch

Garage full of high-speed steel

 

He never learned to work but that never really mattered

Cause the dark crude flowed

The wild oats scattered

Dark crude flowed

He fought he flattered

And he got what he wanted

It was the only thing that mattered

 

He killed a girl when he rolled the corvette

Daddy’s money made her lawyers go away

His mother bought vodka with all that cash

She kind of knew

She kind of knew

 

He never learned to work but that never really mattered

Cause the dark crude flowed

The wild oats scattered

Dark crude flowed

He fought he flattered

And he got what he wanted

It was the only thing that mattered

 

He’s an old man now

Lives on his dead daddy’s place

Never took a wife

He is going to die without a trace

See he loved the girl who was penned in the Vette

Talks to her everyday

Her face was blood and diamonds

He remembers her that way

 

He never learned to work but that never really mattered

Cause the dark crude flowed

The wild oats scattered

 

 

Sweetly Undone

 

I watch you at the pool

Slowly undress

Spread your towel on St. Augustine

Lay down and rest

Lay down and rest

Lay down in the sun

Lay down with your top

Sweetly undone

 

There are cardinals and roses

We’ve had lots of rain

You’ve got a book on Africa

I’ve got Twain

Lay down and rest

Lay down in the sun

Lay down with your top

Sweetly undone

 

Remember new years eave?

And no it’s not a test

At the top of the stairs

You slowly undressed

You slowly undressed

Oh father oh son

Slowly undress

Sweetly undone

 

Sweetly undone

One red rose is lovely in the sun

 

 

Psychic

 

So the psychic on the Lower East Side

The Pakistani woman with the pretty green eyes

She said its time to choose

Too late to hide

You’ve got to choose

Choose between lies

Or you can choose truth

But you’ve got to decide which feels better

When it’s next to you

Right by your side

Gotta choose truth

Or you gotta choose lies

 

It’s been paid for in spades

And drinks at the bar

Paid for in feathers

Feathers and tar

Look out the window broken glass in the yard

You think that’s what happens when you let down your guard

But things just happen things fall apart

And not all of the king’s men have to depart

When things get dicey

There’s an open heart

Not all the king’s men have to depart

 

It’s not your husband’s move or his hired hand

He uses whips on the horses

He’s that kind of man

You pretend he whispers

So you don’t take a stand

But there are scars on the flanks

They look like fans

The horses are scared

Their eyes roll white

They ever get loose

They get loose some night

They ever get loose

They’ll be gone by light

The horses are scared

Their eyes roll white

 

The Pakistani women on the lower east side

The psychic with the pretty green eyes

Said it’s time to choose

It’s too late to hide

 

 

Boxes

 

There is a woman who puts things in boxes

Keepsakes mostly of her kids

Snapshots of gap-toothed boys and girls

Pictures and drawings they did

Trophies and ribbons

A old newspaper clip the young bride

A stack of old valentines cards

I love you is written inside

 

There’s a hat something borrowed

There’s a veil something new
There’s a bible something old
There’s a letter something blue

A letter something blue

Came on a day that turned black

A grateful nation informs you

Your first lieutenant is not coming back

 

There are valentine cards

There are valentine cards

Some flowers carefully dried

There are valentine cards

Valentine cards

I love you is written inside

 

There is a woman who puts things in boxes

Keepsakes mostly of her kids

Snapshots of gap-toothed boys and girls

Pictures and drawings they did

Trophies and ribbons

Newspaper clip a young bride

A stack of Old valentine cards

I love you is written inside

 

 

Broken Fingers

 

How long?

How long ago?

16 years

Everyday

Of course I know

Of course I know

Forget his face?

Of course I don’t

Etched like a crystal vase

 

These broken fingers

Some things don’t heal

I can’t wake up from a dream

When the dream is real

These broken fingers

 

Forget his eyes?

His silhouette?

Of course I don’t

Of course I don’t forget

There are blue eyes

A silhouette

There is a debt

A debt I don’t forget

 

How long?

How long ago?

Sixteen years every day of course I know

 

 

Days

 

Women are laughing in the kitchen

Content with the house

Content with the family,

The candles, food, friends

The music

These December days

The shortest of the year

How beautiful they are

 

Kids are playing in front of the fire

The smell of the kitchen baking bread

Fresh coffee

And for tonight cold Mexican beer

Bottles of red wine

Bottles of white wine

A beautiful table filled with food.

So cold outside but inside…

A celebration

Dinner is ready they say

Come to the table

Come

These days

How beautiful they are

 

Pretty World Recessional

Pretty eyes

Lazy Curls

Pretty World

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