the big ship
we sang each other
in the school yard
who started the song
the year above i guess
who understood the words
the other singers i guess
the ones who wrote it
beyond memory
we sang it
in their memory
because who knows
what would happen
if we forgot the words
of the ending
ending who
the ending ending who
damned if it isn’t and all
there are fish in the lake
behind the dam that leaks
the waters that drive
the turbines of your heart
speak fish
mouth the damned words
the depth of feeling
reigning in the tributaries
that contribute to everything
look up
there’s no going back
this side of a thunderstorm
so sit here with me
under the spray of this rainbow’s
retroverted smile
RSVP
your postcard
a magic carpet ride
through summer’s kisses
faded plans falling
from a sky feathered with snowflakes
close the door
the fire is lit
tell me the old stories
oh yes sorry you said
and yet i feel sorry
that disbelief distorts
both the giver and taker
well i’m sorry too
intones the sun breaking
through a broken cloud
as a rain drop
proves the storm
so a tear
proves the word
the point is not to score points
the point is to stem the flow
from your bloody unremarkable
sorry
the beach boys
the beach boys
a time when lyrics took second place
to the sound of a time that
was laying down its lyrics of
time passing when it was not
you don’t believe me
then why am i so bleary eyed
sing me your song
and i’ll sing you mine
all the way back home
oh joe joe
old joe
he polished the floor
with a bumper
for he was leaded
from too much exposure
in his molten past
the floor of the lab shone
with his reminiscences
oh boy he’d been a boy alright
in his time and all that
was in the past
leaded now and gasping
rasping at his fate
but it sold
the lead and the gold
on many sarcophagi halted
for it was a bumper crop
of lives expended
it never ended
and i predict it never will
but what a shine they put on it
