For My Friend, J.W.B.

They say the hell we have
is the hell we make.
I say our only fire
is the bread they take;
slavery didn't end in '65,
it breaths today
it is still alive.

To Teetotalers, Go To Hell

Eleven empty bottles
sitting on my window seal;
The ghost of you still haunts me,
i think it always will.

Ale

third one down fast,
enjoy the drink you're havin',
it could be your last.

In the fields outside the kingdom walls

In the fields outside the kingdom walls
there is grain as golden as the skies of heaven,
green grasses, rippling brooks laughing at men,
proud at what they think they do.

Tilling, irrigation, plowing, harvesting,
sloughing, milling, grinding, baking.
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
i am a man who forgot i do nothing,
even though i do everything.

cut back, plant - the secret efforts of
a dying pawn. i never forgot the fields
outside the kingdom walls were as much kingdom
as the stately structures inside the walls.
i forgot my place, maybe not even forgetfullness,

maybe i had divine indifference, maybe a pharoh's
heart. i ignored the lillies of the field,
those falling sparrows, i said "Your clothes are
not as splendid as mine, you are not as strong as i."
to the tortise i said "You are not as smart as i."

nothing as i. nothing as i. in the fields outside
the kingdom walls i wore the badge, nothing as i.
i come with empty hands, the day of destruction
is closer than i think. it feeds like an angry owl.

there is beauty in the fields outstide the walls,
and the beauty is the kings, but like destruction
the king remains unseen, a ghost walker among
his people and his lands. and the owl flys at night.

i can not release my hand from the sickle,
it is on the golden wheat in seconds, the song
of the thrash in the afternoon glory. and as the
darkness rolls in i lay down in the cleared grass.

i put myself in the clearing like a slaughtered
lamb, as still as possible, blood on my hands,
blood on my throat. all i know is i am nothing
in the fields outside the kingdom walls.

i Ain't Got No Socks

i ain't wearin' socks right now
my bare feet in my shoes makes me
think of summer. it don't just make me
think of summer, it makes me long for
summer. it's only two weeks passed away
but i already want it, always what i
don't got. i always want what i don't got.
but wanting summer is deeper, it is like
a sickness inside me. fall is wonderful
don't get me wrong, i have wanted it ever
since it ended last year. there's a pain
in my head. my right eye hurts like sin.
i think of the switchblades of summer,
soon to be traded for snow shovels. i
guess my words will be changin' too.
how i tell people about things, it ain't
never normal. sometimes i think bad things
about people, i don't mean to, i just do.
i don't mean the things i do, i do little
little things all the time that are bad.
don't worry though, i can't get to you,
you hide yourself away. you run and hide
like i do, i wonder if i did that to you.
i wonder if i broke you, if being broken
on the wheels of living is what i have done
to you, like i have done to myself. i don't
like the Fall right now. it makes me scared,
makes my legs shake, causes me to sleep a lot
to keep my hands at bay. The Fall is bad
medicine to me right now, and the only good
medicine is summer, it is illegal, it won't
come around to me. i am scared of my doctor,
he doesn't like me, doesn't think the fears
i have are real. i would love to and not to
show him, one day, just for one, but no one
should have the leg shakes and the right
eye that hurts like sin. gone all summer,
those dangers in the back of my throat, me not
speaking, me not living, not tellin' the
truth. It makes me ashamed and scared for you,
i don't think you should be afraid, i would
cut my own hands and feet off before it
happens bad, but keep a warry eye and know
when to hand me the saw. oh, it hurts, i
don't know what is worse my mind or my
body. it's all a little more quiet now.

i ain't got no socks on right now, it makes
me think of summer. God i want summer so bad
please give me another summer.