Moving Day (Part 3: 4 Minutes Remaining)

stole a final moment
on a library machine

counting down the minutes
until I'm finally in the Springs

everything is packed
everything is loaded

time
so soon
for a flight
to the new-fangled
saloon

Moving Day (Part 2: An Anticipation)

It's when you
forget what you've remembered
that you know
you're moving on
and there's no longer
a way to pretend
otherwise.

I thought maybe I'd have
other things to say
about it
but no
that's basically it

Next time
will be a
next chapter
a new day and
a new way
but the same
poet the same
song the same
dull eyes
through which
this world has seemed
so full, where
we believe
and are affirmed

once again

A Dendrochronology

The truth of it is,
only until you kill it
do you know the tree's
history

You can argue this point
say you looked at one
that was already dead
or brought down
for other reasons

But the truth of it is,
you've performed an autopsy
which are things
that are only good
to diagnose a talking point

What did you find out
except that this tree had
experienced things
before it died?

Stick your head
out from under the pile of data
and have a look at
all the rest of the evidence
and then tell me
if you can still support
a claim that suggests we've ruined a planet
in a relative handful of years
when before that time
the patterns
of global catastrophe
still held

Then I want you to admit
that we have a greater problem
at hand
a far more familiar one
in that we support our own egos
far greater than we do a planet

This planet don't need us

And I think that's
what really concerns you
because assuming we're going
to ruin it
is got to be your biggest joke

Take a bow!

And then take your seat again
and realize
that if you don't stop
taking yourself so seriously
the world is not going to
goo-goo-ga-choo!
end

But
in the end
we've got to get that message home
so we slap on those caps anyway,
gollums with their quests
that prove amusing
because they're never
the last ones
in line

Moving Day (Part 1)

Catch as catch can
if you can can
catch what I'm sayin'

who woulda
said about the
world's best secret
that it never shoulda
been exposed?

All these words that float around
are caught and caged for fun
as if that's what they were always made for.
It doesn't always seem that way
but that's what they'll tell you
so it ends up feeling better
and the guilt can be chased away
like it was never there
and all your life's dreams
will float on by
ahead of you.

October is the month of...

aberrations
transformations
separations
constipations
declarations
jubilations

but of the variety
only October can produce

ping pong

down the long
zing zang
released the gang
ding dung
take what you brung

trapped in the middle
nowhere to go
climbing all day
still haven't moved
traveling for weeks
with days left to go

ping pong
down the long road
released by the gang
take what you brung
and follow me follow me follow me
until I find out where to be

because that still hasn't gotten clear
even with all the things that clicked recently

ping pong
ping pong

I'm doing things
making vows
that were never meant to be
changing faces
stealing time
and still I'm all over me
and without a single clue
farther from you
with words I never should have had
because that's what I've always said

ping pong
ping pong

and my, how it's been so sad

I think I'm starting to forget

about you...

It was as if a part of me had been stolen...

and I had agreed to let them take it,
that's what it felt like,
the last few days,
first when I left my job,
and then when I left my home,
and I hadn't been expecting it either time.
I don't think it makes sense,
but that's probably what it should be like.

Last Day For Some

It's weird
how today wasn't
my last day,
but that it was
for some people.

Ask me again tomorrow.
But, do it on Monday.

Wired (and then some)

I'll bet I could make
a living on the thoughts
that go through my head.

That's no boast,
and it has nothing to do
with my creative writing.

But then, the two go
hand-in-hand,
so will I, at some point.

The Last Four Days in Musical Mystery Tours

Saw the movie on Saturday,
the one they said was trite,
listened to the covers
the colleague said were bad

Saw the video today,
the one that made them big,
found out how they looked
when everyone was watching

Across the wanna be with you?

I figured out the four of them
after they'd become so huge,
realized there was so much to do,
and most of it was only going to tear them apart,
bring about the end of the best music in town

The name of the other band became
what was known all about,
the curse and the blessing
and some of the best music in town

And everyone forgot
forgot
forgot
forgot
about the best music in town

Read about the Rutles,
read about John Cleese,
read about the history,
read about the man who once claimed
he wasn't funny

Read about the Watchmen,
read about the 52,
read about the story,
and the characters taken out
and all but forgotten

The bands and the music and the culture
we can't leave behind, but can you imagine
the day we'll have to? When the music
and the culture will have to decide
they can take over? Then where will we be?

Across the wanna be with you
and all the funny jokes they played

With Nothing

but the thought of you

I am wandering
and wondering
and risking
and, as my mom has always done,
worrying

What Do You Really Think?

What do you really think?
What do you really think?

I've been thinking about it
since the day you went away

and haven't stopped thinking it since.

What do you really think?
What do you really think?

Have I been a coward all this time
never asking you what you think

because I've feared the answer?

What do you really think?
What do you really think?

I've thought that I've known
I've thought that I've known

and the thought has changed from this way to that.

What do you really think?
What do you really think?

Would it have been so crass to ask?
And when do you know it's been your last chance

before you find out it was too late?

What do you really think?
What do you really think?

I Don't Expect You To Read This

And even if you do,
to care, because
that has been my
experience,
to be
experienced,
and for people
not to care. That
is the true story
of my life.
It's fitting
that I am
a poet.

Move Ae

Get the move ae
Get the move ae

Move ae
Move ae

Do you get what I say?
Do you get it?

I want it to stay ae
I want it to stay ae

But I know that it won't
But I know that it won't

Even though I hope that it will
Even though I hope that it will

In some small way ae
In some small way

Move ae?
Move

Move, yo, move

Like a river
So go cry me one,

Break the crystal ball ae
And tell me what you see

Because I think that you know
I think that you know

And that's all I've ever needed
ae ae ae ae ae

Don't Fuck With This Poem

Don't [ ] with this poem
[ ] fuck with this poem
Don't fuck with this [ ]
Don't fuck [ ] this poem
Don't fuck with [ ] poem

Elapses

Every-
one
says
how
short
life
is
but
I
have
never
known
what
they
were
talk-
ing
about.
I
see
time
as
some-
thing
that
takes
its
time
(that's
the
phrase,
right?
for
a
reason?)
because
it
needs
its
time
and
you
need
the
time
so
that
when
it's
time
everything can happen when you've made it happen and then and only then can life seem fast, out of control and suddenly like everything's happening!

My Self-Destruction

would look like a sitcom
from some objective view

and sometimes my own. I have
a problem keeping things
straight, knowing who I'm
supposed to be angry with
how to react. I can't help it
I like people and I hate them
and love and hate and love and hate.

Does that make any sense? Like I
said, it plays like a sitcom
and not just because I'm
so darn hilarious
but because of the tragedy
of it all, the sheer
hijinks.

Hey, if I can
use the word
hijinks
you know my life
is really that bad.

Springs

Would you really expect
the answer to your most pertinent question
to have "Springs" in it?
Who would
believe you?

Farewell Tour

people I have known
stars that may have shown

a second poem of some alacrity (the les crappe mix)

knowledge you didn't think you had

I Write/Thought Fusion

Here was the thing...

In that world
I was a citizen

In that world,
I was known

as I had always known,
as I always knew,
I knew I knew

In that world,
I don't know now

because I was ejected,
things I knew were done
and still are,
but as you know,
and as you know
I didn't

That's what I know,
not just

In that world
I still know

but cannot see