lyrics start in battered couplets,
dancers dance in threadbare doublets.
reasons by the hundred for the not,
with the snow on the ground, sneeze and snot.
all the loves I’ve loved are paired and knotted,
while I write tomes on old carpentry desk,
references and traces cast to either side,
mountains I dare not clear away.
then there’s that candy store draw,
the window shop appeal of it all,
in tired lack-metered couplets.
In composition, this would be where the bridge comes in:
In programing, I’d call this a while-loop:
In bussing, I’d call this a slow six-top:
In grounds maintenance, it’s a rained out day:
In theatre, it’s a good emotion to draw from;
pure plinking piano, purloined perfectly past perfection;
that constant looming guard standing over everything.
with a swell the strings strike,
and quick the percussive pound and quake,
that wedding march melody minor and down-tempo,
if it ain’t jealousy, it’s guilt,
the what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-me.
but I never loved them, they never loved me,
not enough, not the way it had to be.
There’s still hope in old winter windings,
there’s still draw in these illegible scrawls.
I should be happy for them,
I am.
I’ve just got this gut-drop gnaw,
‘n one of them down-spins goin’ strong.
but there’s always the bottom out love,
‘n the devil-may-care of the devil-may-take,
has always spiked your heart-rate.
ain’t that, ain’t that the case?
ain’t that the race we’re runnin’,
the song we’re strummin’?
with lyrics in battered couplets,
‘n dancers in threadbare doublets,
I’m writing love songs overshadowed,
and…
I read them to myself.
[or aloud to microphone,
going home
going home
been west,
go east,
hope in the sunrise,
dreams in the compass’ rose,
get on to the gettin’ on,
dredge out this droop.
drink up, drop out,
drive on.]
17 hours on a train to east-coast shores,
a trip set from storybooks and whistles,
straight out of pages of youth younger than I.
There’s no better hidden in it,
but there’s something all the same.
Old jokes and familial laughter.
Hearth warm stories–
–life loved memories.
