MUSINGS
FROM THE RESTAURANT There was darkness
in the twilight
When I came in from the cold
Put my boots upon the table
I
had a tale that had to be told Seems all I
recall are faces
They all blend together slow
That fellow I met yesterday
That
child with eyes aglow That scribe with blood
for ink
That bride with tears of woe
That woman with eyes of glass
That
angel at the fashion show That common girl
that danced
Her jig upon the street
Too shy to remove her eyes
From her
shuffling feet Or that pretty young lady
Whose
life had gone amiss
I felt more love seeing her 20 feet away
Than in the
deepest kiss And she's furtive with replies
My
heart she does deny
I slip-write in my journal
"Oh, someday she will
be mine" But the man she loves says
"What
are you doing around this joint?"
He cries, "Get with it son!"
With
an exclamation point
CAR
WRECK
Life was going well
Things
were starting to turn around
Seemed that fortune was smiling on me
I was
starting to get my projects off the ground
But
the pendulum swings both ways
It's hard to remember when you're up There
it went, my car and my fortune
I'm lucky to have saved my neck
But now I'm
stuck with the jitters in my gut
And the business of that damn car wreck
FAITH
All you Protestants
You're
rejecting me
You deny indulgences
Of the cult of the Virgin Mary
Have
some faith
Let's make a contract
Let's make it your exclusive
Will and
testament I have faith that the sun
Is always
going to rise
But in the darkness
I place no stock in the wise
EARLY REVERIE It
was a fine time we all had the other night
We made so many mysteries make sense
Your
lady just seemed to dance upon the fence But
it's all in a night's play and it's all productive
We're gonna get somewhere
with this attitude
I was happily consumed in self
Till you took the book
off of my shelf
And started tellin' me what I can do while in the nude He
was tellin' me how Marx
Had marbled into his brain
How he couldn't handle
change or its strain
I told him to open his ears
And drink a little whiskey
and cheer
And think of tonight as one big refrain
BUS
STATION, MANHATTAN
Waiting at the bus station
Wondering
if the bus will arrive
I feel ordinary and hot
As the cars roll on by I
heard a whistle from across the way
From a short-haired, black-clad girl
She
wants a cigarette, please?
But I've got nothing for her She
smiles and says thanks anyways
And her bus comes rushin' on up
She hops
on and is gone in a flash
But she's going the opposite way Where
are you going dear?
Why in such a rush?
Anywhere you want to go, I'll take
you
We'll meet at the edge of town, near dusk Car
by car they're all zippin' by
Where could all these people be going
To me
it's just the shine of the chrome
And they eyes that fly by of people I don't
know I am hearing bells chiming off in the
distance
And my knees are beginning to get weak
The vacancy lights of the
closest hotel
Call to me with as they blink, so I retreat
UNCLE
OLD EYES Do you want to be a Kung-Fu
fighter?
Yes, of course I do
Do you want to be a movie star?
Yes, sure
I do
A writer, a critic, a learned man
A wheeler, a dealer, a politician?
Yes,
I want them all
Uncle old-eyes use to pat me on the head
And say, "What'll
ever become of you?"
"You are so young and so gifted"
If
he only knew
HOLD
ON TO YOUR HAT
I rolled through Albuquerque
My thoughts were
confused and murky
My love light was directed by quirky,
Giggling and underdressed
girls Hold on to your hat mama
I'm gonna
take you for a ride
You've been too pensive lately
You've got to let a few
things slide Hold on to your hat mama
We're
gonna stare death in the eyes
You've been thinkin' about your last days too
much
You've got to let that soul be free and rise You
used to be so much brighter
When you thought death held something for you
Now
you think it'll just be cold and dark
And void of the flawed, earthly things
you knew You once thought you were broken
Now
you think it doesn't matter either way
We're not sinners or saints, so why
should we paint
Ourselves to be martyrs in this green bay
ENCHANTING
NIGHT The night descends slowly
When
you're nobody at all
You can wander through backstreets
In silence, making
sense of it all Walkin' down the built up streets
Lookin'
through all of those windows
All of those curious creatures
And strange
smells playin' with your nose Make me want
to stay outside for now
Out in the cold is where I'll doze
Give me a bottle
of red and gold
I think I could handle it now I'm
arranging this enchanting night MAIDENS
IN KEY WEST
I have three young, ebullient maidens
Spinning
through the chambers of my mind
Laughing on the sandy beach
Where the tide
accents their movements in time Down at Key
West those pale beauties are clear
Flickering bronze then black then clear
as the tear
That slides down wanton cheeks and ripples here
Where I'm holding
onto their thin veneer All those dreamy, dripping
damsels
They're coloring the walls with their design
Making sense of tinted
distances
And riding on the waves of each new rhyme
FISHING
HAT You know being good
Doesn't
always come easy to me
But I've had some fine times,
Done the right things,
managed to feel free But you are standing fearless
Weaving
your viscous words like an ornate tapestry
And from behind your icy eyes
I
can see you cryin', sayin', "Someone take care of me" So
hold on to your fishing hat
And we will head out to the coast
WATER, FREEDOM
It always seemed to you
That days and nights would never fail
To lead you
from your worries
And blow some wind into your sail Till
you're an old man riding wayward
On the seas of blue and white, they prevail
And
leave you on the ocean floor
With pearly eyes, crying out, "No more!" I
saw three mermaids singing on the coast
This was on last Sunday eve
My longtime
friend and I wondered
If those women ever grieve Well,
I'm sinking into the sound
As the sunlight starts to weave
Into the water,
there's no definition
Between the beach and the blackened sea There's
no place on the land
That has the quality of the water
A body I can jump
right into
And be allowed to fall free
JUG
BANDS Quiet now, words can't help
us
These days are helmed by pilots Pull
up a chair
Let the music take you away
Let down your hair
Let the stream
of people sway Let those piano pickers play
Let
your blues get washed away If your life was
like a drop
Of dew upon your window pane
Oh, seldom would you worry
About
it dripping down the drain Watch the drain
pipe shakin'
To the sound
Of those jug bands bouncin'
Up and down Listen
to the harmony
Let your blues get washed away It
sold cold, dear, in those backrooms
But our here the air is warm and light
So
beat that drum, babe, play that harp
Step out into the mystic night The
piano player's are swayin' to and fro
Feelin' the whiskey, it's lettin' him
let go
IN FULL
BLOOM You asked if I had captured
All
of life within one cup
If my days were becoming
Something worth measuring Well,
it seems to me it's been
Like sunlight on a window pane
You in from the
outside
With the sun bursting behind You
watch with diffidence
As the glass illuminates the fine
Little streams
of the glass
It seems lovely and strange And
all of life seems but a
Reflection that needs to be arranged
On a window,
place in front
With the sun bursting behind Turning
through the glass
In strides to refine the time
Many days I've sat on afternoons
Sinking
in those streams of sweet perfume Listening
to people come and go
And the sunlight weaves into the room
Across your
face it suddenly seems
That your are completely in season Don't
wonder if we're getting too old
For misfit nights beneath the moon
Not when
eyes are wide, shoreline hides the tide
And it seems for the moment that we're
in full bloom
EYES
MEET EYES Eyes meet eyes - come
closer
Your dress is white and brown
Your golden skin is shining
As light
weaves into your gown In the backrooms people
move
And the women come and go
And the wine pours quickly
Turning into
each glass And your eyes turn swiftly
Toward
the other patrons
Why don't your pretty eyes
Turn over towards me? I
have lingered with the poets
On the edges of the room
While the women come
and go
Accompanied by perfume Doesn't tonight
look white?
Doesn't tonight look blue?
Can you see how this night
Could
be split right into two? There are four stragglers
Walking
just behind me
And they look remarkably
The way we used to They
smell the grass
They notice the way
The sky is green and blue
And they
wish to refine Themselves, so as to become
Men
of life, men of wine
To attract the gaze of women
With the eyes so divine And
the jazz band looms
As the women swoon
And I tell the maestro
Play this
tune for June! For in this quaint, supple June
I
shall at last have my noon
But the maestro says he cannot play
A tune for
June, for my soft noon No, the cornet does
not play for me
It plays not for you, not for wine
Not for the sky or for
the stragglers
And I cannot ask these things of it I
cannot ask the jazz to form its rhythm
To a night like this - sad and forlorn
And
ragged amidst the turning streams
Of perfumed sighs and cocktail dreams No,
the band will play a tune for a place
The is far away and wandering, like the
stars
Not what we see here, not what is here now
And we'll only know it
from afar
GIVE
ME TONIGHT IN A CUP
Give me tonight in a cup
And I will soak
it in slow
It would sink in and lift
My heart and humor up Yesterday
I dreamt of you
Your teeth were white
Your hair was cold
Your hands were
cold Your came through my door
Moving in
from the night
Do you remember
How we walked without light When
the sky looked as it did?
When you were just a kid?
Or rather how it looked
in books
In those fairy tales The books
you ultimately rid
From your vast collection
Once you felt about as old
As
you'd been told you were | 
