RNC

not the republican national convention, or
royal canadian.  Just cold deep dish pizza
and a beer in the fridge.

You Take The Young

I've drank poison to thicken my soles
beat a verdict that drove old men cold
I don't believe in a thing I'm told
You take the young and i'll take the old

Why Are You Drinking in Bed

Why are you drinking in bed?
The house is still a mess
The children haven't been fed
There's a chill in the air
and the furnace is dead
Don't lie to me darlin'
why are you drinking in bed?

Down in this hollow there's a hum underground
and the voices are churning, but they don't make a sound
they're just lying there dormant like the green underground
waiting for something to pull them out

Why are you drinking in bed?
The house is still a mess
The children haven't been fed
There's a hole in the roof
and the rains have set in
Don't lie to me darlin'
why are you drinking in bed?

Yesterday's worth is a borrowed dime
And tomorrow is coming and the factory lines
Are still churning out sorrow, like they have for all time
Don't lie to me darlin' at least not this time.

Why are you drinking in bed?
The house is still a mess
The children haven't been fed
There's a chill in the air
and the furnace is dead
Don't lie to me darlin'
why are you drinking in bed?

Image Imagined

white glare of the tractor trailer left back
of the parking lot half a mile wide and down the street.
cut through cold and ice, and wind blows. windows
shudder and click the still, latent simulacrum. hum
and crack the floor with your footstep

it's dark and the clouds cover everything below
and above heaven.  the glass huts that stand
stranded on the streets and left like leaves between
the sidewalk and the road
behind.

Hotter N Hell

It was hotter n hell on the side of the road
the sound of the radio cut through the smoke
on the overpass burning the windows stuck up
it wasn't an accident more than bad luck

it was all of them fast nights
stacked up like windows
choked out by high rises
dark clouds and funerals
and I can't go on like the heart doesn't matter
but it doesn't matter, no it doesn't matter

It was late in the parking lot
we were drunk so we stayed there and talked
and when we left we left alone


It was darker than death at the end of the day
I stood by your side til they filled in your grave
With the dirt of a lifetime, sins washing away
Caught up on the wind I could hear people say

it was all of them fast nights
stacked up like windows
choked out by high rises
dark clouds and funerals
and I can't go on like the heart doesn't matter
but it doesn't matter, no it doesn't matter

It was late in the parking lot
we were drunk so we stayed there and talked
and when we left we left alone

A Long Way

I smoked 3 packs of cigarettes since I left Blacksburg
Had 2 pots of coffee with that roadside waitress girl
Rained all the way, clear on past Pontchartrain
But I never thought about turning around

Stopped for the night, when I reached New Orleans
Old Bourbon St. was shining like some cheap-ass dime store ring
And as daylight fell upon it, I was westward bound
with no money in my pocket and my head a-hanging down

It's a long long road down to galveston
when you're running on the rims my friend
I tried to leave, but I went back again
It's a long long road to Galveston

Don't know if I ever got there and if so how I got out
There's a lot of ways a man can hide himself and still be found
There's miles of roads behind me could be millions more ahead
If I keep the pedal to the floorboard and the music in my head

It's a long long road down to galveston
when you're running on the rims my friend
I tried to leave, but I went back again
It's a long long road to Galveston

Came to back where I started, passed the Johnson County line
My hands were sweaty on the wheel, Kansas City just behind
Burned through my last cigarette rolled up the windows
the skies were getting heavy it had started snow

dang

Musta been a million miles
to the sunset last night
dark clouds piled
from skyline to skyline
and I harmonized with the thunderheads
made my bed, and lied in it.

Now I'm waking to a black night
stars shine, but I don't see em
frost forms by the open window
and I breathe fog into the air
I wish the fires burned brighter
up in heaven.