poetomachia

I am a twirling center of consciousness
Bouncing your way with benevolent fury
Get out of my way!
Get out of my way!
And you’ll miss the impact.

I look at the clock
And it reminds me that the universe will end
But it forgets that it goes around
And starts again

I look at my wife
And I am amazed
How much more she is
Than the little girl I married

I look at my life
And regret my shortfall
And then I sit
And recall
And I realize
I have done my part

I look at the clock
As my friend
And I forgive him
His shortcomings
And I hug my wife
And am grateful
For all the todays
And whatever comes I know
Will come again
And be new.

Forgive
Be kind
Be nice
Rewind

Thank you for setting me straight
For showing me the path.

Thank you for pointing out my shortfalls
Thank you for lifting my fist
And wiping my face

I still enjoy your company
When you get lit
With truth

When I feel your falling
I come calling

I know just what to say
What you said to me when

You felt your words
Spelling themselves

In the forest
In the night
When your mom slept
And you dad wept
And the factory closed
And the crickets called you
Fool

The cross-town thugs have got the city

The only way out is through the middle

The waterfront is the target

The only way to it is bedlam

. . .

But bring your boots

In case it gets ugly

Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the
world
And ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl
Love ‘n’ hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands
Hands that slap his kids around ’cause they don’t understand how

Death or glory becomes just another story
Death or glory becomes just another story

‘N’ every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock ‘n’ roll
Grabs the mike to tell us he’ll die before he’s sold
But I believe in this-and it’s been tested by research
he who fucks nuns will later join the church

Death or glory becomes just another story
Death or glory becomes just another story

Fear in the down sex
they say lie low
You say ok
don’t wanna play a show
No other thinking
was it death or glory now
Playing the blues of kings
sure looks better now

Death or glory just another story
Death or glory just another story

From every dingy basement on every dingy street
every dragging handclap over every dragging beat
That’s just the beat of time-the beat that must go on
If you’ve been trying for years we already heard your song

Death or glory becomes just another story
Death or glory just another story

Gonna march a long way
Fight a long time
Get to travel over mountains
Got to travel over seas
We’re gonna fight your brother
We’re gonna fight til you lose
We’re gonna raise trouble
We’re gonna raise hell
We’re gonna fight your brother
We’re gonna raise hell

Death or glory becomes just another story
Death or glory becomes just another story

Death or glory just another story
Death or glory becomes just another story

It’s not about getting into heaven
It’s not about Holier than the next guy
It’s not about keeping the boss off my back

I’m waiting for the next piece to fall into place
Sometimes I try to shake it from the sky
But it’s not about that

And when I found I had cancer I told my family
And I grabbed my daughter by the ears
And I pulled her face in close to mine
And I told her that I wished I would live forever
And that I believed I might
But that I was not sure
But that it mattered a lot that she understand
That to live is good
And to die is inevitable
And that they are to pass on their love and their best wishes
To their own
Who would be everyone who would ever exist after them,
Stars and sand, dollars and cents
And that someday, on a distant planet
A skinny, worthless old man would sit at the end of a row of grapes
Next to the shade of an olive tree
When his heart would not keep up
And time would slow down
And the blue above would become the deep smile of a young woman
And his chest would be thick and heavy with the happiness
That comes from being immersed in a force-field of pure love
And though he would imbibe the shallowest of breaths
He would be utterly refreshed
Transported
In the sunshine

Swagger and confidence
Meet sudden incompetence
In light of the brilliance
That meets nay dominates the need of our times

The savior is fluid
Surprising and tricky
Distributing his presence in 4 dimensions
At once
Exposing the hearer and the bearer
As fools and dignitaries
In a resonant reality
Of purpose and intent
In filling the breath
In the cool of the evening
At the dawn of time