Dodo Bird

Doddling dodo, the Dutch don't know
The knot in your tail is quite apropos
A Portuguese Penguin? I don't think so
Not a pigeon but a dove from long ago
Earthbound avian, aerialless auger
Would leaving you alone have been such a bother
To walk on the earth with your wiggle and saunter
Man isn't content without reaching yonder
And plucking up this and squandering that
And calling a nuisance what he's pestered, in fact
But the murder of dodo has made us react
We're now a tad slower to commence the attack

Laughing Owl

Just before it starts to rain

Laughing owl laughs again
On dark and lonely drizzly night
The laughing owl may take flight
His sound is like a barking dog
But on the rocks and in the fog
He loves to hear accordion's sound
But often thinks it's love he's found

One day man came and without a thought
Shot laughing owl on the spot
A pretty bird, so calm and gentle
He'd look handsome on my mantle!
When the clouds burst out in tears
The laughing owl had disappeared
Laughing owl, Kiwi bird
You no longer utter a single word

The Mechanical Boy

This is an ode to a mechanical boy
Who hid from the world in the way he knew how
When flesh and bone could bring him no joy
And being a boy was too hard, too hard

Here he is standing in a room, and within
When no one is watching we see how he changes
Slowly the skin is no longer his skin
And where once there were fingers now a wire dangles

With each minute passing, his flesh growing tougher
It appears that his arms will no longer function
He watches and waits, with no desire to suffer
And so they come off with tubes to replace them

The doctors stand by with their mouths all agaping
They can't understand the boy's transformation
They can't see the heart now is no longer beating
For there in its place is a standard transmission

Each day observe how the boy turns to metal
And each night his organs transmute into parts
That work so that he doesn't feel but a little
And keep what is fragile from falling apart

In My Studio

I gaze down the lip
Of an empty bottle
I guess I've learned
Something from this
But what is it...?
And I stare at his hands
So far away
Around her waist
And it's cold in here
In my studio

There is nothing
I wouldn't do
For him

So I play my guitar
And the words
Empty my soul
It's plain to me
What has happened
Mmmm...
But I still wait
And I still listen
For the telephone
And I hate to admit
I'm still crying over it.

There is nothing
I wouldn't give
To him

12/13/10

Raising the Flag So High You Can't Reach It

He’s got me wrapped around his finger without even trying or caring to --his movements memorizing me as he walks about in his ways, with closeless closeness, standing nearby as he talks to me, always at arms length as I approach,

a tenderness that’s neither missing nor present, making me jealous when he’s away, causing me to question everything about myself, I drop everything for the smallest request, yet demanding nothing and imposing always, I will bend over backwards at his beck and call,

going into debt to feed him, waiting at night in case he comes calling, checking my phone for his texts during the day, trying to make plans and not be disappointed if he doesn’t come through, granting him every concession and expecting nothing of him

when he returns my favor it is the sweetest thing to me, the most honest and wonderful gift to be offered a ride or a bunch of bananas from the grocer, and still i am

impossibly situated between love, friendship, and hatred; he can’t love me and i can’t love him, because despite the time we have spent together at the courts or on the sofa I do not exist to him beyond being a cup of tea or a dvd or a stax record

yet I still rest my thoughts on him, smiling, laughing, thinking about his words, like when he follows me from room to room telling me stories as I get ready in the morning and I leave the house feeling completely elated, that nothing could go wrong for me

until i dread the inevitable time when we won’t have this, this, what we have, this friendship, this immaterial thing that is binding me to him and meaning nothing at all

am i flesh and blood or just a ghost helping him along, making him tea?

The Candy That Makes Kisses Sweet

You're the rainstorm that makes this willow weep
You're the dancing that moves inside these feet
You're the love that makes my life complete
You are the song that I program to repeat
You are the dream that lures me off to sleep
You're the rhythm that causes every beat

And you're the candy makes kisses sweet

A Song I Wrote On the Banjo

I see the sailor come
from my hillside sojourn
He bears just one pack
Carried on his shoulder

He is a handsome man
But I do not love him
He wants to carry me
Forward to the altar

He's come to marry me on a misty morning
He's come to marry me in the Month of May

Tell him that I'm not home
And I don't want to see him
Tell him my heart is broke
From when he chose to leave me


He's come to marry me on a misty morning
He's come to marry me in the Month of May

Tell him that my folks are gone
And he did not console me
Tell him that the landlord come
And put me out of my home

He's come to marry me on a misty morning
He's come to marry me in the Month of May

What is it

What is it?
I can't tell
Like falling down a well
And sliding into hell
Is it me?
Or is it you?
That breaks this thing in two
That puts the past in view
Is it love?
Or is it lonliness?
It used to be our best
But now it's just indifference

I wrote this song for my banjo teacher, Rick Neeley, who passed away

Last time I saw
you I was too
busy to talk
How many times
Did I pass you by
And not meet your eye
Now I will only
Frail like you taught me
I'll think of you
Where did it go?
I needed a chance
To say hello
Now it's too late
But I just learned
We are the same
End of the road
For some just the start
You left a song in my heart

Walking real slow
I find you asleep in the meadow
Here is my head
It's right on my pillow asleep in my bed
Down on the path
There's nothing to hear but a laugh
Caught in my mouth
Against the things I am thinking about
Next to my room
I question the space of my tomb
What's for me here?
A skin left behind me as I disappear
How can I find
The very things I've left behind
Hidden from sight
And precious to those unaware of my flight
Simple to know
And hard to contain what the words do not show
How to compare
The beauty of wisdom with you standing there
Inside my room
I feel the cold walls of my tomb
What I am here
Resembles existence when I disappear