My sails are down,
the wind is high,
the waves are crashing into me –
the coal-black ocean water
...
Tell me a story, mother,
and then put me to bed.
My friends have gone to heaven, all,
...
I wrote this song with a helmet on
Standing at the bottom of the ladder of success
Ducking stray bullets, hand grenades, and napalm
And staring up a secretary’s dress
...
I have been out lurking
these past few Autumn nights
in lonesome, cobwebbed corridors
in the shadows, out of sight
...
We have built an uneasy peace, she and I
Cobbled together with semantics
And no-man’s land borders
We dare not cross
...
Do you remember window-unit nights,
and dreams of curtains floating on an ocean breeze –
some never-will-happen fantasy
that helped us through our early days?
...
We could shed these artificial clothes,
these rags we wrap around us,
and swim in an amniotic astral plane.
...
I have tossed love from open car windows,
while speeding into uncertain nights.
I have watched old lovers return to my life,
...
I’m a smoker’s lung,
torn open, bloody, and corroded,
waiting for the surgeon’s knife,
to save me, or do me in.
...
I dash between margins
and use high-minded jargon
to justify behaviors
within my own mind
...
Her armpits are hairy
her best friend's a fairy
she don't like Moe, Curly, or Larry
she likes candle wax and lithographs
...
Spiders come forth!
And don’t forget your silky ties;
it’s time to garner up the flies,
now that timeclocks have eyes.
...
When the sun comes up tomorrow
I could run away
Change my name
And seek fortune and fame
...
Under the eyes
of your gloating pride,
I strive to become a man.
...
Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nit-wit! Just because my nose glows Why don't I fit in?)
A Lighthouse
My sails are down,
the wind is high,
the waves are crashing into me –
the coal-black ocean water
is all that I can see.
My hull is bare,
my belly’s tight,
and land seems far away –
with no harbor lights to guide me
until the break of day.
Dread has crept into my thoughts,
and filled my mind with fear,
until, at once, I see a light,
faint, but crystal clear.
It quickly passes from my sight,
But then turns ‘round once more –
Its glow,
I know,
will guide me now
to a safe, familiar shore.
A lighthouse lamp has saved my ship
from the tempest’s grasp
once more.