If I Were Daniel Johnston Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Make me a drink and I’ll call
You joy:
Is that my drink,
Did you just get over the boy-
Well, well- I’m still hung-over these woods-
Well, and I’m not looking too good, well-
Brindled under the cover of a stewardess,
But maybe this drink will
Get me out of first grade hell- well:
You’re eyes are still beautiful,
And everything to believe in- you are my
Laurie, if I were Daniel Johnston-
If I were Daniel Johnston-
But Laurie never loved Daniel- She married
The mortician- and she drove around all
Spaced out in a hearse through midland cemeteries
Under the swayed backed Mick Jagger Power lines-
I’ve loved you since I colored you with
Crayons, out of lines; or, I heard you laughing well past your
Bedtime- when good girls were sleeping through
Their rows in the woods,
You were laughing, wiggling your toes- and looking
Good; but this is my own disease,
Impossible to share it with anyone else:
And I love you this way quietly on my swing-set; and on my knees,
Trying to blow out wishes through the trees,
If I were Daniel Johnston, and you my Laurie….