Scary Monster Teenage Blues

Well, I walked in the pouring rain
Up in the tower they're watching me hoping I'm gonna die

Pretending it's a whiz kid world
Blindfolded, chains, and they stomped on us

No athletic program, no discipline, no book
One flash of light but no smoking pistol

Silhouettes and shadows watch the revolution
The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom

And no one will have seen
and no one will confess

Shout it while you're dancing
Another piece of teenage wildlife

Not Fade Away

Well the bitter comes out better on a stolen guitar
Layin' on 'electric dreams
We've got five years, what a surprise

Of the mountain To the rooftops
With God given ass
This mellow black chick just put my spine out of place

Let the children use it
I'm back from Suffragette City
Praying to the light machine

You better hang on to yourself
Five years, that's all we've got
A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac

Like some cat from Japan, he could lick 'em by smiling
Love is careless in its choosing
Oh don't lean on me man 'cause you ain't got time to check it

A brave son, who gave his life to see the slogan
I could make a transformation as a rock 'n' roll star
Then the loud sound did seem to fade

away

Hunky Dory Requiem

Look out you Rock 'n' rollers
You've left us up to our necks in it
Look out at your children

Like the grim face on the Cathedral floor
Things that happened in the past -
All nightmares came today

Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow

In our wings that bark, sighing,
the swirl through the streets, ch-ch-changes
the writing's on the wall

Every time I though I'd got it made
Only happened in you mind
and my time was running wild

So I turned myself to face me
And of thoughts unkind
But I've never caught a glimpse

So I throw both bags down the hall
It don't feel like no bed at all
Is there life on Mars?

New Apartment

Your coordinates have changed.
Satellites twitch their antennas
confused by the new x and y.
After two more orbits
error messages cease.
They blink and purr
knowing
this is your
home.

Advice to a Barista who thinks I have an Answer

You're not just standing there
like a dead Constellation.
I see
the lost Art in your eyes,
feel the parts and pieces
that give meaning
to otherwise hum-drum
Mondays,
turn Tuesdays
into a rubies,
the Pollock, finger painting fury
that came as easy as breathing,
where will that go?
Do you know?
'Cause if you don't,
it'll fly into oblivion
like the Passenger Pigeon.
The world will crush you,
twist and turn your quirky smirks
into furtive looks and frowns.
You'll forget the quick lightness
of your being,
the unrehearsed hip twist,
slide and spin,
open-eyed, question mark
gesticulation,
"Room in your coffee?"
I get you - I do.
Please, do more
than I have done.
Daydream often.
See the beauty in foibles.
If not a mountain, climb a foot hill
now and again.
Don't wait for Deus Ex Machinas.
Wave to midnight.
Be passionate.
Be who they say you shouldn't be.
Just be. Yet,
I know,
it's so damned
hard.

The End of the Year

I find myself
alone, drifting slowly
like an Inuit
on an ice flow
away from 
familiar pin-prick lights,
curling chimney smoke,
home fires
I might not
see again.
The unknown flows like an ocean.
I ask,
Do you know?
But the stars won't speak.
There will be a time
for this and that
a time to take action
a time to swim
to a distant shore.
There will be a time.
But this isn't it.

Great Blue Heron

Watch the mirror-top,
catch what you can,
Great Blue Heron
standing on straight, re-bar,
stalks of marsh grass legs,
prehistoric, as still as the Stone Age,
waiting for silver
to dart into range,
strike without rage,
cold, spring-loaded kill,
no feeling, no meaning,
nor malice,
smooth as an arrow
slices the afternoon,
the epitome of cool,
but not too hot,
control - complete,
swallows its shiny meal
in a quick flick of beak,
masterful, succinct, savant,
finishes the flourish
on strong, sturdy wing beats,
glides out of range
into sun set mystery.