America
I can feel your hands reach into me
the breathe & scent of your queer geography
the wild tribes who are guarding your door
the secret sands that have slept on the floor of your sea.
You – would you ever think of me?
Think of me & the shape of my body
the stone walls that I kicked down to be with you
the wild mountains for which i was named.
Your poison I drink like a tonic it strengthens me
The strange fire of your breath on my body
America, would you please consider me?
and the southern birds will sing again with me
and the blood that fell will rise again in me
and if I have comrades at all we will meet on the shore
of the cities & towns that have fallen to the floor of the sea
and the ancient hands with fall again on to me.
Year by year on his way to the Southern Sea
through the river’s bend & the curl of the willow tree
the village, the children, the dogs even stare at him
their eyes are like thorns how they rip & tear into him
his blood spills like a pearl & like a seed
Oh, fisherman you can lay your hands on me.
Call to me & the shape of my body
the stone walls that I kicked down to be with you
the wild mountains for which I was named.
Your poison I drink- like a tonic it strengthens me.
the strange fire of your breath on my body
Oh, fisherman would you please consider me?
and America will fall like a man onto me
and America will fall like a man onto me
Made Love to my Father
bandage on my eye
sun shines on the barrell of my gun
& the blood on my hands is dry
today i turn thirteen
i’m pretty strong but i ain’t that old
& they call me brave cause the truth be told
the very youngest in the calvary…
hey hey little boy blue
get over here we got something for you
the shiniest gun that you’ve ever seen
all the men are squinting in the sun
& they’re knocking the flies away
they treat me kind & they pat me on the head
& i think i’m gonna die today…
i made love to my father & now I must pay…
my horse i named him Queen
he does whatever i tell him to
tho he’s four times bigger than me
sun shines on grass of green
i watch the sun rise up in the sky
and the time slip away from me
hey hey little blue boy
i’m gonna show you something today
bite down on your finger son cause you’re gonna be a man today
childhood skips after the sun
thru the checkerboard of the sky
blue tears welling up in my eyes
& i think i’m getting ready to die…
i made love to my father & now i must pay…
a rabbit sits on my shoulder
& he sometimes talks to me
i do whatever he tells me to
tho he’s four times smaller than me
bugle splits the sky
drum beat pounds up thru the earth &
the men get ready to die
canon splits the sky
sun leaps up over my head
& it pours in through my eye
hey hey little boy blue
you’ve got a daddy up in the sky
he’s up there waiting for you
with his hand stretched down from the sky
guns unzip the gates of hell
but it seems much different to me
blood shines & peals like a bell
that’s how it seems to me
three clouds drift like kings
thru the checkerboard of the sky
they look so soft to me
that my heart begins to cry
i made love to my father & now i must pay…
3 Feather Man
We were sitting together on the front porch swing
You started talking about everything
Like how the white man stole your land away
And I felt in my heart like I was to blame
Like it was my fault, and I felt this shame
And then I felt your feathers tickle me
We were sitting on the porch drinking lemonade
Both wearing sneakers that were Nike made
When I first felt your feathers tickle me
Well I thought it must have been the wind on my shoe
Till I first caught sight of your big canoe
Moving slowly through those waters towards me
And though I aint been good, I could start tomorrow
Won’t cause nobody no more sorrow
Just please sir take your feathers off of me
Just take that green feather off my thigh
That red feather off my eye
Just pull your yellow feather out of me
It felt like running through the woods at night
I could feel your breath but their was nothing in sight
I could feel my soul just running away to die
Your skin was sticky but it wasn’t red
Your three feathers lined up in my head.
As three feather man came slowly over me
Like curdled milk in a broken vase
A dead white man without a face
I could see that crooked finger point to me
Put that green feather on my thigh
That red feather on my eye
Put that yellow feather into me
It don’t mean nothing that you spared my life
When it aint worth nothing now since that night
Cause Jesus saw your feathers touching me
Yeah God was watching from his star-lit sky
Staring me down with that humongous eye
And I know God wont be forgiving me
And I know I’ m deserving of all this and more
Dirtier than dirt more down than a floor
But Three Feather Man I’m begging you for mercy
Just take your green feather off my thigh
That red feather off my eye
Just pull that yellow feather out of me
Mikael
Mikael, Mikael, be by my side
to grip my arm when i would hide
to lick my tongue to lay the blame
to take my hand to pull its frightened flesh into the flame
Where are we from why are we hear?
What could we lose? What could we fear?
What can we take? What can we win?
What stays behind, what makes us want to walk this road again?
Ribbon, ribbon your job is this
to tell the world that i exist
to tell the world that i am here
the one they love
the one they will soon learn to never fear
You slide your hands between my thighs
you spread my legs you watch my eyes
you place your tongue inside; i let you in
you leave my house & still i know that you’ll be back again
Father Father your lonely child
so touched by other worlds so cold & wild
your flame your flame i took it in
i spoke my name & now the whole world knows where i begin
Crystalline Flame
You were a frog in a bucket of fish.
You were a dog with your head in a dish full of worms-
every single one full of germs.
You owned a small house and a piece of the press.
You tried to keep yourself tidy and dressed like the teens
you’d read about in men’s magazines.
Drumming on your fingers as you stare in my eyes
Sending out vibrations with the gigantic size of your ass
Sitting on a chair made of glass. No! If you wanted to come you gotta call!
If you wanted to die you gotta fall from somewhere high,
not just lay down and cry!
Go! To where the other people look like you!
Or if Earth is the place where they do, I took a wrong turn
somewhere, cause I’d never want to make love to You.
You’re just a meat eating rhino I guess.
You don’t gotta worry if you make a small mess on your chin.
Cause no one’s gonna ask where you been.
You know you live in a land with no flame.
You can take the bait and just lay all the blame on your friends.
Or blame it on the tiger within.
Lining up the ladies like pink bowling pins
Knocking down their bodies with two balls made of skin
But what for? Just to hang a piece of lace on your door?
No! If you wanted to come you gotta call!
If you wanted to die you gotta fall from somewhere high
not just lay down and cry!
Go! To where the other people look like you!
Or if Earth is the place where they do, I took a wrong turn
somewhere, cause I’d never want to make love to you.
You touched the very farthest edge of my shirt.
You spent a lifetime learning how to hurt deep inside
So a lady’s gotta chase you to retrieve her pride.
But I can take a nick and a few little cuts.
It aint’ gonna turn me to a desperate mutt, cause I heal!
I gotta crystalline flame and it’s real!
So press onto my body with your sensual weight
Search me with your hands to find the sensual gate of my heart
Shining with the pink light of art!
No! If you wanted to come you gotta call!
If you wanted to die you gotta fall from somewhere high
not just lay down and cry!
Go! To where the other people look like you!
Or if Earth is the place where they do, I took a wrong turn
somewhere, cause I’d never want to make love to you.
The Old World
Well i’m walking this road with mud on my shoes
& the coats of the men are clean
& their pockets are filled with pennies
& their ladies laugh at me
& i’m cheered by the way the birds show off
& the flags that blow against the wind
but every time i cross a man
i start shaking in my boots again.
good lord! good lord!
i want someone to kiss me, take off my clothes
make love to me, i don’t know
good lord! good lord!
well this place aint much like the old world
it don’t seem much like the old world
three big men, they corner me:
we got a bone to pick with you
your numbers they just don’t add up
& your wings is stained with glue
& the good guys don’t wear no funny clothes
& the honest guys don’t rhyme
& the pure of heart they hide their light
& the innocent don’t shine
& the truth it looks a bit like us
& common sense is where we stand
& the farthest point our eyes can see
is the farthest point of this land
good lord! good lord!
i want someone to kiss me, take off my clothes
make love to me, i don’t know
good lord! good lord!
well this place aint much like the old world
it don’t seem much like the old world
my tongue is tired & defeated
it don’t wanna speak no more
i just wanna bury my head in my hands
& slouch way down on the floor
but then i think of that long lost day
when I sat in a field with you
you said, beautiful day, beautiful child
i wanna give my life to you
so you slit your wrists & the blood poured out
& we watched a thousand roses bloom
then i kissed you till the flesh turned back
like a baby soft & new
good lord! sweet lord!
well this place aint much like the old world
it don’t look much like the old world
Fancy & Soldier
Silver haired soldier, your age and your beauty
your grey uniform speaks to me.
Skipping behind you, I’m leaping to find you
and every step you take demands of me three.
The sky is so pretty, as big as a bluebird,
whose wings have uncurled to uncover three clouds.
But your eyes see nothing, they’re sleeping like babies
nestled like birds in the fur of your brows.
Oh soldier, oh soldier, oh Please Let Me Tie
a pretty pink bow on your beard or your thigh!
My lucky pink ribbon, your age and your beauty,
the shadows of gun fire and fear…
May I call you fancy fancy fancy my dear?
My very presence refreshes!
The touch of my hand gets you high!
Someday my sweet little fancy, I’ll teach you to fly.
Sitting on tree stumps now, sifting through gruel
with the long silver arm of a spoon.
Twisting your neck arouned, raising your chin
cause you wanna keep track of the moon.
Write a letter now, Write One To Me
Let our fingers entwine, let me sit on your knee!
Let my words dance for you, let them enchant you
away from this world where you die!
Let me sleep by your side.
My very presence refreshes!
The touch of my hand gets you high!
Someday my sweet little fancy, I’ll teach you to fly.
The curtain is drawn and your time passes by.
I sit on the other side watching the sky…
Leaping on stones with your gun at your side
till you fall from the weight of a wound.
Hooking the sky with your one working eye
as you try to hang on for the moon.
First you see nothing and then you see me!
Your sweet baby blue with his head on your knee.
You scoop me up sweetly, a man & his baby;
I finger the bow in your beard.
We’re in love now, fancy, fancy, fancy, my dear.
My very presence refreshes!
The touch of my hand gets you high!
Someday my sweet little fancy I’ll teach you to fly.
Father I’m Cold
All alone with no pocketbook waiting for you.
Press my head on the the looking glass waiting for you.
And my pockets are big but my fingers are small
And I cry like a butterfly smashed on the wall as I stand
Pressed on the looking glass dreaming of you.
We met in the army when I was sixteen.
I was a typist, you were a marine.
Your rank it grew like a snowball each day;
I got the boot cause they thought i was gay-
but I was straight as an arrow for you.
I used to dream of us making sweet love
Till my body would start to explode.
Oh Father! Father Father Father, I’m cold.
The sky is stretched out like a sheet in the sky.
Far below on the earth a king scuffles by.
And he’s dressed up in rags like a woman today;
He hops through the woods like a bearcub at play,
When who should he meet in the forest but you,
He meets you.
“Take off your clothes, please.” you say with your gun.
Off comes his clothes & he stands in the sun.
Blood fills your face & it twitches your hands
When you find that your woman is really a man.
You say, “Why, why did you lie, Mr. Leopold?”
He said,”Look at your hands, please,
They’re shaking like pansies; your heart
Can’t do anything bold.”
Oh Father! Father Father Father, I’m cold.
Should I go back to the army again?
This time as a soldier, this time as a man?
Cause the sky is so big and my life is so small
Like a dumb stupid photograph glued to the wall-
And I’d cross both my eyes & I’d wiggle my toes
And I’d bleed thru the heart & I’d pay through the nose.
Oh please call me back to the battle of life
And I promise to do as I’m told!
Oh Father! Father Father Father, I’m cold.
Fade Away
Just when I thought I’d seen everything
A dragon swirled out of the sky.
His tail trailed behind him like ink
Spelling ‘dragon’ across the sky.
I touched a scale- it was shiny & soft,
So I touched him again & again.
He breathed fire so deep into me
Smoke was pouring from my skin.
I would have mounted on his back,
But he was delicate & high.
I just stood there, six feet tall,
Gazing in his western eye.
Ain’t nothing here I want to fade away,
Nothing here I want to rise above–
You & Me could be like soldiers MAKING LOVE.
My mind’s eye can still recall
The ivy that grew by your door.
I don’t forget the day it curled
To grow back into the earth.
Burrowing down through the soft earth.
Like snake sliding down through a hole.
In the darkness I could feel the ivy
Sliding down like a snake through a hole.
Drawn to the earth’s red belly like
A hawk screaming down from the sky.
In my dreams that vine & I
Would crisscross in Shanghai.
Ain’t nothing here I want to fade away,
Nothing here I want to rise above–
You & Me could be like soldiers MAKING LOVE.
I can’t see no one in this room
But the clear brown eyes of you.
The fire escape creeps out the window,
The sky hides behind a crescent moon.
My jacket is hung on the doorknob,
So there’s nothing to touch here but you.
Your car keys are lying behind me on the floor,
So there’s no way out but to just push through.
When teacher taught us bout dust to dust
And how nothing continues on.
I remember her shining like the sun
Shining on & on & on & on & on.
Ain’t nothing here I want to fade away,
Nothing here I want to rise above–
You & Me could be like soldiers MAKING LOVE.
Methodius’ Stand
The bells are a ringin
i know what they mean
beaten the yankees in battle again
murdered our foes; squashed them like grapes
crushed down their bones; trampled their capes
Boys’ll be marchin on back to this town
two by two marchin on, lonely & proud.
dreaming of the women they’ll have
thinking they’ve earned us & maybe they have…
Does anyone know what a lady is here in this town?
My name is Methodius Paygate, my friends
the lovliest loneliest woman in town
boys have been fighting since I was eighteen
no one has yet laid Methodius down.
Guess it’s somethin’ like custard’s last stand
surrounded by blood-hungry men
got no weapons to keep them away
just lock my knees tightly together & pray…
Does anyone know what a lady is here in this town?
The women & girls well they make fun of me
calling me high on my horse
the men & the boys they grow angry with me
calling me icy & many things worse
But i think that they misunderstand
i don’t wanna be no virgin queen.
its this tiny voice buried in me
it ain’t something that i understand
Does anyone know what a lady is here in this town?
Confederates stand for many things
such as beautiful flowers and lace
i gaze at my self in the mirror and watch
as the blood rushes up to my face
Bells dance in through the window.
clouds drift up from the south
boys will arrive here by evening
taste of my blood grows strong in my mouth…
Does anyone know what a lady is here in this town?
Pink Star of the Beautiful Ohio
Pinkstar of the beautiful Ohio
crashing down in flames to
extinguish in the river, smoldering, smoldering
with black and gray smoke, thicker than mud, thicker
than fossils, this river is on fire,
it is red hot at the bottom, it burns
the curious finger, it shines gold
beneath the moon.
Pink star of the Ohio, sweltering,
sweating at the center of the earth,
locked up in chains, panting
and shaking, he glows with fury
making the earth blush and moisten.
Chains melting from his cherry
blood, glaring holes into the earth’s
thick crust, he is ready to go home.
So it won’t be long now, people of Kentucky,
till he’ll rise from the body of the Ohio,
like a whale on fire, rising up to the sky
where he’ll shine on Kentucky
and we’ll glow like an ember.