8:01 in ct not so long ago

i’m still here

tired old song
but the song remains


covered many times
lost the sense


find it again
sing different


only song like it
but the song complains

foolish

i was not going to think when I saw you then
that i’d never be seeing you again
foolish
so many years drowned, falling all around
my deadly serious little daddy clown


all-knowing smirk done all up in curls
painted face done up for the girls
cockamamie
time was cheap and the paint ran down
under the paint a frightening frown


i wish for that sense of your little room
again to be there in your modest tomb
harebrained
looking down, hardly looking hard
living learning in your house of cards

get a new dog (yellow earth roads)

weeping willow
one day splits by fire
falls, fire from the sky
ignored the rods for it
went for my tree
wasn’t my tree then
think it’s my tree now
anybody else
think of that tree?


ball games and all
grass all weeds
yellow earth roads
go home with you
stuck in exposed meat
ride the bikes, much falling
don’t remember it hurting
like it hurts now
think of that tree

frame houses
asbestos siding
cornfields besides
go lost in the rows
bugs in the grass
all the dogs had fleas
didn’t live long
cars hit them
get a new dog


everybody smoked
ashtrays like furniture
dad was king of the
black-and-white TV
smoked salems
mom washed the dishes quiet
had the broken yolks
shut up be quiet
get a new dog