Three From the Red Notebook

14th Street

If I get it all back
And I'll get at least half
I'll put it away
Until a sunny day
When the cloud cover
Disappears by 11
Like it used to
In my unemployment days

I'd get in the car
And drive to 14th Street
Park in the restricted zone
Listen to an upbeat song
Heaven knows I'm important now
But then I could breathe
Or cry in my sleeve
Which - I've got to admit - was something

January 31, 2009


Louder Roar

It would have been laughable
Trying to recreate
The inner world of 19
Basements, corners, dead spots
There would have been swan songs
Corrections to long gone wrongs
Questions of great length
Tears and rain and snow and ice
And the redheads with their sage advice

All of it comedy
True and fitting
A long great tribute
To a small good time
And my drives up the avenue
To the north, to the single digit streets
Would have had soundtracks of spent time
A scent of lime, discarded papers
It would have been nice
To sleep in peace

But here I am
A louder roar but the same man
I avoid difficult streets
I beg for better songs
I crave the kinder call
I have none of it, I have it all

February 5, 2009


The Competing Narratives #1

And if in this rain
I have no enemies
Just those who come to me
With their narratives in which I fit
Like jigsaw pieces, perfectly
Then I'm a happy man
In this winter rain
In this merry month, 20 years
After the fact
20 years
After it all came true

February 8, 2009