Thursday, December 31, 2009

Follow the tracks South






Put on my old hobo coat and grabbed my pack
filled with beer and wine
Left the mill site in Radium at 12:30
The snow was deeper on that end
as I tried to get a rhythm walking
skipping every second rail tie
never got it right
so I traipsed on out of sync
Met four trains in all
three going South
and one Northbound
3:30 made it to the steel bridge
where cold industrial steel grips me
pulling at my alcoholic tendencies

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Brawlers


I'm looking for Brawlers
she said,
referring to Waits album.
You wanna brawl
he said,
it comes in a small silver flask,
I'll give you brawlers,
as he stumbles into
the door jam
bruising his cheekbone.
Fuck off
she says,
you're drunk on that strong wine shit again
and you smell like ass.
Ask me no questions
I tell you no lies
he replies,
taking a hit from the flask.
Kerouac says or should I say
Dean Moriarty says,
we are all walking around with dirty azzes
so that's why I smell like azz
Come back and love me, dirty azz me,
oh I bet you have a dirty azz too,
and you wont even share it.
Well you know there is more of the same
dirty azz
across the tracks.
I'll probably fall down
and freeze to death out there
looking for it,
but will you care?
Will you give me some
dirty azz?
No I'm looking for "Brawlers"
she replies,
slamming shut the studio door behind her

Go

let's go
everything goes away
lets get away
let's get away today
let's go before
the night falls
before the cops call
let's go away before
the front man falls
let's go away

Saturday, December 26, 2009

When The Train Passed Over






I wish I had an old iron bed
beneath the steel bridge
where I could lay with her
along side a hobo fire
making love in the late
December afternoon
Instead I venture there alone
to drink alone
aside the rivers frozen edge
At 3:30 the train screaming loud overhead
He said I could get myself in trouble with
that 19% Madeira
Turn a man into a wino
You gotta hold it in your mouth
till your tongue starts to sting and sweat
Till the pain fades
then reach for a beer or that
little bottle of wine in my pack
it's a matter of fact
gunna jump that train if it slows
but it rolls on by
with my harp blowing in the falling snow

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Ode to Lauri


Somewhere between crying and coming
she slipped away
Sharp as a needle prick
Stubborn as a record skips
Thinking about leaving
she slipped away
Like a leaf drops from a tree
she slipped away
And God said "Let there be light"
And she slipped away into that light
Then into the dark
into a corner alone
She
Like a rock along side the train tracks
Like the shriek of train breaks
Like nicotine stains and broken glass
Like stress sweat on a pillow case
Don't push her away
Watching her eyes roll to the back of her head
like she had already gone
like she was already dead
Coughing into the toilet bowl
Hanging from a stripper's pole
You can see her footprints
blowing across
the blueprints of life
That's when you realize
all the hurtful lies
And you want her back
but she's slipped away
all away
all the way

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Party Time

How about those christmas parties?
What I see is that it's place to humiliate ones self
A place where people drink with work mates, not friends.
Where tensions arise and scuffles begin
A place where the bosses wife slow dances with some party crasher
A place where the same lady flashes her tit's
A place where the new guy's girlfriend gets supper drunk and talks to someones pregnant tummy
following the bump around like she's ready to lick crotch.
A place where shovels fly, nearly laming the drunkest guy's wife
A place where excess of free booze and food out weighs common sense.
A place where one says things they wish they hadn't
A promise they can't keep
And return home to pass out falling on the toilet's edge bruising the cheekbone.
So have fun if your going
I'm self employed so I'll stay home.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Sky Has Lifted


They say you can't bullshit a bullshitter
I beg to differ
The doctor says I can't drink coke
well put it with rye.
They say you weigh more when moving fast
well the lake cracks behind me
They say heads up
when something falls
I can tell now this is what it's like
to bullshit a bullshitter

Talk



The low sky brought him down
we talked about unloaded guns
the best guns, ones that could do no harm
we talked about old times
but we never talked about what was really going down
I didn't want him to go, there were cold beers out the door
The next morning the sky lower than the previous night
We should have talked about what was really going down

Monday, December 14, 2009

Home-School




Went up the rock for a home-school field trip
outdoor hoboing 101
The kid's a natural

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Shape of Things

Have you ever just sat in the calm darkness?
it's warm and calm
When he drove by in the cold December eve
the house was black as the ace of spades
it worried him knowing of Jack's state
Inside Jack watched the lights pass reflected through the window
It was calm inside, the anger had rounded into calm depression
life was easy to read alone in the darkness
Jack could make out the shape of his beer cans
each fell at his side
like dead soldiers
into the warm calm darkness.

Haze

Jack was miserable and unhealthy
there wasn't enough booze to haze life's disappointments
The content feelings were gone
there was nothing to cry about
other than the fact of being miserable and unhealthy

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Height of Land

He stood there at the high spot where the roads intersected
Tough as nails
pissing at the edge of the Ford
Bending in the North wind
tipping the bottle back
That's when the truck sporting official officiality slowed
"That son of a bitch stops and I"ll make sure he wished he hadn't"
He, tall as a house and strong as an ox.
But I knew the official was packin' heat
True that!
The faulty move was when Tall and Slender dropped his licence
to the snow covered ground.
It became surreal.
The official bent to retrieve
Tall and Slender reached for the loaded holster.
He was quick to draw
as authority fell to the ground
Blood melted the snow
and I'm certain
that son of a bitch wished he'd never stopped.