Month: November 2011

I’ve Never

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i’ve never tilled a garden
i’ve never bent my back to strike an ax to wood
i’ve never raised a child and yet
i’ve certainly pretended that i’ve understood

i’ve never built a home
i’ve never even built a warming fire in the cold
i’ve never tilled a garden
i’ve never needed shelter when the thunder rolled

so what do i know?

i’ve never fired a gun
i’ve never even given up a nickel when had a dime
and if i suffered loss
i’ve only ever really cared about the loss of time

i’ve never been to war
and i’ve only ever watched the protests on tv
i’ve never tilled a garden
i’ve never really seen the truth inside of me

so what do i know?

i’ve never been to mexico
i’ve never drunk the water from the river or the ground
i’ve never built a well
i’ve never held a baby right before the wailing of its very first sound

i’ve never tilled a garden
i’ve never bent my back over a winter’s pile of wood
i’ve never tilled a garden
so how could i believe i’ve ever understood

Interlock

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interlock

child don’t get it twisted
we belong to each other
we belong to each other
we belong to each other

sometimes i feel like a motherless child
sometimes i feel like a rudderless child
sometimes i feel like a nationless child
but it’s my home
and i know i’m not alone

you got your people with you, i’ve got mine
we’re gonna love each other in due time
cause we belong to each other
we belong to each other

ain’t got no time for words like us and them
they don’t mean nothing to me in the end
cause we belong to each other
we belong to each other

Incantation: Creation

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once upon a time
i lived in a mysterious mirror
made entirely of imagination
and in this mirror
everything imagined
manifested

i imagined the mirror
to be a vast castle
whose corners and caverns
i could never see
and in truth, by this
i was made afraid

one day i realized (inevitably)
that i was alone in the vast castle
whose corners and caverns i could never see
and just as inevitably i imagined
another.

forgetting the power of this mysterious mirror
i set about facing fears
once and for all i would find out
just what those corners and caverns
were about

of course i thought i was still alone
and in truth i was still afraid
when suddenly and without warning
i stumbled upon another
an-other?

startled i asked, "who are you?"
You said, "i am You"
"you are not" I replied
"i am" You asserted.

I didn’t understand.
I had been alone in the mysterious mirror
I had been alone in fear
I had been alone in that mysterious mirror
when suddenly You had appeared.

"How can you be?" I asked.
"I am that I am" came the reply.
"But if i am you," I objected,
"you would be me."
"i cannot be you and me" You answered.

then all at once
(and again without warning)
in walked yet another!
AN-OTHER?!?!

"well who are you?" I startled.
"i am Me" came the answer
"but you cannot be me" I baffled
"well i cannot be You" Me defended
"well i cannot be Me either" You demanded

desperate to make all things clear again
I tried to make You and Me dis-appear
but I could not undo what I had imagined
so I went on living in fear and confusion
with You and with Me
as did They with Each Other.

Jenny

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jenny brought the bottle home
she said she’d like to celebrate her birthday
pretending to forget the past
passing out just like she did that last night
when they took her keys away
she’s a ghost without a name
but everybody loves her just the same

jenny took the painting down,
the one with bob and tupac riding bareback
riding stallions into sunset
setting hoof against the desert dust
righteous warriors making up for what we lack
they remind her of the rain
the way she washes out again and again

i’ve had it pointed out to me
more than a few times
that there’s not a single one of us
getting out of this alive

jenny took the long way home
she said she didn’t want to see her sisters
seems it took too much to hide
the secret she’d been secretly withholding
without a hint to anyone
you see she’d gone and got the gun
soon her worldly troubles would be done

jenny’d been a quiet bird
the kind you never thought to ever think about
thinking she could get along
getting lost in longing like a raging river wild
guess she’d always been a river child
living only for a dream
dreaming only of her vanishing

yeah, it’s been  pointed out to me
more than a few times
that there’s not a single one of us
getting out of this alive

January 20

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everybody’s singin’, singin’ “yes we can”
everybody’s waitin’ on the one great man
everybody’s singin’, singin’ “yes we did”
finally gave it to him at the lowest bid

it takes a village people
we can’t forget it now
it takes a village people
it ain’t about the dow
you know a change is coming
but let me tell you how
it takes a village people
we can’t forget it now

january, january 20

don’t nobody wanna buy electric cars
tearing up the ozone but we still have mars
opportunity is knockin’ at the door
singin’ we don’t have to study war no more

it takes a village people
the future’s ours to own
it takes a village people
it’s time for gettin’ grown
you know a change is coming
so let me tell you how
it takes a village people
we can’t forget it now

january, january 20

healthcare, welfare, roofs for people on the street
bad loans, lost homes, food for those with none to eat
corruption, destruction, of biblical proportion
if we’re gonna turn it ’round it’s time to set the ball in motion

january, january 20