Don't Have to Die in the Bed

I don't have to die in the bed

don't have to die in the bed

I can do anything in this whole damn world 

but I don't have to die in the bed

I can do Haldol and Armor-all, Pine-sol and Geritol

Corvette, Mustang, Lexus & poontang

oxy and hydro, nitro and fibro

Beefaroni, canneloni, Rice-a-roni, pepperoni

Motorola, Coca-cola, rock-n'-rollin' ayatollah

Don't have to die in the bed

Don't have to die in the bed

I can do anything in this whole damn world 

But I don't have to die in the bed

I can do Percoset and Tagamet,Port-o-let, Letraset

Zantac and Xanax, Xyrtek and Tampax

Panax and Ex-lax, Timex and Sexwax

Nasdaq, Sanalac, gun rack, multitrack

Morphine, Ketamine, Liquid Plumber, Tang and Hummer

Don't have to die in the bed, etc...

(bridge)

I can do Ativan, Diovan, ampersand, campervan

Trilene, Visine, magazine, Ethylene

Codeine, Primatein, caffeine, nicotine

Downy and Bounty and downers and brownies

Methane, ethane, propane, novocaine

aniline, vitamin, theramin, Ionimine

Cortisone, Methadone, Acetone, pheromone

Petaluma, Catalina, melanoma, Pasadena

Pooper-scooper, super-duper Alley-oop or Gary Cooper

Don't have to die in the bed....etc

I can do Phen-fen, X-men, Valium and Aspirin

Advil, Placidil, any kind of pain pill

Tex-mex, Kleenex, Windex, Plavix

SUVs, TIAs, LTDs, PSAs

ACT, QVC, SAT, GED

MIT & RIP, Baby give it all to me!

Don't have to die in the bed, etc...

M@ 2009

..apologies to Johnny Cash.

A Picture

her feet are tucked under, her arm is outstretched, fingers extended

what is she thinking? her face is so clear and unlined

she watches in silence, a moment in time never rescinded

noone to witness, no ripple from anyone's mind

a pebble is moving to send out its lines, water is waiting

still in forever, the moment continues to fall

the surface unbroken from now until then indivisible

floating unnoticed, let everything rise to her call

a basket or cradle, a harp or a loom on her lap is suspended

soon it will waken and take on the shape she commands

her hands hold the bottle, the warp or the strings, these softly tended,

bended to manifest  pattern unfolding from strands

I hear the harmonics that summon a note to begin

I see the design that emerges from under the thread

the child that awakens and cries in the night for her skin

the food that she carries aloft on the top of her head

the image that's born from a dreamer asleep in a bed 

come carry me mother, I wait for your touch, arms are wide open

play on the instrument making the air in us ring

to be everything and the absence that gives birth to hoping 

make me a cloth for cold winter that follows the spring

M@ 2010

Beach Song

 I hear through my thin walls a cry

  in the shack by the ocean where I lie

  the sound of two people inside

  in the dark, when the moon is not so high

  "Oh my lover I love you, come to me

  Oh my lover I love you, come to me"

  I can't sleep, I walk in the moonlight

  with the sound ringing 'round inside my head

  I know they are trying to be so quiet

  but they can't keep from calling out instead

  "Oh my lover I love you, come to me

  oh my lover I love you, come to me"

  "I have waited for you so long

   in the night with a fire in the wind

  I have waited for you so long

  now I lie in your holy arms again."

  I come back to see they are sleeping

  in the sand like a puppy or a child

  I'll hold your secret for safekeeping

  for the sound of the fire in the wild

  but the echo of your lovemaking

  keeps me up long beyond the sunrise

  like a cymbal or a bell that rings

  long beyond any time the drummer strikes

  "oh my lover I love you, come to me

  oh my lover I love you, come to me"

     M@  2009

Graphite Harp

trying to make a graphite harp

one that won't fall flat or pull up sharp

always liked the way they sound

don't stick around, they're just too tightly wound

too many strings attached

too many things made of wood show cracks

none will last a century

not for money or love, not you or me

see them in dustbins

see them in museums

look but don't touch, they stop playing too soon

angels in heaven, men on the moon

frozen in icecubes

pictures in the bible

dinosaur amber, the harmonies scored

parents are worried, children are bored

trying to let the top play in

wait, it gets better, an older Gibson

pre-war Martin, National Steel

newer's not real, they just don't have the feel

Stradivarius in time

sold at an auction, hell of a find

limited by fewer notes

learn it by rote but a harp's not a coat

can't be kept in the right mix of dry

still it falls in on itself by and by

none will last a century

meant to be played if its made of a tree

won't even live seventy

soon it's just furniture, firewood, free

'S why I want a graphite harp

don't look as good but it won't fall apart

keep on ringing, beautiful sound

bring them around when I'm under the ground

M@2010

You're My Shelia

you're my Sheila

I want another girl I never feel her

and when the dogs are sniffing round

I send them all off to the pound

I'll keep you tethered to the ground

dope or tequila

you're my Betty

I love you, I was young, I loved my teddy

sometimes it even feels infirm

I'm like a hungry dried-out worm

up nights and Sundays at the firm

I wasn't ready

you're my Debby

I'll keep you even when you get too heavy

so if I'm lazy and I'm bald

when Mother Nature hasn't called 

when heat has lost the power to scald 

will you forget me?

I overlook the hairy chin 

the somewhat loopy gappy grin

falling asleep while I just talk

flouride, it's like my teeth on chalk

the chest that searches Davy's Locker

booty lost from knickerbockers

sin deserts the dull synapses

please forgive me all my lapses

you're my Linda

and even when I hate you I'll befriend you

we're like two peas inside a pod

I thank a nonexistent God

you spoiled the child and spared the rod

a goal tender

M@ 2010

Gecko Wind

cockroaches and silverfish

coming out of drains

they scuttle wildly, place to place

errant thoughts from brains

the overflowing vegetation's

trying to explode

something wants to crack the floor

down under the commode

Gecko wind, the tropics tend

to make Hyde into Jeckyll

the blazing sun, the rains that run

the darkening of freckles

the blonding hair, the bonding air

defeat my good intention

Lying low, I let it go

it doesn't warrant mention

mosquitos giant take the pint

deflate my epidermis

I must've left some food bereft

the sound of rustling squirmis

A lizard's crawled into the airconditioning again

now I smell, a gust from hell 

like wet flesh from the vent

Gecko wind, the tropics tend

to make me overheated

anxieties and pieties, I fly to these, I cheated

I lie in sand, I play my hand

my skin begins to fry

from white to pink to brown to red

from seat to deeper-seated

consider next: how making art 

is like taking a shit

I flex my pecs and squeeze my cheeks but

nothing comes of it

I'm off the charts with songs and farts

the body of work fills

I never get that floaty feel

without the sweats and chills

Gecko wind, the tropics tend

to offer some redemption

a change of pace, a sunburned face

the winter needs preemption

I pack my bag, I buy some rags

I make my reservations

there's got to be some state of me 

that wants to change the stations

soggy matches,come in snatches

ideas just like this

I'm out of bed, songs in my head

or maybe just to piss

my gut expands, the beer and sandwiches begin to clog

the night is gone and now it's dawn

with roosters, bugs and frogs

Gecko wind, the tropics tend to skew my sense of reason

I'm glad I've had, they're not half bad

the seasonings and seasons

I can't complain, it's not a strain

to strain out rice and muses

I thank my stars, take rental cars

motorbikes and cruises

M@ 2010

Not a Rock Star

I'm not a rock star

don't try to tell me what to do 

don't try to tell me you are

I'm not a rock star

I never learned a single lesson

never play my guitar

I couldn't carry half a tune 

my aim is not at the moon

I'm not  a rock star

(yeah, yeah, yeah)

I'm not Jagger

don't have a titty entourage

got no theatrical stagger

I'm not Mcartney

so don't you give me no massage

or take the piss out of me

nobody pony up the cash

nobody break out the stash

I'm not a rock star

(yeah, yeah, yeah)

I'm not  Jesus

I'm not  Buddha Muhammad, don't mix me up with your mama

 do what I pleases

I ain't looking for no trouble

don't you pop my little bubble

take the wind out my sails

or get the cross and the nails

I'm not a rock star

(yeah, yeah, yeah)

American Idol sickens me

I never got it down that good

running on the treadmill, climbing the tree

I wouldn't even if I could

I'm not  a rock star

(yeah, yeah, yeah)

don't need instruction

don't need an agent's advice

so don't you catch me thinking twice

no introductions

I got no royalty checks

I got no muscle to flex

so much I want you all to hear

can't stand you coming too near

I'm not a rock star

(yeah, yeah, yeah)

M@ 2010