INDELIBLE BLUES

INDELIBLE BLUES

I fell into another kind of blue last night

& hung with the insomnian moon

My heart was like a bird lost in flight

I drifted alone in dreamless rooms

Caught in the embrace of the blues

The tv and I can’t sleep at night

And I hardly know how to begin

Naming my affliction despite

The fact that my heart is wearing thin

I crawled into the arms of the blues

If it would fix the situation

To battle the problem from within

I’d call a bluesman in for consultation

But the music’s gotten under my skin

I’ve slipped down the throat of the blues

Sometimes I leave my door open wide

Just to hear him play a note or two

Now there’s no place left for me to hide

For the song has left my mind askew

Surrendered to the law of the blues

I’m singing the blues solo at night

My foolish heart can’t take more abuse

The problem: the cure’s worse than the bite

I’m too old for bad love—what’s the use?

The bluesman’s given me the indelible blues

Coming home in the early dawn light

10/8/94

SUNNY BLUES

SUNNY BLUES

I got the blues so bad, gotta get outa this town

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

Had a man in New York, another in Leningrad

Two more waited in vain for me by the canals of Amsterdam

When the bluesman turns you down, it’s more than bad

It’s pathetic. No need to leave town to find the blues

It’s got me here at home, right where I am

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

And when he comes over to fix my brakes

I get lost in his naked hills and then I hesitate 

Maybe I’ll tool on down the road, go to Bolinas

get outa town just to save what’s left of my pride

Instead I feed him blackberry pie, pretend it’s all right

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

When Sonny plays the blues birds fall from the sky.

Is there nothing between us ’cept my imagination?

Maybe I’ll fly to Spain, I might go to Prague

I wanna say, “Take me for a ride, we’ll go whole-hog,

we’ll go dancin’, yeah, dancin’ in the rain

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

I was too slow on the uptake, she who hesitates

is lost, that’s why I’m sittin’ here all alone

with no single man to call my own

What can I do but wait, dream about him all night long?

Or is he just another man who’d do me wrong?

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

I’ve been dreamin’ of scorpions & snakes

stung by the tale of his kisses, been staying up late

just to keep from dreaming that same old song

I neck with a bottle of wine, biding my time

take his kid blackberrying on the back roads of my mind

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

I wanna feel his lips on my harmonica 

wiggle my hips and slide down his trombone

But he’s talkin’ to his new woman on the telephone

We’ll never make sweet music and a brand new song

or go dancin’ in the rain in Forestville

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

I like the way his mouth slides down that Mississippi harp

When he smiles at his new woman, it damn near breaks my heart

I got the blues so bad, don’t wanna be hangin’ around

These blues’ve got me runnin’ ragged into the ground

singin’ the place names of blue: indigo midnight prussian delf sky

I got the blues so bad, I gotta get outa town

The blues’ve got me at home, right here, right where I am

And I can’t ever sing him this sweet, sad song           

                                               

7/17/94

BLACKBERRY SONG FOR NATHAN

BLACKBERRY SONG FOR NATHAN LOWE

I have a friend

He’s only nine years old

We talk about the weather

And the reasons behind our fears                             

In the mornings we pick berries

And wipe away our tears

We tell each other the stories of who we were                           

Blackberries bleeding on our tongues

In those rolling hills where we’ve begun

He smiles at me

With his purpled teeth

Paints the face of the day with light

Rides his bike against the winds                                   

And the river forgets to sleep

The night never begins

We tell each other the stories of who we are

Blackberries measuring the depths of summer

In those rolling open hills we still remember

I want to tell him

No matter what our age

We’re all children deep inside

Still waiting for someone to play with

And the wind whispers inside our ears

Urging us to recount the myths

We tell each other the stories of what will be

Blackberries giving us sweet advice 

In these sheltering hollow hills of our lives

I’m not his mother

He’s the child I never had

I’ve got no one to call father

We pass the time eating blackberry pie           

And sometimes he calls me “Dad”           

Hawks scribe names across the sky           

He imagines the future as a blackberry patch

On the dirt roads of summer leading us back

         To those rolling open hills where he was born

7/17/94

Love Song no efile