MULE KICK BLUES

               NOW
                                     THE
                                   HOLY
                                   GRAIL
                          got no place at all

                    All that stuff
                                         is
                                        shit
                                like wood alcohol

                        DIMENSIONS
                                 DISAPPEARING
                                    flitting 
                                       flicking
                                    flaring;
                                        MULES
                                        KICKING
                                             in
                                             the
                                             stall

                                            MY
                                           love's
                                           a ball
                                             of melted
                                                wax

                                         STACKS
                                        OF BRIGHT ROBED
                                               singers 
                                              singing
                                           in the polymers

                                           reaching out
                                           with tendrils till

                                                WE
                                                    KNOW

                                               WE'VE HAD
                                                    enough

                                                      and
                                                      IT
                                                    DOESN'T
                                                       stop
                                                           at
                                                         all

                                              Thin-sliced deer horn,
                                                     lichen scraped
                                                       from rocks
                                               and threads of nothing
                                                    making baby's sox

                                                  CHAOS AND ORDER 
                                                       CHEW
                                                      with tiny teeth
                                                          on edges
                                                         of complexity

                                                            THEY
                                                             MAKE
                                                                    A
                                                             SMELL

                                                          like starlight

                                                                 and
                                                                   a
                                                              TIGER'S
                                                               BREATH

                                                           Totem faces
                                                          carved in cedar,
                                                              fats hung
                                                                together
                                                            and all turned inside out

                                                          THAT'S WHAT WE GOT
                                                          and smoke stack lightning
                                                               to look inside the dwarf

                                                                 I'M
                                                                SINGING
                                                               SOMEWHERE
                                                                 in the future
                                                                        into
                                                                something's
                                                                     ear

                                                              UNSCROLLING
                                                                  from 
                                                                 the proteins
                                                                     made
                                                                         from
                                                                    NOTHING NEAR

     
                                                                         IT
                                                                        MIGHT
                                                            be a spoon for the blackness;

                                                                        IT
                                                                      COULD
                                                                    BE THE MOON
                                                                   on oak tree leaves

                                                                       I'm
                                                                      coming  from
                                                                      my hormones
                                                                          with nothing left
                                                                           to tease

                                                                           HA
                                                                              HA

                                                                          HO
                                                                          HO

                                                                        HA-HA
                                                                        HO-HO

                                                               I'm coming out
                                                                 from hormones
                                                                   and crawling
                                                                        on
                                                                      my knees

                                                                 Please
                                                                 give me
                                                                 your finger
                                                                       Please
                                                                   give me
                                                                   your smile

                                                                   I'LL
                                                                   NEVER
                                                                      BE
                                                                     HERE
                                                                    forever

                                                                     That's
                                                                  a long long 
                                                                      while

                                                                     I
                                                                    got  
                                                                  star clusters


                                                                     I
                                                                    got
                                                           the  hummingbird's 
                                                                  sneeze 

                                                                   BUT
                                                                   THE
                                                                   HOLY
                                                                   GRAIL
                                                          got no place at all

                                                              Look into
                                                             the blackness
                                                                  at
                                                           Mama/Papa  Nothing
                                                                   RIGHT
                                                                  BEHIND
                                                                     THE
                                                                     EYES

                                                                 HI   HO
                                                                 HAY-HAY

                                                             You are as real
                                                                   as something:
                                                               your eyes, your  breasts
                                                                      your teeth

                                                                   I
                                                                  DON'T
                                                                    KNOW
                                                                      what   
                                                                       path
                                                                I'm walking
                                                                      BUT
                                                                        I
                                                                        KNOW
                                                                   WHAT BED
                                                                         I
                                                                       SLEEP

                                                                    WE WALK
                                                                       together
                                                                          on
                                                                         the edge
                                                                        and look
                                                                           into the leap

                                                                          BUT
                                                                          THE
                                                                           HOLY
                                                                           GRAIL
                                              got no place at all

                                                                          WE'RE
                                                                           LAUGHING
                                                                              WHILE
                                                                                 WE
                                                                                  FALL

                                                                           THERE'S 
                                                                               A
                                                                              TRILLION
                                                                            WAYS OF SINKING
                                                                                      eyes
                                                                                into the tar

                                                                                A
                                                                               TRILLION
                                                                                 WAYS
                                                                                    but 

                                                                                 NONE

                                                                                    can


                                                                                   see
                                                                                  so far

                                                                 DIMENSIONS DISAPPEARING
                                                                                 MULES
                                                                                 KICKING
                                                                                   in   
                                                                                   the
                                                                                  stall



                                                                                BUT
                                                                                THE
                                                                                HOLY
                                                                               GRAIL
                                                                       got no place at all
                

FOR WILLIE DIXON

HERE'S A WORD

Ayy... Gee... Enn... Oh... Ess... Eye... Ayy...
spells Agnosia
AGNOSIA
LIKE A BIG BLACK ROSE
AGNOSIA IS KNOWING
THROUGH NOT KNOWING
everybody knows
we are the petals and the thorns
We are
THE CLIFF OF MEAT-BLACK
B
A
C
K
in
there
&
THE MYSTIC,
MEISTER ECKHART,
in his night-petaled robe
KNEW GOD
THROUGH NOT KNOWING
(KNOT
NO-
ING)

Everybody knows
we are the muscled black
projecting dark

to put the black on

back on

ALL
THINGS

ON
THE

EDGE
CHUNK

Material
reality

smiling in the teeth
of old Despair

Death is
beside the point
we're always dead

and

in

EVERY WAY
this flesh is every way alive

where
THE
SINGERS
in the night
are coyote voices
of black and scarlet
ROSES
choiring on the radio that  bursts the dawn
WHILE
helicopters
puke
on children
and flash out harsh pools
of circling light

DON'T

TELL

ME

this

IS

REAL

because it is the edge chunk
of what I feel!

I HOLD THE BLACK!

YOU HOLD THE LIGHT

I
SURRENDER

 

I
AM
A
MYSTIC

 

I
TREMBLE
in the shambles
(in the brambles)
when my Enemies come to get me!

THIS IS THE NIGHT
and I'm not halfway free

(WEAR

THE

SUIT

OF SILK

and whistle
in the graveyard!)
Slinky silk upon the thigh

HEAD
HURTS

Where is the crisis?

SHOULDERS
CLENCH

The beggars are coming to town
Some in rags and
some in tags and
some in
VELVET GOWNS

Rattles in the gears
of old cars

SOUL?

Hah!

There's A

BLACK
CAVE
with a mouth
in there

black cave with a mouth
in there

and it

LOVES
ME

Looking up at me

EDGE
CHUNK

AGNOSIA

MO
MENT
OF GRACE

LET'S NOT HIDE IT
HIDE IT

EDGE
CHUNK

COME IN BLACK

ROSES

like some hero's shoulders

MOMENT OF GRACE

IT
ALL
POURS
like long lean cars
lean cars

MUSTANGS

and never moves

VISION QUEST

MOMENTARY GRACE
IF I HAD A THOUSAND SENSES
I could tell you
why molecules
are
lies
AND
WHAT
WE
TRULY
ARE
Not quarks or hadrons
or drunken flies
or RAIN DROPS
falling on magnolia leaves
or sheaves
of titillating fingers
clipped from the edge chunks
of the things
we smell
We can say, "Goodbye Hell"
"Hello Heaven"
and it doesn't even mean
as much as sparrow shit
on the walls of a football stadium

I surrender    cower    I am a worm
churning in the apple flower
I
BEG
PITY
of the worlds
I
Make
in my lusts
for
them

This is our beginning and we're flexing
BICEPS
in the shadow of the end

I
AM
THE CLOUD

I
AM
THE
CLOUD

I'm just chicken a'la king

I am the cloud of
UN
KNOWING

Ayy... Gee... Enn... Oh... Ess... Eye... Ayy...

There's a word

Some word...

 

BLACK WINE

YEAH I LOVE YOU MAMA, I'M GONNA DRINK BLACK WINE
Well, I love you Mama
I'm gonna drink black wine
Going put my hairy hands
on the table
Gonna hold the broken cup
and drink black wine

We come from no place
and I'm going there all the time
Crickets singing in the evening
Chirping in the darkest time

I hear you telling me
I hear you telling me
Saying I gotta go
We gotta go when the crickets singing

Hairy hands on the table
holding the blackest wine

Crickets singing in the evening
Chirping in the darkest time
There's a drum out there
in the sunlight
There's a drum out there
in the sunlight
but crickets sing in the evening
chirping in the darkest time

Well I love you Mama
I'm gonna drink black wine

Yeah    Yeah    Yeah    Yeah    Yeah
Oh Yeah

DEEP MUD BLUES

I PUT MY HANDS IN DEEP MUD
AND GET THE TASTE OF THE FLOOR
GET THE TASTE OF THE FLOOR
WHEN I LOOK INTO THE NIGHT
FEET WALK OUT THE DOOR
I'M ALWAYS HUNGRY
FOR THE FACE IN YOUR EYES

I WALK THROUGH THE DARK
THROUGH THE DARK
OF YOUR HANDS

V
E
L
V
E
T
BLACK
IN THE DARK,
OF THE TOUCH
OF YOUR HANDS
but then I'm deep mud
I'm deep mud
with the taste of the floor

When I look into the night
your feet walk out the door
It's rivers of pearls and barrels of snow
It's rivers of tears and barrels of snow
I don't know anything except what you know

I PUT MY HANDS IN DEEP MUD
GET THE TASTE OF THE FLOOR

 

HOWLIN' BLUES

SPANK ME WITH A ROSE
I'm headed for jail,
just headed for jail.
See the little sparrow
with her eyes on the hawk.
Everything around is
just more talk.
Don't use a knife to pound in a nail.
Spank me with a rose
I'm headed for jail.

Hawk he's hungry
and Sparrow tastes good.
Feathers fall down by the side of the road.
It's
A
LONG
WAY
BACK
to where
stars lie in bed.

Spank me with a rose.
Hawk he's hungry
and Sparrow tastes good.

Spank me with a rose.
It's
A
LONG
WAY
BACK
to where
stars lie in bed.

I'm headed for jail.
Don't use a knife to pound in a nail.

LEAD BELLY BLUES

LEAD BELLY BLUES GET IN MY BONES
I'm sick of old folks' tears and baby's groans.
I'm choke full of this lion-eating Rome.
I'm going where the eagle is going.
Zero, America, I'm going home.
I'll be where I hold my lover at night.
My head's a hammer and my toes are stones.
She's got a bed the color of a rose.
Rain on the roof in the morning light.
Lead Belly blues get in my bones.

Rain on the roof in the morning light.

FORTY SONGS

I'M STANDING ON THE RIVER OF NIGHT WITH FORTY SONGS
Here's the river of night with forty songs
I'm standing on the river of night with forty songs
I'll be stepping in the boat before too long
Stepping in the boat with all these songs
White hair hanging in my beard like moss

Everything I see is movies in a dream
Look at bubbles flowing round the rocks
in the stream
I'll be stepping in the boat before too long

Deer make noise
As they walk over old dead leaves
I'll be stepping in the boat before too long
Deer make noise
As they walk over old dead leaves

VOICES
IN
THE
HEAD

Like Ali Baba
And the thieves

When you get home

When you get home
Sit down with your back against a tree

See pictures go by like movies in a dream