Ghetto Bells
Virginia
Virginia, Virginia, she's a beautiful queen
She rules with hands that are graceful and mean
She's free with her body, voluptuous, too
But cross her and she'll crush the life out of you
Yes, Virginia, I love you, I love you
Yes, Virginia, enough to die
Yes, Virginia, I love you, I love you
too much to survive
Virginia, Virginia, my lover my mom
I sprung from her bosom with a saber not a gun
All of my life's toil and blood sacrifice
Has been to make myself more attractive in her eyes
Yes, Virginia, I love you, I love you
Yes ,Virginia, enough to die
Yes, Virginia, I love you, I love you
too much to survive
Little Caesar
Little Caesar has a mandate
now there is no doubt
The blessing of the Senate and the citizenry
Rome is bowing at his feetWhat will he do with all his power
what'll Little Caesar do now
What do little Caesars always do
when their enemies cowerLittle Caesar's words ring
in the heart of every Legionnaire
They are trained and in formation
to do his will
And so it's on to glory
for God's chosen one on Earth
The Holy Roman Emperor
bequeathed the crown by birthAnd so the public has spoken
with resounding clarity
As to who they trust
and in what they believeAnd they've proven that it's futile
to resist
the cult of Little Caesar
Do so at your own peril and risk
What do you mean?
Like a puppy on a trampoline
What do you mean?
BewilderedWe heard you laughing
What do you mean?
FelicityIt is a vibration it moves in a wave
You are a surfer on that clarion tone
I hope so, we know so, I hope soLike a salmon headed up a stream
What do you mean?
Ambivalent
We heard you whistling
What do you mean
Contentment
Got to me
I couldn’t get away from it
I was in over my head
I guess it really got to me
I guess it really got to me, yes i fought it hard and heavy
but I could not shake it off
I guess it really got to me
I guess it really got to me, yes infusion insidious
extricates character
exuviates goodness
corroding and corruptingit was all encompassing
tainted every thought
I guess it really got to me
I guess it really got to me, yes infusion insidious
extricates character
exuviates goodness
corroding and corrupting
Ignorant People
Born as I was to ignorant people
too traumatized to take me home
came in a car and left on an embankment
covered with pine straw
but instinct saved me
something innate
made my wet lungs scream with hate
scream with hatefound as I was fixing a flat tire
he’d run 'em bald
the schemer looked down upon the screamer
like buried treasure
he nursed me and cherished me
and trained me to be
what is here in front of you
a ticket to see, a ticket to seefate has been so good to me
You may not understand
how I can be thankful to be where I am
to be where I am
Forthright
Looking in the hourglass
Ants in the sand
Reflected in the oil lamp
I can see the wrinkles in your hand
You can be forthright with me
You can be forthright with me
Next to the pot-bellied stove
Hand on the flue
Photograph on the rolltop desk
Is it of you
You can be forthright with me
You can be forthright with me
Half a pound of hominy
Soaking in a wooden bowl
Underneath the cheesecloth
In the safehold
You can be forthright with me
You can be forthright with me
To Be With You
Thoughts of your flutter are flooding my mind
Not constant like a buzz
but strobe thumping like a heart beat
Drowning any other notion
Now I am sure, now I am sure, now I am sure
When I met you everything changed
I burned so many bridges to be with you
I Shermaned pretty much my entire adult life
To be with you, to be with you, to be with you
Just to be with you
Vesuvius
Trying to clip the creek to the bank with a clothes pin
Waterlogged system, rusty spring, faulty planning
Logic squeezed out like mustard at a corndog
Hypertension is not wisdom, chewing the leather straps
Trying to hold the sun still with a bobby pin
Burned fingers. excellent conductor of heat
Private fantasies are not public policy
Christian charity is a doily over my death boner
Busy work is not the Great Wall of China
Vanity bamboo hut out back behind the big house
Pretend is salve for whitey-boy guilt
Furiously slapping at the moon with a cane pole
Trying to prop up the heavens with a fresh flat pencil
Some folks are allergic to rubber
I am trying to stitch this one to all the rest of them
But the seams will split, collide and cleave
Neopolitan ice cream is never truly integrated until it’s too late
Trying to stop the bleeding with scotch tape
Platelets spoil adhesion, fire up the cauterizing iron
It's a branding of necessity not scarification
Bliss was a pimple that I tried to pop
It erupted up and out on my countenance
Ugly eruption, Vesuvius, ugly eruption, Vesuvius
Ugly eruption, Vesuvius
Vesuvius at myself, Vesuvius at myself
Rambunctious Cloud
Here comes the rain, the bottom fell out
Thunder hit, shook the house
Sunday, church is letting out
The rain comes from rambunctious cloud
Here comes the rain, the bottom fell out
I knew it was coming
But it won’t help the drought
At this point I just hope it cools things down
The rain comes from rambunctious cloud
The same water that the dinosaurs drank
Is the same water that the Persian fleets sank in
The very water that moistened the primordial ooze
Is now hammering on my metal porch roof
Here comes the rain, the bottom fell out
Pushing debris through my gutter spout
Maybe it will help cut the pollen count
The rain comes from rambunctious cloud
The Garden
Pus on your finger, mud on your mind
The tiller is broken, your garden is crying
There's been too much rain, tomatoes they split
Spring was a beauty but she turned into a beast
Your boy is rebellious, he refuses to work
Your daughter is a fine one but allergic to dirt
The Preacher came a'calling, he wants a fresh ham
Your wife she obliges, thaws the one you was saving
So you piddle in the garden, you pick at the ground
Your family is fighting, oh, but you don't hear a sound
Gnats
Gnats and bats and things with wings
I know why the cagey fella won't sing
sticks and stones and broken bones
I know why my words are wrong
humps and stumps and green tattoos
I know why your crutches bruise
biscuit dough and oleo
I know where the time goes