I Prefer Pens to Palaver

My adam's apple gets caught
on words and cuts them up
so that when I speak I stut
ter, and when I speak, I
repeat myself often and
also frequently. It's
also annoying to me, believe.
I sometimes contradict
or say what some say's a
Freudian slip, but it's just
that words stick like
spit to my lips.
Yeah, they stack up like
cars at a train track
and when they see the caboose
and work their way loose,
they come out in every
which order please they,
sense make don't they.
I'm sorry to say, I say
things better this way,
with pens and paper and no
adam's apple or lips
to turn whats black, whats white
gray.

What If?

What if Hollywood died,
and Paris, 1915 came back to life?
What if literature
paved the streets instead of stars
in microskirts and plastic breasts,
fancy suits and provocative thoughts
like who's in who's bed?
What if thinking was cool,
rather than believing everything you see?
Oh shock and awe,
how frivolous you are!
Oh, I know, it's the same now as then
just put in new, plastic packaging,
but I can paint the past as I like
and paint the future hopefully,
with that same paint brush in mind.
Ideals.

Music

Some people think in thoughts,
but I, I think I think in thirds,
fifths, flat fifths, and intervals,
not to say from time to time,
but all the time (and in rhyme).
Melody, my lady, come slay me,
put me in your record player and play me,
I'll give you my two cents worth saving,
One for a beat, two for a feeling,
rub those two cents together
to make a sound and you'll feel me.
I don't hear a clock, tick tock, tick tock,
but a rhythm, tick tock, let's rock,
I don't hear a phone ring, but chords
and still...what are you just sitting there for.
Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, my friend,
put it down, put it down, and I'll call you again.

A Glass

Pour me a glass of your best water, mister,
I'm parched and in need of something clear-ly
refreshment, clearly uplifting because
this weight-lifting is taking a toll
on my shoulders, so, oh, i need
you to pour me a glass, mister, please

Drink and you won't be thirsty,
you said, and eat this bread,
and don't want, yeah, you said,
yeah, you said, and yet
here I am dried up and starving...
...but its not you, it's me.

Make straight the way,
Make these cracks and traffic fade
Fill each valley in between
With mountains bowed on bended knee.

Pour me a glass of you best, waiter, I'm waiting,
and probably in my haste, I'll spill it on my table,
because I can't be bothered to pay attention,
listen to a whisper when on TV there's explosions,
despite this guy beside me who knows what I'm hiding,
I've dropped the glass more times than I'd like,

Pour me a drop of your best water, father,
and bring me the bill, i'm the gratuity solver,
but please forgive my rude behavior,
I've only recently started learning to be patient,
I've only recently ordered what I needed and drank it.
I've only recently ordered what I needed and drank it.

What If?

Someone...something is always saying things you believe. What if you didn't?

What if I had an alibi
For all the times I lied,
and clothed in excuses,
I posed for pictures,
and all my prior abuses
were like scratched lotto tickets,
worthless and forgotten?
What if I had a necklace
of plastic pearls to give you,
to make you envy a facade
and a lifestyle that would never come through?

No Sound? No Change.

V1
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends and fellow countrymen,
Please stand up,
raise your voice with questions
Sisters and Brothers
All you neighbors and cousins
Listen up,
come out from under cover


Ch
Left, face, salute, walk away
Wait, I have something to say
About, face, speak with voice raised
God knows the status quo is not okay



V2
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Comrades and fellow discontents,
Please don't rest
raise your voice and question
Elected Officials
Representing your interests,
Working on
Campaign ads to scare us.


Br
Americans and responsible citizens,
it's time we had a voice again
This is not a test, This is oh so serious,
it's time we questioned what's in front of us

Br2
We seek improvement,
and that may mean a revolution.
We seek salvation,
and silence is not a solution.

But Never Silence

the thumbtack cuts little slits in my fingertips
and so i leave lovely little fingerprints
in every little thing I brush against

wouldn't you think i'd bandage it?
wouldn't you think i'd handle it?

Pin the notice to the wall, white striped wallpaper,
like theses in a church door, staring your way, sir,
Waiting for your look, waiting for protest or favor,

the thumbtack, clear and all but innocent
serves its purpose as i slowly push it in
securing my petition to the wall for all to see it

i'm not gonna put my hand down
i'm not gonna put my hand down
sir, i'm not gonna put my hand down this time

first, i will not be silent
i will not be quiet anymore,
next, i will entice every blade of grass to sing
and only then i'll concede you may be listening,
sir, this is a position worth dying for,
and i will not be quiet anymore.

Too Late

Last night, a voicemail on my machine,
the bi-minute beeping kept invading my sleep,
until finally, I abandoned my dreams to see
the dreadful message left for me.
"My friend, by the time you hear my voice
through your phone, black and cold against your cheek,
I'll be floating down the river
like the pieces of trees we used to watch
and make believe they were boats on their way to sea.
Oh maybe I'll make it before I sink,
I'd so like a gravesite Atlantic, asleep forever in the deep.

"I just need you to know, I need to do this alone,
but I love you so much, you've been my friend through it all,
and tonight as gravity blows my hair back,
I'll be thinking of the times we'd leap from the rocks
to the river down beneath, just to swim,
just to live, but that's not what I'm calling about tonight.

"I cannot explain, but this thinking, ever-hidden,
won't just go away unless I make it,
please don't feel guilty, I doubt that you could
have made it any better, No, I doubt you could,
though as I climb this bridge, struck by the wind,
I wish I would have given you a chance,
just a chance, but

that time has passed.
These words are my last.

I cannot explain,


but these words are my last."