Sketches, Volume II

"Like a cat up a tree"
Half a life, buried in a
Sentence fragment
Who knew she felt so trapped?
I thought her resplendent
The pride of the pride
She felt a lioness
Dethroned, declawed
I was wrong, she was gone
The irony in all this is that
She ended up marrying a firefighter
Can you believe that?
Couldn't have written it any better
It's too bad, really
I used to love cats
Now the neighbors' come over
And I crack sticks and drop stones
Hope I'll scare them away
Hope they'll leave me alone


Assholes got it easy
You don't have a soul to bless
You don't feel a bit of sympathy
When you're pawing at her dress
'cause underneath her panic
She's really saying yes
She's used to it, just leave her with the mess

Assholes got it easy
Don't feel sorry 'til you're caught
And only then because that asshole kid
Told that asshole cop
To your defense comes running
That good ol' winner Pop
Seems a lot like you, you think it could be taught?

Assholes got it easy
They just paint their pickups red
And regale you all with stories
of their favorite backseat head
Man, this shyness gets me nowhere
and in time we'll all be dead
Think I'm gonna be an asshole now instead


This thing the kids call dancing
They can't be serious
They laugh it off,
Say I still don't believe in cell phones
"I may be old," I say
"But I'm not blind"
I start to tell them how I met their grandmother
And they roll their eyes like a sock puppet
In any event, we at least had some
Self-respect
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Fitzgerald and Hemingway
Replaced by celebrities made famous
By their sex tapes, threats of violence,
The audacity of their jewelry
I love them of course, the kids
But sometimes I think back to the war
And those we left on the battlefield
And I wonder:
"Is this what we were fighting for?"


I could never love you
The way I love my sad songs
Until they press you onto vinyl
You're good as gone


I heard him coming down the hall
His footsteps
Violent and inarticulate
He knocked on the door
Like a football player
On prom night
Kissed me, said hello
I waited a moment
Then said
"I'm sorry,
But I didn't order that pizza."


Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
Full of sorrow, full of light
They're chasing you, you are in flight
From what do your great paws now flee
The poacher's laugh, the hunter's glee
Or is it someone more like me
Who can't describe what he can see?

Tigress, tigress, stark and calm
Your gentle laugh a soothing balm
With teeth that sing a violent psalm
And warm my blood like beggar's alm
I watched you nurse a tired cub
And wash him in a makeshift tub
But in aggression, there's the rub
You had your claws, man made a club

Tigris, Tigris, muddy shores
Have witnessed many storied wars
And birthed great legends through your pores
The dawn of man, their dying roars
Will you be there when time is still
When God has emptied out the till
We reach the back of our playbill
And wander cold into your spill?