When the Church Burn'd Down

Hear the bells up in the steeple
See the sparks fly in the air
There’s a hundred people screamin’
Lord,
An’ runnin’
Ev’rywhere
Yeah,
Folks are scared
Faces full of worry an’ despair
There was some evil up on holy ground
When the church burn’d down

Gonna call up all the elders
Someone call the reverend’s son
You can call the fire department
But ya know they’ll never come
They won’ come out
“Nigga wat yew talkin’ about?”
They brought some evil up on holy ground
When the church burn’d down

There was a cross up by the alter
Where the saints could come to pray
Now
There’s a new cross in the churchyard
An’ it’s burnin’ up in flames
A cross of shame
Try to tell us things have changed
There was some evil up on holy ground
When the church burn’d down

Now some men got the wisdom
An’ some men,
They be rich
An’ some men jes’ a shovel
Diggin’
Someone else’s ditch
Oh yeah
This life is such a burden
Got to carry it too long
An’ they push you
‘Til your mind is cracked
An’ your heart is goin’ wrong
Yeah we try to be yo’ people
Let the river wash us clean
But it smells like burnin’ timbers
An’ a trace of kerosine
An’ the saints
They keep on prayin’
For the new day
Full of grace
Lord
Why you keep delayin’
When they burn’d my baby’s face?
They brought some evil up on holy ground
When the church burn’d down
Poured some evil on my holy ground
When they burn’d it down

Polite Society

Mine is a craft
of conversation
Come spend a few hours with me
It's a gentle art
Two willing hearts
We'll conspire and consort
With perhaps
A snifter of Port
Ou une tasse of jasmin tea
What ever happened to
Polite society
And the era of
Liberal Arts?
The imperative's gone
To be gracious and warm
Well-rounded
Best form
Cosmopolitan
Epicurean
Alert and with curious hearts
To aspire
To that wisdom
That burns like a fire
To desire
Perfect etiquette
Parse the subject
From the predicate
To relish all manner of things
To know
To read
To grow
To need one another
To feel
To heal
To share
This intercourse
On some magic horse
Be well-versed on fair use
Of a salad fork
To recount
Of cabbages and kings
Our options abound
In endless amount
Any topic, please choose
'S all the same to me
The subject is secondary
Let's dance
With the words
Palaver like blackbirds
Social fraternity

Ten Minutes 'til Twelve

Ten minutes 'til twelve
The hour is late
Sharp sleet plays cadence
Upon the distant courtyard gate
Soon,
Dark midnight looms
Like jubilee
Of new delight
My bed a swampy
Cosmic sea
I lay awake
And wait
For you,
Strange succubus
Forever on the make,
To come again
And set me free
On this voluptuous night

Then we shall fly away?
To start anew?
My glorious strengths returned
Because of you
The lasers of my eyes to burn
We both (with greed) remember
Curse'd secrets that
Must not be learned
Old corpses long dismember'd
To flesh forever
We'll be true
No clever passion spurn'd
You female tramp
Enchanting ragtime hungry vamp
Beguiling slut
I drool to feel your cruelest cut
You bring your sister, too,
With fangs so long
And sexes damp

I prayerfully invoke
Before I drift in sleep
You'll stay
And mingle here with me awhile
Into this bed
Your spell must creep
Then blood
(and other flows) shall seep
(How well you know)
And I,
Erstwhile
Part shy
Decaying Romeo

Scarce moments left
'til midnight, now...
My rum gun poised
For shots across your bow
Leave far behind
All things allowed
Come,
Favorite fiend,
(with sister in between)
Come bite this anxious brow

Lakeside Dreams

In the tranquil calming silence
Of this lake-side weekend house
I loaf in my familiar chair
And watch exhausted sun
Drop finally down
Into a glassy mirrored bath
Of still-life
Amethyst blue
While distant bullfrog chants his prayer
And syncopates
With contrapuntal loon
To-whoo
Who bids the day his comforting adieu
Each note a tonic for my pain
My voltage drained
I grateful sink
And dream my precious dreams of you
Again
As endless fireflies wink

Yes,
It was even here
That I,
It seems,
A fresh-faced bounding boy,
Tin soldiers on the floor,
With boyish jactitations
Created hostile nations
Awful engines
Spoils of war
Imaginary corps
I lived within my toys
And first conceived my early dreams
Of you

My mother read to me
When I was two...
The rhymes of Mother Goose
(I was just new
and instantly seduced)
The best of times for
Little Boy Blue
Come blow my horn
Then one day
I turned three
And fast I learn'd to read
All dusty books and fairy tales
Dragon claws,
Woodsman's saws
And pirate sails
Scarecrows in the corn
The Jacks and Jills
And tumbling pails
My heart beat fast
And I would laugh at these
Canards of gransoise scale
(But some were sad)
I read
And read
'Til my eyes went bad
Upon my bed
A blanket near the fire
My nose book-bound and
Burning with desire
To escape (already)
Break stun-gun run away
Swirling in the eddies
While young fairies play
Fantasnization imaginary
Milk maids weeping near the dairy
And I incurable
Lost romantic
A valiant knight
Whose life was too pedantic
Enchanted armor,
(Gold, of course)
The handsome prince
Upon the wildest,
Brimstone snorting horse
The kindest aged
Wisest king
Who foiled the wicked
Witch's scheme
Who had the best of everything
If the world was milk
I was the cream
It was then I dreamt
My cherished dream
Of you

Real life was strife
And not much splendid
Thus I devised a world for us
Where dreams came true
And poems never ended
And everyone was always happy
And all the mommies loved the daddies
No one ever left alone
It was my perfect sanctuary
My castle and my home
All cock and bull
Perhaps,
But enduring, yes,
Though time elapsed...
I thought someday that you would come
I kept the faith and trusted full
My other half
My princess with a sugar plum
A wand of spells
'Tween finger long
And perfect thumb
Alas, my vision may have been
Another complex faerie trap

And yet, once more,
This one last time
I sit within this chair of mine
And watch exhausted sun
Drop quickly down
Into the glassy mirrored bath
Of still-life
Amethyst blue
While distant bullfrog chants his prayer
And syncopates
With contrapuntal loon
Who bids the day his comforting adieu
Each note a tonic for my pain
My voltage drained
I grateful sink
And dream my precious dreams of you
This final time
Again

Shake, Shake

Some people
Like eating cherries
Others delight
In fresh strawberries
But my baby,
She better than
All the rest
'Cause she keeps a pair
Inside 'er dress

Shake, shake
Try ta make it break

Now
Mr. Wazoo, he
Hide beside your
Back door
(Yeah),
Ya hear his
Crispy crunchy
On the cardboard floor
While my baby,
She crazy for my
Final surprise
She don' want the box
Unless there's
Somethin' inside

Shake, shake
Try ta make it break
Hesitation is a big
Mistake
Breakfast has always come
After our dreams, so
Won't ya float into my bowl
An' soak up the cream
Shake, shake
Try ta make it break
(C'mon, Jack
Don' be slack...
Come across wit' da
Cracker Jack)

Now ev'ry girl
(it's said, Sugar)
Got her price
If you don' ask enough
Honey
Dat's not nice
Whoa
The latex you been wearin'
Make me wan-na be
Da needle in da GROOVE
In yo' music machine
(I'm sayin')
Shake, shake
Try ta make it break
Hesitation is a big
Mistake
Breakfast has always come
After our dreams, so
Won't ya cum into my bowl
An' soak up the cream
Shake, shake
Try ta make it break
(C'mon, Jack
Don' be slack...
Come across wit' some
Cracker Jack)

We Legion

And when challenged
they chanted out (defiant)

"WE are many...!
WE are Legion...!

Leeeeegion....
Leeeeegion....

We are Legion!

We are...
We ARE...
We ARRRRRE...

We are WEEEE...

We leeegion
We leeegion

Weee
Weee
Weee
We are weee
We are reee

Re RRR Reee
We Re Weee
Re We Reee

Reee
Re Leee
We Re Leee
Re Leee

Reee Leee gion...
Reee Ligion...

Religion..."

The Hound is Dead, Long Live the Hound

There is nothing quite so effective
as a little down time
to bring things into focus...
when the dust can settle,
the air can clear,
the noise can fade,
and we are permitted
to have a contiguous
series of quiet moments
wherein we can reacquaint
with our true selves.

My time of disconnection
on an exotic island
has served.

Walking,
running,
on a beach strewn with
starfish, hermit crabs
and conches,
I happened upon myself.
I must have known that I'd be there.

A much needed reunion.

New Year's is a meaningless
Hallmark Holiday, like the others,
but it is true that,
if we are truly alive,
we periodically change,
re-invent ourselves,
survive.

Year's End is as good an occasion
as any other.

In this case, however,
I will simply get back to doing
what I had been doing
before I was so rudely interrupted.

Hello Shelley, Keats, Lord B.
Old Scratch, like Mick,
I'll show some sympathy,
Farewell,
all self-made prisons,
conventions
that kept me
under lock and key.
Libertine,
that's who I'll always be.

Come close, lass,
My fire may burn.
But ev'rything that's giv'n
Must yield something in return.

You had better,
It's essential,
You must.
Before our vessels rust.

And all who cannot fly
Shall be left behind.

Goodbye 2010, the old (new?) the Hound is dead.
Hello 2011, the new (old?) Hound has arrived.

Let the passions run wild,
my dark flower,
and our juices flow,
my stinger is ready
so "on with the show".