Tony Moffeit

the blues burning like a midnight sun

 

looking for a line to begin a poem

i find instead the wild rivers of your eyes

through the smoke drifting like a dream

   through the bar

and as we dance i close my eyes

holding you as close as words to me

the blues burning like a midnight sun

thinking back to the zen monk hanging

by a loose branch over the edge of a cliff

a mountain lion above, five thousand feet

below, a rat gnawing on the branch, so he

picks a berry and thinks "how delicious!"

the blue haze of the saloon sliding

behind your profile the gorgeous smell

of the steel mill mixed with your perfume

 

 

shack bully stomp

 

baby make me a road tramp

need some kinda outlaw jelly roll

got the lonesome devil blues

like it better than alcohol

shack bully stomp

baby calls me lightnin slim

i rambled into her place one night

groanin like a bullfrog

and when i got there

she turned off the light

she's a woman who understood

my lone wolf ways

called herself the bitch from hell

told her i liked a woman

with a sense of humor

found out later she was serious

 

 

lady day

 

the pain made pure

a woman alone

lester's sax blowing cool

and breezy don't

worry about me

she sang i'll get along

somehow and the

night entered her skin

a sleepwalker in

a death parade

 

and her pulse was slowing

the rhythm slowing

blood fever flushed

back on the bandstand

she was born to sing

and her twin was

a saxophonist

her hole card

was her voice

infinity caught

in a moan

 

and her mirror was black

the endless void

of her addiction

and she carried her loneness

not as a crutch

but as a creation

and that man on sax

the smoke of her mirror

the last blues left standing

in the dark ring of desire

 

 

robert johnson

 

demon love juju mama

blues conjure wail

wild born mojo

graveyard air

a piece of chalk

for the tombstone

the deal gone down

and the night is evil

been down

the backroad trail

shacktown jumpin

dark and lonely

at the crossroads

 

wail blues wail

from body to

bartered soul

shake baby shake

shake on the

sawdust floor

juke joint juju

wail blues wail

take the power from

the black cat bone

conjure night

dark and lonely

at the crossroads

 

got mojo got blues

got the low down

sound hangin around

the deal gone down

and the night is evil

greyhound get ready

to go the blues are

bleeding on the

backstreets you

threw the dice that

came up snake eyes

dark and lonely

the deal gone down

 



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