blues for hokie mokie

don't want can't need
can you win with this much risk
staking everything
a zen boomerang
a snake coiled on itself
trombone a barometer
of dreamdance that
lovers hang their hats on
hokie bebop mokie stomp
bone man supreme
want to name you water
want to name you fire

and what you say
yeah, man, we live we die
and along the way...
we just try to have a little fun
hokie's horn could make truth a lie
that was the destiny of the jazz king

hokie blowing the wild mockingbird
of montezuma ocelets leaping
to his sound raccoons and macaws
jiving how come you do me
like you do do do
spider monkeys catch his gig
owls hoot for the bone man

that which moves the fish
moves the leaves the bells
hokie's crazy mojo
the blackest of the cat bones
that's the way victory
is snatched from the jaws of defeat

hokie done gone on ginseng solo
utterly gone
chicken stomp crow stomp dust flyin
what's the difference he asks
i am you and you are me
skin to see drop of flame
like flesh luminous in cells
this is the way i speak without speaking
pressing his lips to his horn




the itch

twisted
that night
like a
misfit in
a ditch
risk
was more
than a
word
when i
looked
into your
gunpowder
eyes
& motor
cycles were
backfiring
in the
alley
passersby
skeletons &
shadows
w/knives in
their spines
& i didn't
have to
consult a
thesaurus
to find a
synonym
for danger
it was
your name
your arms
your legs
& that itch
you were
so good
at scratching


blue haze of dream of demon sway

i stalk the dark of the moon
for the rain that drinks me
a booth in a bar to move to
the black-eyed blues blue haze
of dream of demon sway a naked
moan from the street outside
i have nothing to say my body
does the talkin stalkin the
dream the nightmare the vision
see my eyes shift slowly to
the side as my shoulders
feel the rhythm i hear the moon
and know midnight is coming
smoke and shadow rain and dust
the skeletal kiss of the
dancefloor the naked torso of
midnight big dice tumbling
look at them snake eyes your
body trembling under my touch
i leave my fingerprints on
your spine you call my name
you ask who i am i am who i am
the one who dances with the
living and the dead as you
feel the beat in your back
in your neck under my x-ray
eyes you laugh like a river
as we dance alone together
solitary phantoms a blues in
the night a grunt a groan a
noise from the street the slick
asphalt reflecting neon the
blast of horns the pour of rain
the surging rhythm of the blues
remember me as the touch that
is left on your body the feel
that is left in your moves


billy the kid

heard things
in the night
footsteps
outside his
bed said he
dreamed of a
gun exploding
when he asked
if there was
anyone there
all he could
remember the
pain in his
head as if
he had eaten
ice cream
too fast