Toward a Better Breed of Freaks
Running with the pack
is not so easy
as one might suppose.
It takes a special kind of guts
to listen to the same old noise
day after day... even if
the peace at night’s rewarding.
Going it alone has hazards too,
but you meet a better breed of freaks.
-from “If You love Somebody, Tell Them/1970
Calendar,” 1969
A Patch of Sky,
Away From Everything
You move through the house
sweeping down the bedroom
with your eyes
like sun on Sunday
but more like you.
Shall I cover you with lilacs when you die ?
Do that for me if I go first.
Smell me up the old world
as you pass my grave.
I talk of dying because then I’d be sure
not to see your eyes darting in the street
going from face to face
seeking my replacement.
Here at home I’m safe
no talk of dying now
I live beneath the furrow of your brow
and think myself immortal.
Stake me out a patch of sky
some no one has ever seen
we’ll go there and live
away from everyone
and everything.
-from the album “The Sky,”
1969
Election / For
Sister Mark Sandy
I used to wonder why
God only came to visit me on Sunday.
He must have been as bored with me
as I
with him.
One hour once a week was once enough.
God’s really hurt nobody but the poor
and still they go on voting every year.
An echo not a choice.
I’ll deal with death when it comes knocking,
the same is true of God.
Even I don’t practice what I preach.
If I believed there was no God
I’d have to face the possibility of no me.
-from "In Someone’s
Shadow", 1969 |
