perpetual jam!!!!!!!!!

[saw]

temp is rising
the cast iron is cold
won't need it today
maybe the rain will clean my truck
playing catch-up
paying bills, doing taxes
but that is just the morning
the afternoon I will indulge myself
play the bass, write some jive
look out the window
like a privileged white boy
safe and dry, warm and fed
who knows how long I can ride this train
there ain't much gravy
but it's better than rock hard scraps
me and the squirrels are foragers
we live on little but today
tomorrow is a whole day away

[the mingo]

we aint the ancients
not yet
but we certainly
are the old men
our faces tell everybody
that this is so
seen it or done it
or been seen & been done to
but i aint ready for
that final song and
all that shit
as long as we
still draw breath
then there are things
to do
& we still tricking mad
with it all
and could still
lose our minds
before names & dates
are carved or, these days,
stamped into stone
just this afternoon i cleaned
out the stove
all the ashes piled
up in there
brought them down to the river
they made a big cloud
floating in the air
heading toward the earth
downstream

[WIREMAN]

found myself
multi tasking
today
back in the
hot sauce
after a couple
a daze of bad
weather
all of a sudden
it was lunch
worked thru it
then it was 5
and time for that
long ride home
on the train

[saw]

time warp
hours of the day
mean little to me
up all night sleep all day
such is the tale
of recuperation
surrender is key
giving in to the healing
patience for the patient
ain't so easy for a doer
it's a cool thing to have friends
that drop off supplies
I ain't out here like mr. lonely
glad I have a tv, some books
plenty of food, never heard so many sirens
all day long on harford rd.
I wonder about all those flashing lights
all those people that called 911
think I'm pretty lucky, safe
and warm inside my pad, so much
better than the hospital, sometimes they
wake you up to take your vital signs
poke you, probe you, then forget you
from time to time, for hours
I always imagined there were folks worse off
never used my call button
just waited in the dark with questions
rolling 'round in my head, saved them up
for the times I'd see a human being
the quality control people are a joke
they don't want the truth, they can't
handle the truth, they smile at you
like everything is great no matter what
you tell them, mistresses of denial

[the mingo]

fell asleep
sitting up on the couch
building the fire back up now
-7 outside -
landlord said gonna be warmer
later in the week
but right now bone moon
& arctic dreams
something clean about the cold
clean & simple & alive
if i could throw
all these words
out into the snow
they would not feel it
they would not freeze

[WIREMAN]

sticky to freeze
grecian yarns
fahey facts
visions at the
wharf
sleepy saturday
sculptures to tweek
mongolian searches
comedy & tragedy
the smiles got it
all for to jam
time left?
no counting
river running
freeze gone
for good?
its amazing how
fast she freezes
jets keep taking
off at national
silence of saturday night
sublime

[the mingo]

the sublime to a beat
piano comes in
to bolster the drums
a voice reciting
with the saxophone
yeah, i'm listening
to a dead man read
holy shit! violins!
mountains somewhere
far away
chet baker too slow
for me today -
got to have something with drive
tires squealing on the curve

[saw]

the rain attacks the panes
like it wants to come inside
and the truth is everything
wants to be somewhere else
do all those acorns make
the squirrels nuts, repeating
their dances like possessed puppets
the digging, the burying
I wonder if they ever forget
where they left things
I do all the time, but of course
I'm doing more than just one thing
I'm a multitasking modern man
I type poems listening to music
listening to the rush hour traffic
it's a new day, where the fuck
are my reading glasses ?
Oh that's right, there on the top
of my head

[WIREMAN]

river fog lingers
warm rain
yesterday
cold wind
today
jets risin fast
years turning faster
grateful dead
columbia u. in '68
amazing
audience right
on top of em
kids beating on their
cymbals
everyone groovin
smilin
feelin the music

[saw]

groovin' like rascals
caught all the shows
jimi to carlos
the vw bus roarin'
down the highway
the high way was okay
we altered the landscape
we laughed at the stiff suits
we carved new pathways
without hurting anyone
fuck the wars
fuck the rich
fuck your heartless hearts
ain't changed all that much
'cept hard to stand all day at a protest
but I'm with y'all
i feel the Bern of the new youth
I'm witcha...witcha....cha cha cha

[the mingo]

been in this spot
a year now
full turn of the seasons
the river higher
than i've ever seen it
it has almost swallowed
the arch of the bridge
putting honey on my muffin
watching all that water
roll on by

[WIREMAN]

hey ney .... hey ney
witchy tai tai
surface burn
power of that river
roll on big river
potomac out back
total spirit river
my home
grew up on the
oxon run which
spills into the potomac
pastures of plenty
all grown up now
5 cent sodas
pickles in a barrel
at the A&P
cows grazin along the
District line
be good and careful that
old farmer will light your ass
up with rock salt outta the barrel
of his shot gun....shoot em for
they run now

[saw]

so much water in mary-land
mary mary ain't contrary
river after river after river
creeks, streams, lakes, ponds
it's all within a stone throw
that skips along the surface
the gunpowder, the pokomoke
the chesapeake bay, the granddaddy
of them all, mary-land is all about
the water, the blue crabs
the natty-bo, the Orioles,
Ocean City, the savage river
cunningham falls, I could list water
for days on end, and here in mayfield
I can see Lake Montebello from my window
on the second floor, and the Herring Run
is two blocks away...water is in my
boyish soul, blue herons in the park
gulls , geese and ducks winter over
thank you global warming

[the mingo]

come back mingo!

i'm here, Wireman -
just been over too many poetry sites
full up with it -
too much
too much -
left me with a taste in my mouth
i really need to get out of this house
go on a 'ku hunt
from the back of my bike
Ghost of the Susquehanna
she's locked up out in the garage
in the dark
end-of-winter has left me
in a shitty mood -
i want to argue or fight
anything to get something going
bad juju -
too many sites out there
got their cliques - their "core" members
fucking politics of it all
it ain't about the words but
you can bet your ass that
everyone has something to say
about your use of them -
ryokan was right
hut-on-a-mountain
might not be a bad way to go
my sense of humor
needs a break

[WIREMAN]

Jammin
No rules
No fuckin form
No Jeffrey's
No posie tag
Jammin
70's here
Next week
Job insane
With problems
But I deal wid em
Watching the river flow
Outside the trailer
The planes takin off
From national at a
steep incline
Hains point on the
Far bank
Gulls begging for food
One has one leg
Dirty creatures
Sleek big black birds too
Kinda mysterious and devilish
Get on that bike asap
Springs in the air
Time to get down
Jammin