#-ist

i was innocent you see, i was down in san pedro having a drink watching young ladies going to work, and the old men sitting in the shade a friend came to me to say, its time to go and put your money away i stumbled behind him through the door, i was a mess in the afternoon i awoke upon the top step, of our lady of the rosary, with the tenderest bruise on my cheek i had only one shoe and my shirt was torn the sun in a scarlet flame, beat down on my brow, some would say later it danced, zig-zagging- just like- a fire wheel i drug myself through the streets, smelling of liquor and death a gentle voice beside guided me away from the alley where i intended to sleep the coffee of el centrito, filled my heart with the spirit to drink but the stranger beside me replied to me that it was time i went back home it was the wrong place to be, i admit i had many many drinks, but i've never held gun, or pulled a trigger and never even seen hammer fall on a spark none the less someone is dead, on the day three secrets were told i missed the first two, made no sense of the third, i was told it was beautiful

do you love me like the robin fallen to the street? shaken from the tree by a midnight tempest in late spring run over by my neighbors car then kicked into my yard do you love me like the robin at my feet? with its clipped wings torn asunder by teeth and claws of the beast alive in my house mainly my cat tweek do you love me? like the robin that fell from the tree? into the jaws of the fierce stark streets bloody and pulsating unforgiving stark and dour dismal drab and unrelenting brutal and ironic do you love me like a decaying robin in my neighbor's yard balled up kicked into the street again run over by neighbors a car and what remains is just a black mark no bright colors no evening song just more cars and more smog no more music just the roar of lawnmowers and progress

i once was a bonnie boy with a comely face, and a real strong back i once was a bonnie boy lived in the woods, played all day until the day i met a lass come from the edge of the forest at the edge of the rolling fluffy hills at the foot of tall tall mountains her dress was torn her arms were bloodly asked her name she asked mine too i followed her down to the river watched her bathed and dress her wounds asked her name she asked mine too when she left i took to drink cigarettes and strong whiskey wondered up and down riverbed crossed the mountain one too many times i once was a bonnie boy never seen the bonnie lass again never said her name but only asked i once was a mountain boy with a comely face, and a real strong back i once was a bonnie boy i live in the woods, and decay all day

pinch and sting your cheek pinch and sting your cheek