Ashes, Ashes

Ashes, Ashes, all fall Down

Like the ashes wet and warm in the smoking base of the ring of rocks

Ashes in the road to fill the holes to let the travel go

Ashes in the air that I can see to hide the mountains that I can't see to fill me lungs

Ashes on the pillow that the towers once were, that hides in a bag in my closet
Ashes of the workers where the towers once were that hides in the pillow that hides in the bag in my closet

Ashes in my eyes
Ashes in my lungs

Ashes, Ashes, all fall down

From Ash you have come and from Ash you will return
From Ash you have come and from Ash you will return

I was formed of the ground

He proposed with a ring made of the paper band of a pouch of pipe tobacco in the stands of a dusty dirt race track in central NewJersey.

She was from a small working town full of factories.

They made it ten years...
-I am from Ash.

I live in a town where the dust falls all year long,
and the land powders up in the heat and blows,
but there is no wind, and precious little rain.
-I am from Ash.

He is mindful of us, because we are but made of dust.

Filled with the living water (what, over ninety percent?)

Mud creatures
Gollem, the soulless walking clay.
harbouring light.
endwelled by a tiny spirit
that grows and melds and one day leaves.

We are from Ash, and to Ash we return.

David asked to be purified
We were told by the prophets that we'd be sifted like wheat
Reduced to Ash
Ground to powder
Added to the water

Till one day the Spirit is released
the weight is dropped
with a slumping thud

the slowness of mind
the limit of speech
the weight of this body

is left
Where there is only the Sanctified
the Glorified
Purified
Sifted

Shimmering for a little bit, blinking and smiling
while the Ash
blows away.

(' Have mercy on Me, Oh God, According to your Unfailing Love, According to you Great Compassion, Blot out My Trangression, Wash Me from my Iniquities, and Cleanse Me From My Sin...'
-(David Psalm 51 (but you'd do better to hear Charlie Peacock and Vince Ebo sing it on West Coast Diaries Vol. 2.)

No Matter What

No matter what you are
I will always be with you
Doesn't matter what you do, girl
Ooh girl, with you

No matter what you do
I will always be around
Won't you tell me what you found, girl
Ooh girl, want you

Knock down the old, grey wall
Be a part of it all
Nothing to say, nothing to see, nothing to do
If you would give me allAs I would give it to you
Nothing would be, nothing would be, nothing would be

No matter where you go
There would always be a place
Can't you see it in my face, girl
Ooh girl, want you

-BadFinger

walkin' the cow

tried to remember, but my feelings can't know for sure
try to reach out, but it's gone...
but the stars in your eyes...i'm walkin' the cow...

i really don't know how i came here...
i really don't know why i'm stayin' here...oh oh oh, i'm walkin' the cow...

tried to point my finger, but the wind keeps blowin' me aroundin circles...circles...
but the stars in your eyes...i'm walkin' the cow...

i really don't know what i have to fear...
i really don't know why i have to care...oh oh oh, i'm walkin' the cow...

but the stars in your eyes...

-Daniel Johnston

...I didn't know about it until, you know like, long after we were serious.
(serious, how serious... married?)
-yeah actually.

I mean, you never know, and it doesn't really bother me, you just don't really suspect it to look at first...
(suspect?)

-well, you know, some folks you can just tell, that they're different.
(..different.)

-just you know, not like everybody else, not suspecting such a thing.
(...different?)

Well, she just doesn't dress out of the ordinary, and you'd just never suspect
(suspect... different.... what?)

All down her....
um...
back.

She just has these, um, well, places for rings...
(...rings... -what do you mean rings...?)

Rings, dammit, you know, rings, like earrings, but they're not.
(...rings?)

Yeah... and they'res got to be, hell, I dunno, twenty, or so on each side...
(...rings...)
Yeah.

It's for a ribbon that she wears...
(...a ribbon?)
Well, yeah, I mean, it kind of laces up like that, like you know, on a sneaker or a corset or something...
(?)

Yeah, well, she just likes it I guess...
(?)
(...you never knew about...)
No.

(..so how does she, I mean, what happens so that she..... jeez... rings?)
Yeah.... she needs me to lace the ribbon on...
(...really?)
Yeah... really...

(...and you never knew...)
Swear to God, had no idea...

(-Um, yeah, sweetheart, I'll go with a Liverwurst and onion with Swiss on Pumpernickle, and I'll go with the polish mustard too... huh? no, no mayo.... sure, the pickle is fine... kosher if you got it... thanks... You eatin?)
Nah.

-Ike's Deli, Levittown, 1993

Shut Down

Tach it up, tach it up
Buddy gonna shut you down

It happened on the strip where the road is wide
Two cool sharps standin side by side
Yeah, my fuel injected stingray and a four-thirteen
Were revvin up our engines and it sounds real mean

Tach it up, tach it upBuddy gonna shut you down

Declinin numbers at an even rate
At the count of one we both accelerate
My stingray is light the slicks are startin to spin
But the four-thirteens really diggen in
Gotta be cool now power shift here we go

Superstock dodge is winding out in low
But my fuel injected stingrays really startin to go
Im gettin the traction Im ridin the clutch
My pressure plates burnin that machines too much

Pedals to the floor hear the dual quads drink
And now the four-thirteens lead is startin to shrink
Hes powered by ram induction but its understood
I got a fuel injected engine sittin under my hood

Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down

-Beach Boys

automatic writing

some idiot determined it to be a metaphysical exorcise
harry houdin channelling his dear departed mother
the ghost in the machine
the ghost inside of you

this thought,
not intellect
this visceral spasm
i bleed and secret
it's a chemical, darling
that's all it is
electrons
whirling little pieces of nothing

and if you could pass your hand through this table
-and why could you not?
-because it's made of wood
after the fire,,,,,
that's all it is
atoms
electrons
and you can pass your hand through that?
-cant you?

look at out past the hood
it's a million degrees out
tell me if it is real
or just the heat playing tricks
I can feel you breathing...

and why is it, that when I'm made mostly of water
I don't dissolve when I immerse myself
and stare
at the far end of the tub
why do I dissappear
when I'm swimming naked
-did I ever exist at all....

it's a matter of time
a matter of time and a matter of will
eventually it all sort of blends
kind of happening already
like the same loop of tape
year after year
recorded over and over again
listen close to the grooves of a potshard
found in a mayan ruin
-the sound is captured in there
you just don't know how to release it

what does it take
temperature
tiredness
the touch of the right lover
sleep

they kid around about spontanious human combustion
but they'll never understand
how the moment
standing like the winged victory on the nose of a Rolls
where you can lean
into the sound, the motion, and the cues
none given
all felt
simultainously added and joined
a hymn sung by those who don't even know the words
what ignites then?

Why dally around with such things in a contrived manner
why create something
when all you have to do
is learn to put
your hand
through this desk
to see through
to pass through
and relax one's vision

it's merely twilight
that's all it is
twilight
where we all came from
and where we're all going.

'sweet thing you're borne once again, for me.'