28 december

even as i make a fool of myself i can feel the thread the needle in my hand stitching together each scene as the stage goes on the show the filmstrip rolling on in the dark we're parking at the drive-in arriving to see and be seen although i've never been one to make that grade other than the report card kind i'd never mind those kinds of labels the right names rearranged you can call me anything that makes you feel better / i know what my own name is and i make my own weather -- these are the pages i can do without and i will write my own story -- those are the circles you walk again and trot the horses two by three -- easy as pie they'll say and play the melodies in unforgivable rhythms swimming backward in honkytonk steamships eclipsing all sense of escape (we are the freight and our memories are frightful) delight in the righteous and fear no ill but darkness -- we are the birds and the trees swim in air ! these are the songs that our neighbors will compare their dinner plates to as the night comes up and they cannot abide their fortune cookies, their socks with spotted toes and unconcerned stripes, sneaking to our windows to imagine our secrets in their greedy wide eyes -- how can we have earned this wonder ? let us to our own tables guide our efforts ! let us pour our hearts to growth and art ! we are care and sun and every mountain placed with cautious crayons and wanton use of hope