2.2617 : 7/2/12 : Stumble Start

Stumble at the start
not find much to take heart
beset all about by side tracks
weighed down by the old stacks
none of it can be allowed to stop me
none of you are man enough
to drop me

what

2.2616 : 7/1/12 : Mile Marker

Throw in a mile marker
Something to look back on
pray another year
doesn't feel like just a tack on
Pray to who knows what
pray to my humming doubt
it isn't what you think
but I sure
haven't got it figured out

what

2.2615 : 6/30/12 : Hobby

This train of thought feels like a hobby horse
this chain of ought always feeling off course
this getting drawn into the culture war scrums
logs getting sawn and here I'm twiddling my thumbs
I don't need a hobby, I need a fucking job
show me where to lobby, what kind of bomb to lob
nobody is fit to save this race of utter fools
no one has the bravery, no one has the tools
no one has my answer I am hung out on my own
beating every chance out of the hobby horse I own
seems I need a sharp turn and a different track
snap the strings of my harp throw it on the
smouldering stack

what

2.2614 : 6/29/12 : Labor

The labor is not ending
no matter how sick
I am of defending
what seems self-evidently
necessary
Look have you ever
seen a deader canary?
That canary is deceased
it has expired
it fell for the last time
off its wire
it's an ex-canary
it's passed right on
it's kicked the bucket
the canary is gone
but that is not the labor
and I'm wasting air
ironically the very
thing we had to repair

what

2.2613 : 6/28/12 : Wilderness

Enough the world is not
ending quickly
I'm just a tourist in
this wilderness
I've heard so many
apocalypse projections
hard not to think that what
will happen next is anybody's guess
new times will not
be like old times
no one can imagine
what's yet to come
if it doesn't come right to the wasteland
I'll sit and listen as the crickets hum

what

2.2612 : 6/27/12 : Daylight

Hey friend now
are you burning daylight
don't you know it's
time to be chopping wood
do your scratching late or early
by the stray light
hey we'd turn a light on for
You if we could
wake up son
it's time for carrying water
daydreams were for
another age
for the few who were not
led to the slaughter
you better be sure
before you waste another page

what

2.2611 : 6/26/12 : Flashlight

Writing by flashlight
wondering how long the batteries would last
and where we'd go when it got cold at night
how we couldn't bear thinking of the past
how each thing would have to contract
how nothing could speed anything up
some claim there'll be no second act
because we went and drained the cup

what

2.2610 : 6/25/12 : The Other Way

The worm was s'posed to
turn the other way
that whirlwind
didn't have a thing to say
I'm so so mad
haven't I felt bad
enough to satisfy you
and if it's alright by you
Could this turn out to be
just a fluke in a day?
and I'll promise to look
Straight at the other way
when they come asking after why
I'll say whatever I think upon the sly

what

2.2609 : 6/24/12 : Of Pain

The mass of pain
at least delivered me
from the strain
of the common inanity
hope here's nothing
really wrong down there
more proof as if I needed it
despite it all I still care

what

2.2608 : 6/23/12 : Strip

Have to tear a strip in the real
Expose a deeper blue
Here's what it's telling you:
Though you are more than you feel
Though this turning inward has appeal
you must get noble fast
learn to crave a king's repast
to jump on the next revolution of the wheel

And the strip torn down the sky
murmurs why why why
does the fool still try
to entertain each passer by

Hammered a crank into the earth
when it hit stone I stopped
soon as the plumb line dropped
And ran it round for all I was worth
I wasn't laughing but I felt a little mirth
I'd made such a strange machine
generated not one bean
Yet every dawn revealed another birth

what

2.2607 : 6/22/12 : Therapy

Do I need therapy
or a bolt of lightning
this new hole you're tearin' me
is not exciting
I want to, oh transcend
is that so demanding
Sir I'm a gentle man
please be unhanding
the moment for the mark
the truth for a lark
the grim ontology
it permits topology
neither what I wanted or what I ought
nothing in my hand I brought
If the therapy takes oh
will I give it up?
Not while I dine no
not while I sup

what

2.2606 : 6/21/12 : Pound

If I can't tell if I'm
caught up in the rapids
or becalmed in flat water
how'm I ever gonna
get to be a happy otter
Is my head really turned
so thoroughly around
How can I even choose
what path I pound
So much low fruit
I know I know I know
so many obvious dead ends
yet off I go
pound the same drum
isn't this beat familiar
It ain't making you stronger
hence I'm feared it's gonna kill ya

what

2.2605 : 6/20/12 : Tooth

The point as it turned
was a tooth pulled from the head
the warmth
that rushed
from the pills it was fed
not a night for
putting it together
the answer still seemed
not when but whether

what

2.2604 : 6/19/12 : Turning Point

Even so there
has to be a turning point
and if it isn't
this:
Still there has to be
if there's
to ever be
a second chance
at what I still miss

what

2.2603 : 6/18/12 : Minutes

Making book on minutes
not impressive
after six or seven years
am I afraid to lie down
fear that poison
might get forced into my ears
it has to be enough
but that don't make it
anything like plenty
don't ask me
where it's headed
if you must go ask who sent me

what

2.2602 : 6/17/12 : Scorpion

It's my nature
said the scorpion
is it a thing more
with anyone
I've made changes
that were surprising
but can't say what
drives each day's arising
is it reversal or
revision I seek
just to be kinder
and less bleak
to be a scorpion
that will not sting
free from my nature
free from everything

what

2.2601 : 6/16/12 : The Call

The fear that nothing will change
the fear that everything will
the fantasy of realism
every bitter pill
the bigger blank page
the harder the block
for those about to sell out
salutations: here's your rock
no matter how I twist it
I can't get the words to fit
silence gnaws unrelenting
maybe how we got this pit
the fear that everything will stay the same
the fear that everything will fall
the fear I cannot stop waiting
the fear I'll never hear the call

what

wind the works and let it run

Song 2.2600 brought things to the end of volume 2.14, The Record (Inheritance 1): In Memory: Richard Hamlow April 18, 1939 - November 23, 2011.

And along we go to volume 2.15, Black Book A.K.A. "Wait for the Call"

what

2.2600 : 6/15/12 : Day 1

Can I come up with a better way
to deal with how it always
is day one
Just want to be settled
wind the works
and let it run
Guess I could stop
complaining
try to find the evergreen
but I'll admit
I'd rather be swept up
by something
I have never seen

what

2.2599 : 6/14/12 : Walk Backwards

I'm going to walk backwards
take it step by step
until I find the pivot
where I got on this bad rep
nothing is reversible
but you can trace the track
I'm grinning like a politician
At long last a plan of attack
attack my mediocrity
attack my hesitance
attack my all or nothing bullshit
never made a lot of sense
take this back and take that back
I'm a hypocrite so what
while you scratch your chin on that
I dust it with an uppercut
retreat before you can protest
past every regret
how far can I walk back to
haven't hit it yet

what