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an album in two parts

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The Rumple Tanden Friendship Society

if i could find the time to mine all the wonders in this life i'd have many gardens and many seeds a seance or dance a world-wind three step romance where we climb many many tall trees a shoebox theatre a play of decaying spring a diorama in honor of your grace long summer days soon will erase the memory of this life passing, at unrelenting speed come join me and fall into a scene of flying dreams, angels and demons in a relief frieze, just above the rumple tanden friendship society we promise you the moon if you stay awhile and have some tea when i find the time i go where i know i'm liked by many friends and lovers, i've yet met a mystery that is bigger bigger than you and me hangs on the edge of my tongue if i could just say the things i never say then we might share a moment here again and again on this reel to reel that blinking in black and white playing back the best and worst of our lives i promise you moon at the rumple tanden friendship society

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Deep Sea Diver

the deep sea diver with a perilous fate knows the ocean is a lonely place iron lungs a foggy face mask the need to go deep is bigger than anyone or anything oblivion dark abyss north pacific giant octopus tentacles as big as the ocean is long wakes the deep sea diver from his peaceful sleep the deep sea diver in a lonely place deep sea pressure with a reckless fate iron lungs and a foggy mask the need to go deeper is bigger than anyone or any need or anything

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I was Drunk and Missed the Miracle

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

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Life Feeds on Life

aint no God or religion looking out for me no job or government concerned with my well being its a wounded state of mind to find your lies are just the same now the landscape its cluttered and the world is for sale every square inch of my mind has been penetrated by some sign aint got no marajuana ridng on this train dont need a government or a corporation to do thing for me i can rule myself well and better than those fucking creeps sucking out the fun in life and inserting zombies they'll continue to trash world and ask us to pay to give them thanks, and take away our humanity until all the trash suffocates the rich and the glamorous go blind in toxic fumes and lies dont need no help to rule myself i can do it just fine sucking out the fun in life trading in for a new lie trading in for zombies life still feeds on life

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Robins in the Storm

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

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Pollution of the Sea

don't spoil this euphoria my head is swimming my breath is hardly warm i can see the smog of the city glowing orange as it hovers now that the air is poison i'll grow gills if i can't live by the sea i'll dive down pass the seaweed and live like a narwal rarely seen when im gone let me dissappear when im gone let me dissappear from your doorstep your windowsill from ur garden from ur side streets from ur back alley from ur blinking yellow light from everything

when im gone let me dissappear when im gone let me dissappear from the backyard from the forest from your bedroom from the folds in your hair from the quiet midnight from the chipping and peeling city from the overpass from everything

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Bonnie Boy

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

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When You Know

on the phone with a friend, there's static in her voice in time she begins to recount places she has been my blood runs cold i see myself in the pane a cracked window with a chipping wooden frame scent of decay, in the bottom of the sink withered country bouquet in a summer storm my eyes are barely closed blood is pumping in my veins beads of rain, not a whisper, without a thought push forward and fall, to pay every farthing of the cost the line's gone dead ivy and carnation

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The Body Falls Apart

there is a string from the brain to the feet pulls you like a puppet when you know you got to hoof from the pigs when i was young i was drinking and smoking staying out late going to parties til the sun came up the body falls apart and the brain atrophies the knees dont bend the eyes go blurry the body falls apart ears quit hearing the heart quits pumping legs stop jumping there's beauty in decay

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California to Maine (Song for Jeremy)

seething fear i have no way to escape the claws i have grown to scuttle across this forest floor cause as soon as i breath free you take another swing at me swing at me

growing my hair long with big old beard trading in my grills for velcro straps and a pack cause one day this waiting it will end my friend and i will drive cross country drive cross country

we'll touch edge of the pacific sea then write our name in pink and red on the walls in the mission

then maybe a postcard with your name will find its way to you from me stars and sequoias in california

for now these claws they are useless i can sting and pinch your cheeks

but why are these claws so heavy when will i grow normal hands and feet where are my hands and feet...

we'll touch edge of the north atlantic sea hide away on the coast of maine winter in the big woods abandoned by the sea sleeping in an empty barn plenty of love from this simple heart brand new hands brand new start ears that hear you clearly

pinch and sting your cheek pinch and sting your cheek

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i smear paint on a new white canvas caking ridges adjusted by my paint scraper like the feeling on my hands when paint drys the smell lin seed oil on my favorite pants painted over ever tuesday in the morning

In the morning my brain searches for an echo buzzes, blips, and static charge im searching for a black cup of coffee then realize there is a cat in my lap purring in the kitchen my blue shirt is covered in fur

then again morning i am driving we dont really talk we have passing smiles my eyes they begin to open we are still strangers here this morning that is to say we touched and painted our hands over