Mixing Metaphors

On the Other Side (April 2020)

The mornings are much darker since the clocks were set ahead

The dawn is lost to shadow and I should be home in bed

But I wander through this quiet world, adrift in isolation

Looking for a ray of hope in a desperate situation 

But I’ll be waiting with both arms open wide

We’ll be stronger, grateful we survived

When our mettle has been tested and our tolerances tried

I’ll see you on the other side

You went to war without a shield, the generals left you there

The first line of defenders, disarmed and unprepared

And you rush through busy, crowded wards with poison in the hallways

And risk your life while we pretend that life’s the same as always

We’ll all be waiting with both arms open wide

You’ll be stronger, grateful to survive

Let’s put aside our anger, reach across the great divide

I’ll see you on the other side, I’ll see you on the other side

Will we recognize each other behind the mask, beneath the glove?

If we can’t hold one another, can we still hold on to love?

For all the lives we sacrificed at the altar to our pride

I’ll see you on the other side

Dragonfly (2000-2021)

Translucent wings of subtle hue,

An iridescent shade of blue

Through dales and pastures wet with dew

A living flash of light, she flew

Across the sky, dragonfly

Sapphire, ruby, emerald green    

Colors like you’ve never seen      

She hovers through our waking dream    

Till she takes her leave to ride the breeze 

Passing by, dragonfly                  

Dragonfly, wipe away the tear from your eye   

Don’t cry, dragonfly

Her hum in flight, her sweet refrain  

The harbinger of summer rain     

Messengers of hope, aflame    

And we were never quite the same  

You were why, dragonfly            

Dragonfly, spirits on the wing, flyin’ high    

Goodbye dragonfly            

The Deeper the Love (January 2020)

We pray for the sun but we need the rain

The price of our pleasure we pay with our pain

I’ll take the risk, I’m in all the way

Till the toll of the bell at the end of the day

The lessons of loss, so heavy they lay

When we bear the cost of living each day

We’re whittled away to wounds burned and raw

Till we’re blown in the wind and our bones turn to straw

The deeper the love, the darker the sorrow

The shadows that fall when the sun sets

Count your blessings, not your tomorrows

We borrow each moment of love that we get

Grief freezes time and we’re lost in the now

Between frozen moments of wondering how

To return to the cycle, back to the flow

It’s our turn to be here till it’s our time to go

The deeper the love, the darker the sorrow

The shadows that fall when the sun sets

Count your blessings, not your tomorrows

We borrow each moment of love that we get

Light leaves a shadow, joy leads to sorrow

We borrow each moment of love

Still Lookin’ for America (March 2020)

We came ashore at Plymouth Rock

Gave the neighbors quite a shock

Our destiny was manifest

We pointed wagons to the west

Concord, Yorktown, Lexington

Tradin’ slaves in Charleston

Three-fifths of a man in the census takin’

The trail of tears to the reservations

But I’m still, lookin’ still 

For that beacon of light from the city on the hill

From the wall at the border all the way to Canada, 

I’m still lookin’, I’m still lookin’, I’m still lookin’ for America

Once I rode the Greyhounds and rails like a Kerouac poem

If somehow that kid could be here now, I don’t think I’d know him

It’s been 50 years since I hitchhiked from Saginaw

And I’m still lookin’, I'm still lookin’, I’m still lookin’ for America

Woody said this land is ours

Sea to shining sea beneath the cell phone towers

From A1A to Route 66

You can feel the pulse of the heartland tick 

And I’m still, lookin’ still 

For that beacon of light from the city on the hill

From Shiloh to Selma, the battle lines are still drawn, 

And I’m still lookin’, I’m still lookin’, I’m still lookin’ for America

Turn to You (2018-2019)

We measure time by the whirling of worlds

How much darkness the light travels through

As we each take our turn on this turning world

It turns out I turn to you

The turning of the moon marks the turning of the tides

As we circle ‘round a star through the cycles of our lives

Just a dance, a circumstance we try to comprehend

We measure time by the whirling of worlds

How much darkness the light travels through

As we each take our turn on this turning world

It turns out I turn to you

If we could just stop time 

And stay one moment more

While our lives are intertwined

And I am yours and you are mine

Deep, you pull me in

The gravity of skin

Sets my heart aspin

So we end as we begin

Each of us returns to dust

That’s all we ever were

The Ways of War (April 2020)

I stand upon this field of death

Where thousands drew their final breath

I’ve come to pay my last respects and ask what they died for

A thousand generations’ blood

Has flown like rivers through the mud

Tributaries to the flood of centuries of war

Did the treaty last? Not long at all

Till the cannon blast and the musket ball

The die was cast when the bugle called us all to the ways of war

With pointed sticks and sharpened stones

We rip the flesh and break the bones

Tyrants lusting for the throne no matter what the cost

We point our missiles at the sky

Let slip the dogs of war to fly

How many billions more must die till we comprehend the loss?

Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan

The Kremlin and the Pentagon

Arrows, spears, and smarter bombs

Such are the ways of war 

Did the treaty last? Not long at all

Till the cannon blast and the musket ball

The die was cast when the bugle called us all to the ways of war

So we lay the wreath and plant the cross

An ever longer list of loss

The tragic toll, the tortured thoughts

The cost of the ways of war

1968 (2018-2021)

One day the clock struck twelve and woke me from a dream

I felt the whole world change the day I turned 18

I couldn’t wait to graduate, gotta get out of this place back in 1968

That San Francisco summer was just the year before

Its broken promise lay like shaven hair across the floor

Now the draft board’s got my number, 

Gonna teach me how to hate in 1968

Gimme my cap, gimme my gown, 

Gimme my gun, I’m leaving this town

Gotta go out and meet my fate in 1968

Than Martin died in Memphis and Lyndon said “no more”

The last drop of my innocence bled with Bobby on the floor

As the whole world watched Chicago, 

The Pentagon kept score

Marching in the streets…bringing home the war…

A life or two ago, the world went up in flames 

And I was left to be whatever man that I became 

Now all that we remember is that America was great back in 1968

Gimme my cap, gimme my gown, 

Gimme my gun, I’m leaving this town

Gotta go out and meet my fate in 1968

My Last Day at the Circus (January 2021)

Can’t remember the day when the circus arrived

Feels like it’s always been here

With its three rings of action, sideshows, and attractions

Filled me with wonder and fear

I remember the way the carnies would say,

“Hey kid! Feelin’ lucky today?”

And I laughed at the clowns and their hopeless hijinks

Grownups who knew how to play

On my last day at the circus

The carnies converged in parade

The trapeze didn’t fly, the whole troupe passed by

Swallowing swords, spinning plates 

On my last day at the circus

The barkers’ extravagant claims

Rattled the cages of all the big cats

Lions and tigers to tame

There were puppets and pipers and misfits galore

Contortionists tryin’ to fit in

The penultimate prance down the midway before

The ultimate strange trip begins

This time the mimes escaped their own prisons

Walls they had conjured by hand

And the cannonball guy shot off to the sky

Not quite sure where he’d land

On my last day at the circus

The calliope played one last tune

And I walked away, though I wanted to stay

Each moment passing too soon

On my last day at the circus

The elephants pulled up their stakes

Twelve clowns climbed in an impossible car

And honked as they made their escape

Heard Immunity (November 2020)

Sometimes the news is a little bit grimmer

The shine on my shoes a little bit dimmer

Crowds are swarming, tempers simmer

Rumors flyin’, omens warn

Leaders lyin’, friends are dyin’

Oceans warming, coming storm

I heard immunity in the melody

I found the remedy in the rhyme

I heard immunity in the melody

That’s what’s keepin’ me alive

Sometimes I catch reality slipping

Stumbling, wondering whether I’m tripping

At our corner of this multiverse

Could be better, could be worse 

Are we blessed or are we cursed?

At the broken edge of the flattened curve

I heard immunity in the melody

I found the remedy in the rhyme

I heard immunity in the melody

That’s what’s keepin’ me alive

We’re all in the same boat, clinging to hope

Singing to just keep afloat

I heard immunity in the melody

I found the remedy in the rhyme

I heard immunity in the melody

That’s what’s keepin’ me alive

It’s keepin’ you and me alive

The Secrets We Keep (July 2014)

Her hidden history she left untold

Shrouded in mystery for reasons unknown

Dark memories buried deep

The secrets we keep

They married just before Pearl Harbor Day

Lost to the fog of war, the world turned to gray

Dreams haunting deepest sleep

The secrets we keep

What do you do when they’re gone?

How can we all carry on?

And when her spark was gone, we were left in the dark

She gave up everything and it broke her heart

Forever in her debt

The secrets she kept

What do you do when they’re gone?

How can we all carry on?

(We Can’t Fly With) Only One Wing (December 2020-January 2021)

The birds of prey are hunting today

The vultures are circling high

As the crows in the fray shriek their dismay

At the dark cloud of hawks in the sky

The wing on the right is flapping in vain

Only one half of a pair

As the left wing beats to a different refrain

This flight is goin’ nowhere

Some birds get their beaks wet and feather their nests

Retweeting the song of the king 

Set your sights high, to the top of the sky

We can’t fly with only one wing

Birds of a feather all flock together

Believing a different truth

Inside our bubbles, unruffled, untroubled

Mistaking consensus for proof

Peacocks parade, parrots repeat

The claim of lame ducks to the throne

The talons deploy, the ostrich retreats

And the scavengers pick through the bones

The chickens came home to roost, sitting ducks, cooked goose

What a lark, when they let the loons loose

We set our sights high, to the top of the sky

We can’t fly with only one wing

We can’t take off till we shake off the hate

That’s draggin’ us down to the ground with its weight

So take a deep breath and leap from your nest,

Fledglings cutting our strings

Sharing the skies, we could soar, we could rise

We can’t fly with only one wing

Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town (May 2021) (Bob McPeek-Eddie Suggs)

It's a quarter moon in this ten cent town

I spent half my life just hangin' ‘round

Restless ghosts that make no sound

Stir the shadows as the moon shines down

Well, you grew up fast as a jimson weed

This sleepy town never saw such speed

I thought you hung the moon at 17

But you were done when the sandhills came

Blew through here like a hurricane

Each of us inside a separate dream

To the crescent moon and its sideways frown

I confess my sins when no one’s around

Judgment looms like a thundercloud

Stalking shadows as the moon shines down 

I guess I could’ve left here a thousand years ago

There’s nothin’ to hold onto, but still I can’t let go

Dead end streets, restless feet, searchin’ for somewhere

I’ve been lookin’ all this time but still there’s nothin’ there 

I can close my eyes and taste your skin 

That held your secrets tight within

Bottled up and ready to explode

When the days dragged on so slow and cruel 

Before time played us both for fools

Set up to fall like a row of dominoes

Now the new moon skulks through its darkened shroud

I could start anew if I just knew how

Hidden stars can’t convince the clouds

To let the light come shining down

On With the Show (1977-2019)

Sometimes it all seems so absurd 

That all you can do is laugh at your words

I remember that young man out of his depth

Spinning his words and wasting his breath

Had I known what to say instead of just talkin’

And rushin’ somewhere I should have been walkin’

So much of the message I just didn’t get

And I’m just at the top of my list of regrets

Let it go, let your sorrow melt like crestfallen snow

Let it go

For your tears, blood and sweat have had no effect

And it’s time to get on with the show

Now I am told “try not to care”

And all that I need is inside me somewhere

I remember that young man, bitter and sweet

Till you came along and made me complete

All of that talk when I should have listened

Apologies made just gave us permission 

To do it again and fall under the spell

Now it doesn’t matter whose story we tell

Let it go, let your sorrow melt like crestfallen snow

Let it go

For your tears, blood and sweat have had no effect

I guess we all choose what to lose or neglect

And nothing is ever quite what you expect it to be

And it’s time to get on with the show…

On with the show

Let it go

Walking Each Other Home (December 2019-March 2020)

Way back when we took our first steps and toppled to the ground

All those lessons learned from falling couldn’t keep us down

It was our mother’s hand that helped us to stand

Till finally we stood on our own

If we crawl or we fly, I want you by my side

As we find our way across this great unknown

With each step we take from the cradle to the grave

We are walking each other home

Those first steps we took together, we barely touched the ground

Did we understand the treasure that somehow we had found?

And each passing year has made it more clear

So simple and yet so profound

If we crawl or we fly, I want you by my side

As we find our way across this great unknown

With each step we take from the cradle to the grave

We are walking each other home

Take my hand, walk with me, through the fire, on this wire

Take my heart for eternity

As we live till we die, I want you by my side

As we find our way across this great unknown

With each step we take from the cradle to the grave

We are walking each other home