VIII

[[let's do it as a song lyric]]

VIII

American fighter pilots 

from the battleship states

flex a muscle for America

flex a muscle for God

pack 'em in tightly 

side by each with Jesus 

flex a muscle for America

flex a muscle for God

pack 'em in tightly 

shoulder to shoulder 

wind 'em up tight

and let 'em go

they shoot off 

spouting voodoo 

looking for the moon

they shoot a hole 

through the pure blue

inject themselves into space 

up where no up is, 

no down (won't stay down), 

out where no air is, 

no sound (so no sound)

Merry Xmas

according to scripture

according to script

sextant and star chart

slip around behind 

the man in the moon 

flex a muscle for America

flex a muscle for God

aim this can of man meat 

at that blue ornament

flex a muscle for America

flex a muscle for God

xmas 2: home at midnight

Home at midnight, 

Christmas Eve,

just in time to

wipe my sleeve 

across my nose 

and stumble in

from staying out

and pouring gin

for folk like me

who congregate

in other places 

on this date,

just in time to

kiss the cats

and wish them

lots of chubby rats.

xmas 1: some other creature

Down in the stables,
animal talk
is an everyday thing,
and animals walk

still wet and finding
the length of their limbs
as the day softens
and the light dims,

opening night
to that star overhead,
and some other creature
in a straw bed.

concorde on fire

here comes tomorrow

all on one page
tear gas at the border
kids in a cage

here comes tomorrow
shots across the bow
truth-tellers hacked up
but think of the Dow

here comes tomorrow
all unions are bust
rule by innuendo
bodies in the dust

this is the season
here come the bots
bow to your master
or line up your shots

your screaming only brings them nearer

not this fucking time of year again

[[ musically, a Christmas carol ]]

[[ this part in imitation of bells ]] 

not this 

fucking 

time of 

year a-

gain

[[ the sound of a church choir ]] 

all the skies are gray and lifeless (gray and lifeless)

all the winds are sharp and cold (sharp and cold)

all the roads are wet and icy (wet and icy)

all my bones 

two hundred six! 

the pops and clicks! 

the cracks and cricks! 

are so old

someone else's strange religion (strange religion)

someone else's hopes and fears (hopes and fears)

someone else's gongs and jangles (gongs and jangles)

someone's god 

three-headed -- weird!

one mainly beard!

all of them feared!

in my ears... [[ quiet, crescendo, and then the bang ]]

Bang! all the metal in your towers!

See if I fucking care 

Bang! all the metal in your towers!

Give all the birds a scare 

[[ a chorus imitating bells and singing in bell terms rather than Latin ]]

peal [[ repeated with combinations of the others ]]

nominal

quint

tierce

prime

hum [[ let this one be the last and lowest tone still ringing ]]

A Christmas Carol

[[ I suppose this is easier to look at as a poem than as a song, but it's a Christmas carol of sorts. In summer a water strider prefigures the birth of Christ. Maybe this is the birth of bug-eating John the Baptist. Then, a half year after, when water turns to stone, Mary the bursting girl says his name. ]]

In liquid summer,

surface tension:

a strider

bending light.  

A silver circle 

under sky:

fish dart at

beating wings.

Round the sun,

water to stone

transfigures

in the change.

At the cleaving

of the year, 

song is sung and

bell is rung

for universe

on either side:

for animal,

for spirit cloud.

Set to burst,

a girl sobs,

then says a name

in rising steam.