Pachinko

You're new around here.

Let's play the pachinko.

Have you seen the formations

rise up through the air?

Just look out the window

of this dirtbag saloon.

See nature's formations
rise up from the earth.

Now look the other way,

out past the pachinko,
just through the other window.

There. See those towers 

rise up through the air?

Remember those towers,

those pillars of light.

Look there tomorrow, 

those towers are gone.

But you're new around here.

Let's play the pachinko.

[[ Even I know only vaguely what this one is about. This is probably the framework for something larger. It's the opposition of nature and technology, or east and west, or indigenous and colonial, or Las Vegas and the desert, played out in a shitty bar set between the two. And there's a pachinko machine, which is something I have never actually seen. It is chance, fortune, noisy gaudy fate. The song and the universe are cleft in two by a pachinko machine. This could be anywhere two such forces clash. And the older, natural, indigenous force will win. According to the narrator. Don't worry, I'll come back and add rhymes and stuff to make it suitable for your weekly line dancing class. ]]

into the wood

[[ it might be trance, drugs, meditation, dreams ]]

nothing else 

only this horse

only

only the horse

only

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

so saddle up

put on your hat

your hat

put on your hat

your hat

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

and then hold on

we are almost gone

into the wood

you feel so good 

you forget 

you feel so good 

you forget 

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

you forget 

you have ever 

wanted

you forget 

you have ever 

wanted food

you forget 

you have ever 

felt this

you forget 

you have ever 

felt this good

you forget

almost

to breathe

people say 

you're wasting

people say 

you waste away

people waste 

their days

saying things

when they could
go with you

into the wood

Gone to Ontario

[[ Two brothers on opposite sides of the American civil war head up to a remote part of Canada for the duration. ]]

I would not raise a gun to my brother 

for the whole of the damned USA

so we're both heading up to Ontario

and keep each other out of harm's way

We will walk across the river at Niagara

where they've slung up the new suspension bridge

we'll ride out on the Great Western Railway

into the wilderness.

Maybe we'll live side by side with the Ojibwe.

Maybe we'll live on our own

Maybe we'll live on a boat on the bay

But I promise we'll live, 

and when the war ends, 

I promise we'll live and come home.

We could marry some girls of the wilderness

We could send off for brides in the mail

We could settle in the middle of nothing 

Or open an inn on the trail

Met a man said a place they call Lion's Head

Is half way between Equator and Pole
I think that's where we'll climb the escarpment
And watch the stars roll

under water

each impossible

as the last

cloud roll over 

one million ton

one hundred mile

an hour

press me

into grass

I am too weak

to stand


[[ grammatical irregularities are intentional. ]]