After Ankitha

Oh God
Crow, horseshit, narcissism reeking
Why am I attracted to you? 
I hate you so much for what you’re doing to me
I was jealous of the girl who played your girlfriend
You’re disgusting and vile and the only male I can even talk to
Why do I do this?
We bought Samosas and headed to class
We scramble and fall and try and remain
Like we always have
Laughing

Crocodile Tears for Musthapha

Do you want to get high?
He smiled like a toothpaste ad
She couldn’t decide
If she was good or if she was bad
They went outside
With the bartender on his break
Nothing to hide
It was a chance that she had to take

She was a girl
On her way in the big world
A month by the bay
To be free in her own way


Once you go brown
Can you ever go back?
She’s coming down
There's a bruise up on her neck
She saw him around
Might have been Houston or LA
And here’s what she found
That she was not ordinary

Narcolepsy

I knew she was the one
When I woke up inside her
Still hard and ready to finish
But narcolepsy means
Different things to different people

Of course her tight little body
Corvette curves
Mustang lines
Edges like broken shards of fiberglass Camaro
Helps
But narcolepsy means
Different things to different people

I've so internalized the workshop
That I talk to myself
Constantly
Always answering
Yes
But narcolepsy means
Different things to different people

A picture of many hands
Or of one hand
Trembling
A figment
Perhaps
Of auto focused
Imagination
But narcolepsy means
Different things to different people

Cutting yourself
In the middle of the night
Is not the best way to
Get back to
Sleep
But narcolepsy means
Different things to different people

Shall I tell you a story?

The most beautiful wedding ever seen in Valhalla was the marriage of Njord and Skade. Njord came from the race of Vanir; he was a great swimmer and sailor and like all the Vanir he could summon the rains so that the fields and forests became verdant and green as he made his way across the land. Skade came from the race of Jotuns; she was a great skier and skater and like all the Jotuns she could summon the snow so that people could travel at the speed of the wind. Their courtship was complicated but they loved each other deeply and when they finally married all of heaven and earth rejoiced with them.

But once the feasting and celebrations were over, and it was time for them to return to their home, they faced a dilemma. For Njord’s house, Noatun, was by the seashore; near the waters that loved him so and near the forests and fields that he so loved. And Skade’s house, Thrymheimr, was in the mountains; at the top of a glacier with a magical chairlift so that you could ski down wherever you wanted and always have a way to get back to the top.

Now they loved each other deeply, and wanted to be together always, so they compromised: nine days they would stay at Skade’s house in the mountains, and nine days they would stay at Njord’s house by the seashore. But despite his love for Skade, Njord was unhappy in the mountains, and on the tenth day, as they came down the mountain back to Noatun, he sang this lay:

Loath were the hills to me,
I was not long in them,
Nights only nine;
To me the wailing of
Wolves seemed ill,
After the song of swans.

And Skade loved Njord, and wanted him to be happy, so she stayed the nine days in Noatun. But Skade was unhappy away from her mountains and on the ninth morning she sang this lay:

Sleep could I never
On the sea-beds,
For the wailing of waterfowl;
He wakens me
Who comes from the deep –
The sea-mew every morn.

And so she returned to the mountains, and he remained by the sea, and their two children, Frey and Freya, split their time between the two houses, spending the summer with their father by the seashore bathing in the fjord and wandering the meadows and the winter with their mother in the mountains skiing the steep slopes with the speed of the wind.

Where Did The Time Go?

You ain't no Dorian Grey
The picture in the frame
Will always stay the same
The picture is of you
On your first day of preschool
And back behind the lens
I was younger too

Where did the time go?

It's in the silver of my hair
And the lines across my face
In the creak behind my knees
And the roll around my waist

Now you need a shave
And I need a shave
And I know that you feel different
But I still feel the same

Where did the time go?

It's in the silver of my hair
And in the lines across my face
In the creak behind my knees
And the roll around my waist

Where did it go?

For My Words With Friends

Sometimes we chat
About this and that
But mostly we just play the game

Of letters and numbers
And interlocked words
And we play it again and again

Sometimes I wonder
What goes on in his life
But mostly I wonder
Three E's?

And how can one person
Consistently draw
Every jo, ex, zeta
And qis

I know when he gets up
And when he goes to bed
And when he is free at lunch

And I suspect that on Thursday
There's a boring staff meeting
But again, that's only a hunch

Greatest Hits: 2008 to 2013

2013 - Broken/Crack
a song about Greg and Karen

2013 - The Song Of Songs
high concept gospel

2013 - Money In Asia
a song about my job at a software start-up

2012 - Tuesday Girl
a re-recording of a song from the mid-80's

2011 - A Hard And Demanding Man
a song about my older son

2011 - Millicent
a song about going to Mardi Gras

2010 - Socks and Shoes
a song about my morning routine

2010 - The Knowledge Of Engines And Cars
a song about my dad and my uncle

2008 - Sandy
a sad song w/chorus from late 80's

2008 - The Days Of The Working Week
a song about my job as a software consultant

Song For Maddie

The days of baths and diapers
Little princess shoes
And trips to petting zoos

The hours inside the sand box
You with your stuffed frog
Sweet Bobo was our dog

Now I'm getting old and sentimental
Remembering our California rental
Because those days of baths and diapers
Were the best days of my life

The months of strife and struggle
Commuting on the train
Two hours there and back again

The years were drawn and haggard
When it was just us three
You, your mom and me

A lemon tree in the front yard
Groceries on the credit card
And really it was very hard
But I wouldn't change a thing

Because those days of baths and diapers
Were the best days of my life

These Things Will Last (2001)

Build with stone
Write with script
These things will last

Kill the king
Start a cult
These things will last

It's what's left over
When your life has passed
Ritual
And artifacts

Plant your fields
Farm your crop
These things won't last

Count your days
Live your life
These things won't last

It's what's left over
When your life has passed
Bones and ash
And maybe, some of your trash

Brick Wall Blues

My life has been
On auto-pilot so long
I forgot where I was going
With this joke

Lately things have been kind of chaotic
But I’m in the same place nearly every single day
Getting hit in the face by that punch
Line

It feels like a setup
But the rhythm’s all wrong
And in comedy, timing is
Everything

Comedy is history
Played in reverse
Yes comedy is history
Played in reverse

I’m dying up here
In front of this brick wall
A firing squad
And an exposed brick wall

It’s funny when it happens
To somebody else
But we both know exactly
What I’m talking about

And it’s funny, you know
That the funny thing is
That it never
Turns out to be funny

Comedy is history
Played in reverse
Yes comedy is history
Played in reverse

Lyric For LCK

I'm walking the streets of Manhattan
In the rain
Taking pictures of street scenes and people
In the rain
And I'm thinking of you
And where you've gone to
And the things that you do
That make me feel blue
I'm walking the streets of Manhattan
In the rain

People are strange but a dog will always
Be your friend
They speak in a language that anyone
Can understand
And I'm thinking of you
And where you've gone to
And the things that you do
That make me feel blue
People are strange but a dog will always
Be your friend

In the cafe I start feeling old
The breeze from the street brings a shivering cold
The piles of books that are sitting unsold
The coffee that comes out too bitter and bold

So I'm walking the streets of Manhattan
In the rain
Yes I'm walking the streets of Manhattan
In the rain

Had To Have You

V1.
You made me wait so long
With all your carrying on
But I had to have you

I couldn't be that strong
To be your tag along
Still I had to have you

C1.
That night
Did it feel right
Or was just a flight
Of my imagination?
You know
That I would stand and fight
If it just might
Get me your invitation

V2.
You had me on the phone
Tryin' to hold my own
But I just had to have you

Did I play the fool
Did I lose my cool
Cause I just had to have you?

C2.
That night
Did it feel right
Or was just a flight
Of my imagination?
You know
That I would stand and fight
If it just might
Get me your invitation

B.
Walk you down the avenue
It's all I could do and I think that you knew
That I just had to have you

C3.
That night
Did it feel right
Or was just a flight
Of my imagination?
You know
That I would stand and fight
If it just might
Get me your invitation

Mutual Interest

The vociferous Blue Jay
Says don’t eat my babies.
The cat says
I just want to play.
So she stares at him
And he stares at her
And that is how
They spend the day.

Lee Knight's Dream

Yeah, so I was talking
To Stephen Hawking
He sounded just like the ghost
Of Marc Bolan.

We drove to his house
And he showed me where to park
My car so it wouldn't
Get stolen.

He plugged in his Tele
Straight into the amp
Pedals are for pussies
He said.

Man he sounded good
When he hit that first chord
It was like a choir directly
From God.

We swam in the surf
And we flew over valleys
He showed me cool places
In time.

And he told the body
Is just an illusion
You can go anywhere
In your mind.

There were all kinds of people
Who came to hang out
Edison and Washington
And Thoreau.

And we played rock and roll
Til the sun came up
Cause rock and roll
Is what frees your soul.

Then I woke up
Must have been a dream
But tonight I'm going to plug in my Tele
And make myself free.

And I'll swim in the ocean
And fly through the valleys
And visit cool places
In time.

Club Kids

circa 1992

 

Future Mrs. S and I were living on one floor of a Wicker Park rowhouse down the street from the Opus Dei church:


A couple of blocks away, there was a bar called the Artful Dodger:

There was a bar in the front room and a dance floor in the back. The well drinks from the bar came with glow sticks in them.

and the back room had black lights and trippy graffitti on the walls. Usually something like this was playing:


The Artful Dodger stayed open until 2. If you weren't ready to go home yet (remember the glow sticks?) you could walk up to Blue Note on Armitage, which was a super smoky basement bar that stayed open until 4. The jukebox was good, filled with Blue Note jazz records as well as classic Chicago blues:


If you still weren't ready to go home (some of those *glow sticks* lasted longer than others) you could walk across the Cortland bridge

past the Finkl factory

and over to Old Town, where you could get a greasy breakfast at Nookie's Diner.

I had a friend who lived in a coach house/studio above a garage in Old Town. She tended bar and kept strange hours but she was usually good for some French press coffee, a couple of bowls and some chill music:

Then on Monday morning, load up the Walkman with appropriate tapes for the ride in to work:



Good times, back in the day.

Just One More (For The End Of The Road)

The ring of success
Remains highly elusive
You find happiness
In the daily quotidian
Forget all the diamonds
Mine for obsidian
The resort of your life
Is not that exclusive

Tierra del Fuego
Is the ends of the earth
Where the mountains collapse
Into archipelago
Our guide is Chilean
The storm Argentinian
And none of us know
What any of this is worth

So pour me another
And make it a double
Pour me one more
For the end of the road

We did take the acid
And yes it was brown
Just like the music
In the quickening mud
Just like the swan dive
And the sickening thud
The car's in the ditch
Shall we hitch
Back to town?

So pour me another
And make it a double
Pour me one more
For the end of the road

Double A Blues

My shoulder is in shreds
My elbow is hanging by a thread
But you don't need a slurve
To live a suburban life

It got me some girls
And put me through school
And showed me which diners
Are open all night

And you still love the game
But the game don't love you back
So they put you off the bus
And you have to find another track

I keep working out
Cause it's just what you do
And I keep going to rehab
While the insurance comes through

I know what it's like
To be the king of the hill
To be a man amoung boys
To give a giant crowd thrills

But now I'm just a guy
With a bad arm
And a pile
Of bills

In A Nutshell

Thank you.
I’m sorry.
Please?
You’re welcome.

:)

Scott, Bob, Leo, Jay-Z and Me

The feeling
Of being
Fourteen
And reading
The Great Gatsby
For the very
First time.
Is concrete
Yet ineffable
Present
Yet unattainable
Like the green light
At the end
Of that Long Island
Dock.

I'm craggy
And weathered
Just like
Robert Redford
With a bittersweet
Nostalgia
For an earlier
Time.
It's concrete
Yet ineffable
Present
Yet unattainable
Like the green light
At the end
Of that Long Island
Dock.

We were all
Young once
But only
That once
And yes
It was terrible
But I do
Miss it so.
Concrete
Yet ineffable
Present
Yet unattainable
Like the green light
At the end
Of that Long Island
Dock.

Balaji

So you left
And life went on
Except for the plants
Which died
Due to lack of water
And the loss
Of your sunny personality