My Left Foot

My Left Foot

Doesn’t work anymore
One day I got out of bed
And it hurt like hell.
It still hurts.
Even with no weight on it
And when I stand up
I almost begin to limp
But not so you can tell.
Things fall apart.
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom.
I’m not ready for this.
But I can almost remember
When “Chookie McCall”
Was not quite an absurd name
For a heroine in a detective novel.
So it’s probably polio
Like we used to have
And soon I’ll be in an Iron Lung
Yes, soon it will be 1958 again
And all my dead will visit me.
Me in my iron lung.
And eat candy and smoke.
While I look at them
Upside down in the mirror
As they get up and walk away.

The Rain

The rain in 1959 say is
Not the same as the rain in 2005
Which is something a lot of bad novelists forget.
In 1959 it’s raining and some kid has
To stay inside or go outside wearing one of those
Yellow raincoats and funny hats
That Dick of Dick and Jane had to wear
And this kid won’t do that.
No, he’ll watch “Superman”
And George Reeves is still alive
There on the black and white TV
And that 1959 rain is falling
On lilac bushes under which
He once buried a silver dollar
For a whole night and once saw a dead mouse
And the moon that comes out
After the rain when his mother is
In the basement actually ironing clothes
With a mangle and smoking a Lucky Strike
Is a 1959 moon but to get back to
The rain just then a rain was falling on Pusan
And Normandy beach quite different from
The rain for example falling
Today in a suburb here on the coffin
Of some poor kid killed in Iraq
And that kid knew in 1995 at ten
The 1995 rain and now he’s dead
And tomorrow it might rain.

The Tall Hair Blues

They say I'm ugly and they're right I guess.
They say I'm ugly and they're right I guess.
Some say I look like a plugged up Porgy.
Some say I look like a drunked up Bess.

Went down to the Mojo Man asked him what I can do.
Went down to the Mojo asked him what I can do.
Told him I want some of that sweet sweet loving too.

He said "Drink this potion. Then get outta my place.
Drink up this motion potion and get outta my place.
Give me fifty dollars. I don't want to see your face.

You'll look like a Beatle. That potion make your hair grow long.
Maybe you'll look like Ringo. But your hair gonna be long.
Maybe you got an ugly hairstyle. Maybe thats all that's wrong."

But I ain't like the others. Hair roll and flow so beautifully.
But I ain't like all the others. Hair roll and flow so beautifully.
I'm the Lonliest Ranger. My poor hair grow vertically!

Went down to South Philly. Gals give me such looks!
Went walking down South street. All the gals give me those looks.
One said "Hey mister, you in those record books?"

Walked away from those mean women. Hair got caught up on a electric wire.
Walked away from those mean women. Wire was twenty feet or higher.
Listen to em all. "That funny man's on fire."

When you got tall hair you're gonna ride the Midnight train.
When you got tall hair you're gonna ride the Midnight train.
Have to sit on top of the coal car. Smokestack lightning in your brain.

The Tall Hair Blues.