look people, I’ll tell you straight
I’ve wanted to be on stage since I was eight
putting dad’s records on the turntable
praying to the crucified Christ I’d be able
to someday stand on a stage and sing
some cool words and shake my thing
some cool words and shake my thing
that was thirty two years ago
thirty two years, here’s to thirty two mo’
i’m tempted to bore you with the details
oh my god, we tried and failed
we tried and failed, we tried and failed
even spent a few nights in jail
even spent a few nights in jail
single wide trailer in new mexico
tree house in the Shenandoah
long tan van in Oregon
ten basements I forget the order
lived two years in Texas with a landlord
who thought I didn’t live there no more
thought I didn’t live there no more
the poems I know are on pages burning
I read and pace on phrases turning
over to the window I lean way out
somebody’s gotta wake up this town
I mean I don’t know what I’m on about
but somebody’s gotta wake up this town
somebody’s gotta wake up this town
now who’s the guy shouting look at me?
somebody tell him I’m trying to sleep
how’s a man supposed to dream a dream
if everybody’s shouting hey look at me
and how’s a man supposed to part the sea
well you don’t say to the sea hey look at me
you don’t say, sea, hey, look at me
now I got shelves of boxes full of notebooks
and every now and then I have a look
and deep within the half rhymed streams of twists
at times amongst the scratched out flat out gibberish
I mean it’s not the kind of thing I can even quote-
but it says, right there, I have a soul.
it says, right there, I have a soul.