Understand Under

i want to play like jelly roll morton,
write like waldo emerson, sing like Odetta —
say give me Liberty like Patrick Henry
escape like Houdini on the very last breath
i want to fly straight as an arrow, crooked sparrow
i want to swallow fir, i want paint the town red
i want to under stand understand under stand under
and hold the whole world up over my head

yeah, i want to die in battle, grow old
with the wife, catch every kind of fish
lord, i’d give anything to play the fiddle
i want to know the recipe for every dish
I want to bust some moves on the dance floor,
to sit in the back of a debaucherous den.
I want to live to be a hundred and twenty
and tell wondrous tales to my grand children.

i want to be a stand-up comedian
i want to start a new twist in philosophy
I want to be a cowboy and an indian
an e.e. cumming’s apostrophe.
i want to be fluent in every language
i want to be a painter, the next Abbie Ho man
i want to be the mayor of my hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains,
i gotta get there more often.

I want to take the plunge to the depth of madness
and sit in the clear like a Buddhist monk.
i want to turn the tables like jesus
and cross all borders in a smuggler’s trunk.

i want to write code like a rogue programmer
i want to sell potions on the side of the street
i want to survive some grizzly summer
learning which berries are safe to eat.

I want to do tricks in a biplane smokin
and be able to fix anything that gets broken
I want to hang on when the question’s spoken
and let go when the wind is blowing.
I want a light bulb to go o in my head like Edison
I want to get my brain around what Einstein said.
I want to under stand under stand under stand under
and hold the whole world up over my head.