THE TWISTING PATH
Follow the twisting path
The one you can’t see down
Having no choice
Commit yourself to it
Like someone who falls
And decides to fall well
Is Orion falling
Or leaping
Or dancing
Does anyone know
They say there is a path
That goes up and down
Among the stars
But you cannot take it
It takes you
It takes everyone
WANTING
I wanted the prize but the prize looked the other way
It was the other prize
I wanted the beach but I got the mountains
Not everyone gets the mountains
I wanted the beautiful woman and I got her
But I didn't live happily ever after
So I tried to be careful about my wanting
Lord knows there was plenty of it to do
I kept art alive, no simple feat
When I had to live out my parents’ hope
That I'd be clean as well, and pay my bills
I wanted to taste humanity
So I fed my baby daughter at 3 a.m.
While Van Morrison sang "Into the Mystic”
I held my dying mother's hand
I was cruel and apologized
I lost love, my eyes welled with tears
I screamed and slammed the steering wheel
Like you, like everyone
And there was more
I wanted to be one with the stars
Maybe you did this in some way too
I wanted those stars
They drove me crazy when they put on those little silver dresses
Then disappeared when they took them off
That's the nature of want I heard them sing
And because I so longed for light in darkness
The stars could tell me just about anything
With those rays slipping off their shimmery shoulders
No matter how much I wanted a different song
EPITAPH WITH STARS
The stars pulled me closer
And unzipped their little silver jackets
And pressed their breasts side-to-side on my chest
In that message the lecher in every lover knows
Until I pled that I was ready for the parting of the heavens
And with grins that assured me that wine and laughter
And all the best kinds of sin are divine
They said this is going to last a while
And took me in forever after