Octaves smoking in constant dilemma
Notes that play amongst tinkling cymbals
All arriving at the piano's feet
Yet I can feel that down home beat
Like it used to be in New Orleans
Where I stood on the corner and listened
In my torn blue jeans
Down in New Orleans
Where the music was sweet
How it caressed my ears and brought me to tears
Quenching my desires
In my self inflicted pain
And the tears
Yes the tears which flowed
When nobody was looking
Or sometimes they were
But I didn't care
The energy and the spirit
That flowed in the street
How my heart was captured
In the pounding of those notes
In spite of the demons
Or the evil that gloats
Upon my shoulder as I witnessed
The smoking piano that blared out the songs
Making all of the rights in my life
The opposite of wrongs
Sweet smelling incense mixed with familiar body odors
Smiling faces with piercing teeth
Enveloping me and expelling my grief
In the dust kicked up by scuffling feet
All part of the deep down beat
Whores and drunkards alike
All my friends
As I smoke my Picayune cigarettes
In the middle of the street
Of which I am part of to this day
No escape from the parade
Like the smoke that pours from the stacks
Down by the railroad tracks
At crossroads where I flee to in my escape
Cobblestone streets reaching
Preventing my departure
All within its nature
With no real nomenclature
It sucks me back in to where I began
When I first ran
To the arms of the freight train
In the rain
I slipped on the tracks
Trying to get in
The boxcar made of wood and tin
Where hobos reclined
Rolling cigarettes and eating cans of beans
Heinz vegetarian beans
I remember-the 27th of December
1965 when I made my escape
It was the year of the death of Martin Luther King
Not much to sing about that year
Feeling the pull from New Orleans
Where I would eventually stand
In my torn blue jeans
Offering myself up to the crowds
Who mourned in the streets
Wearing their shrouds
~Moses~
© 2009 Moses Lestz - All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment