allen frost library: Clinton Street To Galveston

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Clinton Street To Galveston

Clinton Street
½ & ½
Fiddle & Burn
Do You?
Twice Lee Van Cleef
Green Lake
Clean Shoes
Try The Middle
Galveston

Clinton Street

Run away to there
go on a bicycle
every Sunday
a ritual

Talk with a cup
coffee and music
played on vinyl

Take a break
sit outside in the rain
on a black metal chair

Watch the traffic
slow for the sign

If a friend shows up
go follow the day

½ & ½

Look for the missing
picture on a carton
recall a memory
picture me on paper
everytime you pour

To be missed
for a moment
then thrown away

Fiddle & Burn

Fiddle and burn
drive the empire down
on the radio last night
I listened to Frank Sinatra
1957 in Seattle with big band
I thought about that time
I was feeling there
then the news came on
another 57 soldiers died
this month in Babylon
and what is it for?

Do You?

This is the night
look at those lights

Electricity goes
watch it show

We’re all alive
outshine the stars

Cars drive on lines
call them roads
if you want to

Cover the miles
who cares
what happens

I don’t know
where we’re going

Do you?

Twice Lee Van Cleef

The first time around
he appeared as my boss
on a high school job
I went to his house
to do landscaping
I guess I must have known
his face from that movie

So I became Clint Eastwood
shoveling beauty bark
all around rhododendrons
I got tense and ready
everytime he reappeared
to check on my work

The second time
it was in Reno Town
on a dead end street dawn

Even though the sun was up
noone else was around
I walked like a zombie
drawn along like someone
looking for something
when a voice called
from a broken doorway

If I would just stay
right there he’d be back
he had the design
for a machine that could
turn water into gasoline

I could have it, just wait
it was all legitimate
and he mumbled that
it wasn’t so long ago
when he sold acid
to that actor
Lee Van Cleef

Green Lake

You’re there for
what I remember
growing up
plenty of that
and a long time
away from you
to think about you
as if I might forget

Greenlake is
where I was
history is how
time goes and
what you know
is little more
than memory
a heartbreak or
another poem
I don’t know
how to begin

Once upon the water
across the lake
floated paper
with candles
inside August
brought there
to think about
the war on Japan

So be quiet then
and walk to cars
when we’re done

Is it just me
what I’ve seen
and will see
stays captured
in reflection

The last time
I was there
with my daughter
only three
no history
she went across
the wading pool
innocently

Clean Shoes

Not even the course
of a simple creek
like the Connelly
can be counted on

A week of rain again
and I have to wade
through dark water

Take a deep breath
on the bus, sit calm
beneath the ceiling
leaking on me
I count my blessings
at least my shoes are clean

Try The Middle

To a friend
looking for home
beneath the moon

Countryside
made dark
only looking
he’s not lost

Thinking about
how can you get
from here to there
and where does
what you know
meet what isn’t known?

No path to walk on
try the middle of the road

Galveston

We have a driveway
we share with the neighbor

Last Thursday remember
a band from Galveston
played in their garage

People went up and down
the driveway all night and
left Budweiser in the can

Today is Sunday
a good day
to sit beside the window
and listen to music
on the radio
and there they go

Wearing cowboy hats and
carrying amps and guitars