I don't know nobody around

I don't know nobody around
The dogs are in the ball park
But they lost their baow wow
I don't know nobody around

The man at the bus stop says
How do you do!
The man at the bus stop says how do you do
But I say just what's up? and I walk on through
Cos I don't know nobody around

The lady in the shop says
Say what's up boys
The lady in the shop says
Say what's up boys?
But I pick up my groceries and say
What's that noise?
Because I don't know nobody around

The baby in the pram says
A wha, wha wha
The baby in the pram says
A Wha, wha Wha
Well I say hey mother
why not put a lid on that jar!
Because I don't know nobody around

The moon is like a prison
For the good and the bad
The moon is like a prison for the good and the bad
But I'm like a warden who is feeling sad
No I don't know nobody around

A train named devil

Well its all over the news
The devils riding that train
Yes its all over the news
Like we've got him on the brain

Well I don't know about sunrise
But he'll be coming back again

There was a train named devil
Way on another level
And he crowed his lonesome whistle
As he drew into the the platform
And many men got on
To ride on the devil's song
And the Devil's riding that train
And he'll be back again

Well I caught up to him on horse back
Somewhere further down the track
And he cried to me all aboard
I thanked him then and shunned the lord
And as I looked out the window
I could see all the world in shadow
Well the Devil's riding that train
And he turned my head back again

There's a man named devil talking on another level
Watch on over the table
Tryin to make Cain kill Able
There's an empty bucket
Someone drilled a hole in it
The bosun said well fuck it
We might as well drink it

The ship named Surprise was sinking
As from the bucket they went drinking
All about the deck hands thinking
Why's the bosun blinking
Sun through the hole came glinting
Flint in the lock went flashing
Now the crew they all went splashing
Over the in Jim Crows ocean gnashing
Sharks like sparks were dashing
In the milieu lashing
Hearts and tails slashing
All for the Captain's ration

Now there's a train named Devil
Running on over the bridge
Steel rails cold as a fridge
Until the red wheels slid

Happy is the man who knows he's not alone

In all the ways that I am broken
I have spoken, I have spoken
I am just like she,
Only were were given different tokens
Different tickets to the show
Some are on the front seats
Others the back row
But we're all sitting
In front of the silver screen
While the actors are getting ready to go

In all the ways that I am broken I can count
Like the vertebrae of my spine
Like a column with a block out of place
Like a row of beans out of line
The tree trunk got damaged in the storm
From then on it never grew straight no more
No matter all the pins and nails, or rubberbands they tried
It was always blowing in the gales

Its roots went down into the ground
Deep like a miner for gold or oil
Deeper still but for the echo found
No living man could count the toil

If all the pillars of Rome have stood
Then why can't my own column stand for some good?
No matter if no hero is perched on its plinth
There is instead a migrant
Who won't move an inch

They blew up the fortune factory,
But the joke was on them
When the cookies crumbled
And they found all the chinese had invaded
The uninvited guest, the uninvited guest
Now we stare into the future
Of all these Christmases past
And remember ever suture
Of every promise sewn to last
And every man who put me here
In this never ending hour glass
Still in Rome
The ruined columns are still standing
or resting in the wild grass

Time is running out and so are my words

We are so glad you could make it
It is well understood
That your coming to us this moment
Is an unprecedented good
We need more of your kind in the fray
So don't just doff your cap
Say hello, walk away

The tides like our fingers have been crossed
For a while
The slim odds of the winners
Have grown thinner with each passing
mile
And if you ask me to repeat what I've said
I will smile
Because when something is spoken
It can't be replaced like a tile

The rain came down one day in a deluge
The Gods were too proud
And threw down their crowns in a rage
The writer with the crowd
Could not write the next page
And so with feet stepping loud
He walked onto the stage

The only thing that bothers him
About this new adventure
Is who will pay for his insurance
Should the plan reach its investiture?
There are few who would follow him
Out into the fray
But less in the meantime will give
him his pay

Your coming here gladdens us
And brings a tear to the eye
The way that it saddens us
Is that all good things must die
But that has ever been the case with the world
All sweet things must pass
Be they boy or be they girl

No comment

It has been eleven months of hardship
And of toil
And I've been the only one to trip
Up on spilt oil
That I left there the night before
When I was frying bread
But these are all burnt offerings
That I've kept inside my head

The druggist sold me cures
For sleeping without my soul
She said it looks like you've left it somewhere
Stuck up a tree or out on a midnight stroll?
But I said
I've been nowhere
Just around the city of the dead
And she said perhaps you should try to enjoy
Yourself more
Why not try the tree of life instead?

Then I walked to the doctor he said
Take no notice of her,
What you need is a good lawyer
To tell about the laws and lore
He said you need more stories my son
About how the good die young
And how the old are dressed as mutton
And how the lion lies down with the lamb

I left him then in the morning as the sun it began to shine
And she had said good luck to you
Before she said your place or mine
And after several Bloody Maries
And a few Save Our Souls
I retired to the prairies where
The lipgloss took control
She was only speaking of a certain
Weakness in a man
When I heard her preaching service
To the rolling caravan

A rolling stone gathers no moss
Or else that what I think I heard her say
The dust that gathered around the microphone
Was like desert sand across a long highway
In some places it is thicker
In others it's just blown away
By the wind that warms the hitchhikers
And moves them on their way

Mountains of Can

Well there's a mountain of can
Than we all must climb
And down in the valley
Is the man
Down in the river of rust
That river just rolls like a steamer
It takes all of the can from the dreamer
And it rusts it in him
Like an old dirty tin
Oh better believe he's a dreamer

Now back up the mountain of can he climbs
Never noticing the recycling van
Parked on the incline
He takes from his pocket
A stop watch full of time
But the can runs out too
Like a can -do in his prime
Now down to the valley of rust he might slip
If it wasn't for the clown
Who's watching his trips
And he lends him a hand
(Not the first time) but the second
And this stops him rolling all the way down
What a kind clown, the can clown kind

My Grand father's feet

I never did know about my grandfathers feet
Well they trudged through the snow
Now buried six feet deep
Well I never did know about my grandfathers feet

Well he had six wives, and made six women weep
I never did know about my grandfather's feet
They say he left them somewhere where down
In Mexico,
Well with the poisonous Ivy and the Indian way
I still hear them stepping in a southern comfort sway
Dancing the Tango like a chimney sweep
Well I never did know about my grandfathers feet

I never did know about my grandfather's feet
Some are like the railroad line
They just want to repeat
And others are like the stoned crows sitting on
a tree top seat
Well who ever should where he did go
On his grandfatherly feet?