poison oak

poison oak

some boyhood bravery

when a telephone was a tin can on a string

and i fell asleep with you still talking to me

you said you weren't afraid to die

in polaroids you were dressed in women's clothes

were you made ashamed

why'd you lock them in a drawer?

i don't think that i ever loved you more

then when you turned away

when you slammed the door

when you stole the car

and drove towards mexico

and you wrote bad checks

just to fill your arm

i was young enough

i still believed in war

well

let the poets cry themselves to sleep

and all their tearful words will turn back into steam

but me i'm a single cell

on a serpents tongue

there's a muddy field where a garden was

and i'm glad you got away

but i'm still stuck out here

my clothes are soaking wet

from your brother's tears

and i never thought this life was possible

you're the yellow bird that i've been waiting for

the end of paralysis

i was a statuette

now i'm drunk as hell on a piano bench

and when i press the keys

it all gets reversed

the sound of loneliness makes me happier