Change of Shift

The sun as it fades in the mirror reminds
Of a friend who has just bade goodbye
Warmed by the light of this comrade’s alliance
I face the moon squarely on high

Mysterious reins pull the orb ever closer
Until it looks me in the eye
So many craters and so little glow
Just a shade of my vanished ally

With you I must wander in rough reverie
And your turbulence troubles my soul
But soon I will know you and knowing is triumph
And we, like the star, will be whole

House

The house where I lived as a child
Is mottled with shadows and light
In dreams alternating
Between terror and pleasure
On the shifting ether of the night

A vagabond since I was orphaned
And launched into space by my kin
I hold fast to sheets
That the sweat of flesh meets
And wrestle the angels within

Libido

The way this serpent moves within
Is far beyond my vision
I would surgically extract this thing
But I make no incision

A thief in the night overtaking reason:
Attribute to the moon
This cunning, reckless avatar
That sinks its fangs too soon

It leaves as swiftly as it comes
Befuddling my brain
And as the dawn appeals its case
I walk among the sane

Dream Garden

They’ve cut down all the roses here, my love
No really one knows what I speak of
The house where we once lived is falling down
The girl that I once loved is not around

But I don’t let you go
Your face to me will never harden
As all the angels surely know
We meet tonight in the dream garden

The sorrow here is laden in the mist
The trees even recall the night we kissed
But those were other trees and other times
And still the leaves fall down and ivy climbs

But I don’t let you go
Your face to me will never harden
As all the angels surely know
We meet tonight in the dream garden

So you are far away across the sea
But you are closer now than ever to me
The petals spill around the space you left
Still I will make a blessing from this theft

And I don’t let you go
Your face to me will never harden
As all the angels surely know
We meet tonight in the dream garden

No, I don’t let you go
Your face to me will never harden
As all the angels surely know
We meet tonight in our dream garden

Chevy Van

In 1975, worlds behind us, a little-known singer named Sammy Johns released "Chevy Van," an anthem for the carefree, laid-back, free-loving times we were just waking up from. "I gave a girl a ride in my wagon.......Like a picture she was laying there/Moonlight dancing off her hair/She woke up and took me by the hand/We made love in my Chevy Van, and that's alright by me."

Sad to say, the world is a slightly darker place now, Mr. Johns. Young girls don't hitchhike anymore. That Chevy you wrote about, its parent company has come on really, really hard times. That little move you made while she was sleeping might have life-altering reprecussions. And people don't find each other quite so freely. I hate to be an agent of gloom, but here is how an updated, slightly more realistic version of that song lyric might read:

Chevy Van, 2008 Version

I am alone
In the still of the night
Looking for answers
Looking for light

Moon through the windshield
Is hardly enough
Twists through my cornea
The wheel now feels rough

She was once here
With her smile and her touch
She’s taken the flame
The brake and the clutch

As I speed home in silence
In this metal morass
Who in hell listens
When the crash comes to pass