Mom's Reflection

You show me

Who I sometimes think I am

But I don't want to see

Don't want to believe this scam

But I do see

My mother in me

But who am I?

And is/was she?

And where is she?

If I look into you

Will you show me where she's dawned?

Where she’s gone to?

Put your twin behind me

Will I see on and on into infinity?

Is she looking after me through you

From some other world?

Are you a glass-eyed portal?

Or is my head in a whirl?

I was a little boy

She was once a little girl

It's been more than 30 years

Since that changing form disappeared

If I stare into you long enough

Will I find her here?

The mom in me

The me in mom

Tell me who's been good and bad?

Who's coming over

and who’s long gone?

Tell me who is happy and sad

Tell me where are you going to Dad?

Eighty-six years towards your body's demise

As your memories fade

Into those glassy eyes

Trying to grasp those bygone days

Old age is not the prize

Nor is it in that can of beer

You, hanging on the wall

Rotund face

And never lying

Will you be all I have

To remind me how

Everything that deludes me

Is slowly dying?

Peter Lorre's On the Telephone

Fat overstuffed pillows kept me up all night
My legs have been hurting but I don't know the cause
I whine while poor animals have no basic rights
Suffering untold grief on the factory farms

How can someone ignore another's pain
And wield their ogre might to rule
In the name of profit and winning the game
I can't fathom how people can be so cruel

As I try to recapture my idealistic youth
I'll settle for some peace in my middle age
My contradictions have got me feeling uncouth
As I look for comfort on this flimsy stage

I think I could use a good massage
Gradually work my tissues back into place
Or a stress free week at Hodge Podge Lodge
Paint serenity all over my face

So many concerns, so many things to do
Trying to work it out and calm the storm
This crisis management I put me through
Has got me whacked way off the norm

Gonna get it together and work it all out
They say charity begins at home
I have to help myself before I help others out
But I got Peter Lorry on the telephone

Listening To Wings

Listening to Wings while walking through the ghetto

Smiling at everyone I see

I think everyone wants to know what I’m listening to

That’s why they’re following me

There’s a big rapper dude

Who doesn’t want to be rude

So he’s hiding inside the alley

If he steps into the light I think I just might

Turn him on to some Paul McCartney

You know Mr. John Lennon was a little bit wrong

When he complained about silly loves songs

Soldier boys kissing girls in a tragic world

Makes me think about where the good times have gone

These children of poor men I think could appreciate

The way the Liverpool boy can sing

Even though he’s worth mutli-billion dollars

He sang his way out of a strugglin’ economy

Listening to Wings was always one my things

Ever since I was a little pup

With a voice like magic

Makes the world seem less tragic

Like I’m sailing in a China cup

Chevy Chase's Aging Face

I took a slow jog on a fast track
I shut off the lights and saw the ghost of Robert Stack
He gave me a clue about an unsolved mystery
I would have taken notes but it was kind of hard to see

I took a scary drive over a rickety bridge
I didn't look down and drove faster than Riva Ridge
I always wondered how it would feel to fall
I know I never want to experience that kind of catastrophe at all

I took an air plane flight and was scared only on take off
I read the Bhagavad-gita until we finally leveled off
I ordered a ginger ale from the shining young girl
Who asked me what I wanted in a wicked floating world

After a long day, I stretched out in my room
In the morning came the maid with her humming electric broom
I told her i didn't need her so she sadly went away
But came back with some fresh clean towels anyway

I turned the a.c. on, I shut the a.c. off
I didn't feel sick so I felt no need to cough
I dropped an Airborn tablet in a cup and watched it fizz
I fired up the internet and got ready for my next quiz

I hit the red hot road for for another crazy run
I thought back to the days when I was strong, wild and young
Perhaps I could go back but the time was running short
I saw Chevy Chase's aging face and I punched it just for sport

The Walrus Was Dead

It was Monday night
I was 16-years-old
Listened to Pepper and Abbey Road
Caught a glimpse of the game
And fell off to sleep
To the sound of the FM beat

Awoke around 2 a.m.
Or maybe it was 3
Didn't believe the news coming at me
Reporting from New York City
John's blood on the street
I thought it was a Python parody

But oh no, no 
He had to go

I heard the pain in his voice
Heard the screams in my head
Didn't want to believe that John Lennon was dead
He influenced my life
Although we never met
I guess what we give out we eventually get

Oh no
He had to go

The soul is eternal
But the body must die
But still when he leaves us
We can't help but cry

I want you to listen
Its not going to last
The present we're in
Is becoming the past

It was the end of an era
The end of a dream
Yet another clue
It comes apart at the seams

It's been 29 years
Can't get it out of my head
The day that they told me
The walrus was dead

That Fateful Day

Walking gingerly on the semi-frozen tundra
Where I use to slide with glee as a youth
Trying to figure out a frustrating cundundrum 
Been whiling away my years with this excuse

Unraveling the skin of this poor white birch tree
Catching an unfortunate fish by the eye
Gradually all those deeds come ricocheting back to me
Won't raise my fist to the heavens and ask why

Walking on the hot sands of old Death Valley
Saw one hundred sneakers hanging from a leafless tree
Just then a mirage appeared of a young Bobby Dinero
His psycho eyes said "Are you looking at me?"

Dreamed I was five and my brother checked his wrist watch
Looked at me gravely and said "It's about that time."
The front door slowly opened and revealed a black haired witch
I tried to crawl away but she stole my body and mind

I've been trapped ever since in a dark tabernacle
That keeps changing form when I think it's finally solved
I've been lamenting my fate and labeling it a debacle
But within myself I've yet to let it resolve

Memories flood in of all the good times and bad times
But I guess it's mostly how you look at it
This misty path filled with the outstretched hands of the desperate
Who I can't ignore even when I think I've made it all fit

I was driving down Highway 101 to my next big destination
When I saw sad caged eyes being carried far away
No one cared to stop the most heinous crime of the century
I think I lost my enjoying spirit on that fateful day

  

My Speed

The world is getting crazy
Or maybe it is already there
I'm trying to find my inner-soberness
So I don't have to light these awkward flares 

The rain was falling in buckets
Had to find higher ground or be washed away
Somehow I was fortunate enough to find shelter
This causeless mercy really has a way

Trying to stand straight while walking
Trying to keep my head up when I lay down
Trying to do my best when I don't really feel like it
Trying to understand how to walk on solid ground

I used to be bound to a woman
Who took her childhood out on me too much
We tried mostly but we were too young
When you're immature life can be doubly tough

I walked away out of survival
Sometimes it's hard to do what you must do
Can't live a lifetime choosing friends and rivals
You're useless if you can't first take care of you

I know that my mother loved me
But cancer came and ate her flesh away
Sometimes I still think I can feel her
But where she is now I can't really say

They told me 14-years-old was too young
But that was a fact and I had no choice
Talk about a hollow feeling
But many have had worse so I should temper my voice

Now everyday I'm trying to improve
Can't change the past but I can learn from it
I don't know what's around the corner next
But I don't want to moderate my speed even a little bit