April, give me your love.April, some of your love.That thing you told meWhen you were gone--A truck taking chancesNearly hit you head on.We joked it away at the time,But something grew in my mindsaying &            saying                     & sayingApril,...

Hard lessons come down on the prairie  When the day dies away in the heatAnd clouds burn like red lanternsWhere the road disappears in the wheat.I never was one much for talkingI taught you that was my wayYou used to listen for hoursWhen I had nothing to say.You loved...

Last night I came home beat up from the daydropped into bed where I meant to praybut I was so weary with the news of it allI just dreamed the dream of my Mexican wall An old wooden cross on my Mexican wallhas four twisted nails, no Jesus at alljust footprints nearby...

Gretchen is falling someplace faraway Like a whiffle ball dropped from a cargo plane bay.She falls through the clouds in the glow of the eveOver empty horizons & wide lonesome seas.Gretchen, oh, Gretchen, what do you see?If I ask you politely, would you tell...

There’s whitecaps on the puddlesthe leaves have left the treesthe tavern sits on gravelcatching snowflakes on the breeze.The men trudge up hunkered downin coats and heavy shoesto warm their hearts with alcoholand play the two-ball blues.It’s two bits for a train...

Sometimes I go to Pine River to let go of what’s already gone skip stones by the rust of the sawmill as the water moves steadily on.  The foam at the foot of the pilings goes round like a head of dark beer the trout must be drunk on the moment with no thoughts of...

rosy morning watersbeneath a mangled moonthe bay that floats the bridgeI cross feels like a roomso blue where my emptiness ascendsand the long chain of hours will not benddrive on down the highwaywhiskey in my joemoving in my misery gets me through this blowthe world...

Up where the rivers dividedeadwood shadows the starsfirelight shakes on my coatshowing the letters you wroteI miss what I have in my handsthe love so plainly therewriting itself into airI guess you told me soThe pines on the hills are knives in the nightslicing the...

Spoken:It’s an unusual sight at the Wallflower ball where a band plays a waltz in a moonlit old hall. The floor is deserted, no couples at all just single folks dancing alongside the walls.What wonderful walls at the wallflower ball made of roses and violets and...