We Are Hot Dogs

Twisting and turning
We are hot dogs
Twirling on top
Of gas station grills

Made from the skin
And bones of pig
We glisten softly
And simmer in heat

We roll side by side
Our shoulders touch
Use Ketchup and mustard
To cover us up

And I can’t recall a feeling better than this

Summer slowed down
To speed my pulse up
We wandered sidewalks
Moon light held us

We sat on benches
We sang our songs
We stayed up all night
Then we went home

And I can’t recall a feeling better than this

We stood on concrete
Strangers saw us
They said in our eyes
We looked in love

And I can’t recall a feeling better than this

Sweet and Sour
Rough and ripe
Flavors tasted
On summer nights

And I can’t recall a feeling better than this

I’ve got ten fingers
I have ten toes
Yours softly sweeping
My neck and my nose

Twisting and turning
We are hot dogs
Twirling on top
Of blankets too hot

And I can’t recall a feeling better than this

Things We Have in Common

Her father was an astronaut and all the other things
The little boys dreamed about
Staring at the ceiling, laying on their backs and bellies
Caught up in the season, playing on the front porch swinging
Baseballs in the back lots, talking words that don’t have meanings
Her father was an astronaut

Her father was a cowboy riding towards the big sun setting
Bullets in the bad guys Beans around the campfire singing
Tunes about the old trails, talking words that don’t have meanings
Her father was a cowboy

In my sleep my hair grows
It’s hard to keep these things we have in common anymore

Her father was a prostitute
Selling his own body to men across the business table
Out to make an offer, talking words that don’t have meaning
Her father was a prostitute

In the rainstorm windshield wipers
Steer the fates of the car drivers
I am putting all my faith in these doors keeping
All my secrets safe and warm

It’s not certain whether you are right or you are wrong
It’s not certain whether plane tickets will break my fall
But I’m hoping that sitting next to the telephone twisting
Cords will keep me until the time you call

Her father was a Casanova
Her father was a palindrome
Her father was a picture taker
Her father held the head of the woman that he loved in his own hands

Her blood is yours, her blood is mine
And we will burst inside these borders, clinging tight to these ideas
But it’s hard to keep these things we have in common anymore

On the Planet Earth

In a note pad, in my living room
There are words you wrote not long ago
And if you leave me, and we don’t exchange each other's things
I will keep them and pretend they were about me

In the closet, there are your clothes hanging there
In the cupboard the food is how you left it
In the freezer the frozen pizzas pine along with me
And so we wait for you to come home

In a factory in small Midwestern town
There are women waiting for you there
And they are sexy and they know more about comic books than me
And when you’re gone I worry that they’ve found you

They are over 6 billion people on the planet earth, I am one you are another
And every second that we spend together brings us closer to
Where we will end up

In the toy aisle of some department store
I will wait there expecting you to show
And if you don’t come, I will start a conversation with myself
And even when you’re gone you are well spoken

If you don’t come back to me this time
If you don’t come back to me now

The Wanderer

The curtains have been closed, I am cold still
When hunters blow their smoke into the hills
And the pretty girls pick pine cones, In the white fields
And I am wide eyed waiting for you

So Mother mind the your words
These are young ears built to feast on what it is they hear
Mother don’t be cruel
If you are looking, a good man will whip himself in front of you

Win or lose, He will be there for you
And he will call you by your first name
Win or lose, I cannot comfort you
Anymore than my touch can tell

The lungs that I could long for
Are heaving hearts full of
Empty books on wood shelves starving
And the mouths that speak the good word
I am not good for because I tasted the fruit when it was ripe

So I will wash my hands clean of these things
And I will lick my lips and you will look but you can’t touch
And you will go on stalwart fighting for your causes
And I will go on stalwart counting all my loses

I am just as good as the ones who
Stand in the street and beg for mercy
Unlock your cellar door and let loose the demons
You keep within the belly of your beast

Win or lose, He will be there for you
And he will call you by your first name
Win or lose, I cannot comfort you
Anymore than my touch can tell

The Patriotism of Reincarnation

I could be the flag
bragging red, white and blue
hanging overt and unnecessary
On a pole above the car dealership in your home town

I could be the airplane
Flying 10,000 feet above the ground
Skipping on the wind like children on the playground pavement
I could be the seat cushion you cling to when you crash

Reincarnation
Doesn’t seem half bad a plan, a plan

I could be the push pin
Stuck in the corkboard holding up a picture from your youth
I could be a bedspread
draped cautiously collecting dust in the guest room

Reincarnation
Doesn’t seem half bad a plan, a plan

So we speak our peace and wipe our noses
We dig the holes and carve the tombstones
Offering comfort in a hand on shoulder
Still no one knows now, where he will go

I could be the worm in the apple
I could be the axe that chopped the cherry tree
I could be the glass of water on your bed side table
I could be any person place or thing you make of me

Reincarnation
Doesn’t seem half bad a plan, a plan
Reincarnation
Make me anything you can

Sandboxes

We were young then
We balanced sidewalks
We were cool then and dripping wet
With our lack of common sense
Your mother measured how tall
Those marks on walls were worth their weight in gold

We were heavy
Tree branches couldn’t hold us
Teasing curfew we bought time
For the time being
We thought we knew the difference between
Swallowed whole and running reckless

And so he tasted
Your skin in sandboxes
And so he spread you flat on the ground
Like a blanket

And we walked the wrong ways and
Talked thick words
In thin places

I sat on his bedspread
He played his father’s James Taylor records
My head full of “this is the end of my life as I know it”
These words, this room, this man, these piano hands

Now our scattered
Correspondence
Will be keeping
me from clinging to you

we were young then
we were childish
carving peepholes
from our pupils

Ode to Optophobia

If I were a sailor would you love me?
If I were a banker would you care?
If I knew how to drive a bulldozer,
Would you let me drive you around town, (destroying all the landscapes?)

If yes let’s meet in the morning
Halloween is not far away
And I could be anything you wanted
The magic word is every word just say it

If I learned to juggle would you keep me?
Or take me to fancy parties in the spring
All the guests overstuffed with defrosted crab cakes
Would whisper “hush, hush, what a pretty little thing. (and I would be for you)

If yes, let’s meet in the morning
And race the cars before they go to work
Take a ride in my’95 Crown Victoria
Bring your walkman because my cassette player’s broke

If you peed your pants I’d still love you
If you wanted to be an astronaut you’d have my support
Like a jockstrap I would cling to your body
Lapping up the plastic pain if you ever got hurt

If no, I’ll try again tomorrow
Cause I only have eyes for you
My prescription isn’t quite twenty-twenty
But you’re the only thing that’s focused in my view

If you wasted you life on luck I would still love you.
If you got in a horse riding accident and I’d push your wheelchair
If you grew to be too old and scared to dream
I would whisper the wills of the things you once believed in (until you feel asleep)

If no, then I’ll wait until you’re ready
And feed the fish until you come back home
When obsessed with a man what is a girl to do?
Then dress up cardboards cutouts and pretend they’re you (you make a fine dance partner)

If yes, let’s meet in the morning
If no, I’ll see you soon

Handsome Girl

Pretty girl pretty girl
You are softer than the sheets you lay upon
Handsome boy handsome boy
You are stronger than any man that’s come before you

These are the words
They have chosen to mark you

Pretty boy oh pretty boy
You are plumes of white smoke hanging in the sky
Handsome girl oh handsome girl
You are wide and built like bridges held on water

These are the words
They have chosen to mark you
These are the words
They have chosen to choose you

Pretty girl, pretty boy
Your tendons pull your weight like carpet rides
Handsome boy, handsome girl
We are both from the same place deep inside of her

Covered in skin
We are, we are the same things
We touch in dark rooms, but I won’t tell you
What I am hiding up my sleeve

Under my clothes, under my clothes
I am organs red and thin as paper dolls
Under my skin, under my skin
I am cul-de-sacs of mazes made to lose you in them

These are the words
I have chosen to mark you
These are the words
And I have chosen to choose you

Goodbye Frankie

Goodbye Frankie,
You’re more of a lady than I’ll ever be
So come lay your blanket by the furnace
and I’ll tell you storie ssoft and warm, smooth and sweet

Goodbye Frankie, if you leave, take me
oh Frankie I’m hot as a hash brown and begging
for something worth digging up once I bury it

Francis, you know the right things to say
when you’re stuck like mud in an awkward situation
dressing for parties you’re daft as a debutante
and I’m hoping soon something is bound to rub off

Someday I’ll wear sensible shoes and learn to tell
the right stories to impress the friends and parents of my boyfriend
but until then there’s you

Goodbye Frankie, you know your rights from your wrongs
I’m trying to see the lines drawn, but I’m human
and reaching too far just to try and touch something new

Francis, you are an angel underneath
all that hair and those eyes that can’t help but peek
at the biggest cake on the bakery shelf
No one's gonna help you, so you’ve got to help yourself

Someday I will know it means to carry
two of the same chromosomes in my blood stream
the future looks far, but it looks sweet
won’t you taste it with me

Goodbye Frankie, you’re such a lady
oh, Frankie, If you leave take me
I’m begging for something worth digging up

Gone

Gone are all of the forests
Gone are all of the trees
Gone are all my grandparents
They were young, they were old and now they’re free

Gone are all of the sparrows
Gone from the telephone wire
Gone is your baby brother
And in the morning you will wake and you’ll find peace

You can run, but you can’t hide from
The train who’ll kill your first born children

Gone are the advertisements
Gone are all the fast foods
Gone are the misconceptions
That you had any right or any chance to choose

Gone is all of the money
Gone are all of your shoes
Gone is all of your shelter
You are free now, you have nothing left to lose

You can run, but you can’t hide from
The train who’ll kill your first born children
I’m not sure why you’ve been searching
Because it’s unclear what is lurking
When you're gone

No one know when you’re gone
She don’t even know
He don’t even know
No one knows where you will go when you’re gone

Gone is all of the land
Gone is all of the sea
Gone are all our fore fathers
Gone is them, gone is those, gone is we

When Will the Writer

Engineer, engineer me
Tie the strings to lift the pulleys
Pull the elevators up and down
Climbing buildings, I am thinking of you now

Engineer spin my worries
make a forest for yourself and then forge me
winter winds have been blowing cruel and cold
In my head I think things I’ll never know

Engineer, please be truthful
Engineer, I’m no fool

Engineer, he has frozen
All my limbs with his potions
I will drink your drug until I’m dry
You can catapult me anywhere you like

Engineer use your equations
to solve the things I’ve not dared to
It seems to be, so very simple
when you are making math problems up in your head

Engineer, calculate me
Use your numbers and your shapes to relate me
standing still, my gut and gullet growl
Soon or later April, come she will

Engineer when will the writer lift his pen
I’ve been patient all year

Ecosystem

Carnivore, sink your teeth into the hills
hide your nose if you’re worried they’ll find you out
lick your lips clean of lambs meat and innocence
you are king of the creatures because you kill

Herbivore, there are meadows and mall parking lots
full of luscious landscaped geraniums
wash your tongue in these waters you know so well
in the end you’ll be begging to bleed to death

Amoeba, I need you
swimming so confident all alone in your test tube

Parasite, you know you’re not welcome here
breaking windows and sneaking under the skin
You are last, in this circle the scientist made
to give names to the wild things that live in the woods

Warrior, the bullets will bounce from your skin
Mix your medicine and feed the wounds of your men
Geronimo, they drove you off of your land
Caught and captured an animal, you died a man

Oh Darwin, where are you?
We were fools to believe anything
other than what you wrote in your notebook

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
We were fools to believe anything

Conversations With Dead People

When I see you
Sitting in the restaurant
Counting complex carbohydrates
I will wonder where it was I knew you from

I will give you my regards
When you turn to go
And in these final parting phrases
I will overanalyze the way your eyes moved slower than before

Winter morning
In the parking lot of my apartment complex
I will be the first to force eye contact
These dashing darting deer in headlight looks are getting tired

From time to time
When I am feeling troubled
I will unfold these letters from old friends and lovers
Thinking fondly of the long agos
The penmanship and perfect strokes
Even though I saved these notes
I won’t pretend I know you anymore

Held in hallways
Caught in corridors
We will speak these warm words
Half empty half full

Bribes

When you come home
There will be a parade for you
When you come home
We will line the streets for you
When you come home, the kids will catch the candy that we throw
When you come home

If you come home
We will have a pilot write your name in the sky
and the birds will think you’re quite a legend
if you come home

Would it kill you to visit every once in a while?
If you did I’d make the bed up just how you like it
Christmas cards, impromptu phone calls won’t get me through the year
I want you here, I want you here

If you come home
We will post an ad in the newspaper that’ll say
For 30 cents a word “We hope you stay”
"We hope you stay."

I’ll cook a big meal with a turkey and a coconut crème pie
I'll use the good plates and the good cups, it’s been a while
Since we had company of any kind I’ve been meaning to
I need you, I need you

When you come home, when you come home

I know as well as they do that you’re doing well out there
But all these words in combination are ones that I don’t want to hear
You’ll never know how hard it is to let your baby go
One thing I know, one thing I know

When you come home, When you come home
When you come home you will be loved

Afterwards

It’s harder to get up on the right side of the bed
These days foot steps in snow make me feel less alone
It’s secret I’m still hoping for some kind of X-ray vision
And I would beam into your bedroom blinds just so I knew you were alright

Acting mature is overrated I miss the days of keying cars
And spreading rumors on the bathroom stalls and locker room walls
Where we forgot we looked when we were hoping no one noticed
Praying someday we’d fit into this mess

It won’t be long before I
Forget just what it felt like
To fall asleep with you breathing next to me

I shut the door when you left to keep out the cold and myself
From running after you just like I saw in the movies
It’s true I have my regrets we never danced on roof tops
And I have found some fake words to say when somebody asks about our death

It won’t be long before I
Forget just what it felt like
To know that I did not know anything

It’s safe to say that even though we’re disregarding
I can’t help but to wonder which song you’re humming

And so I sit and pretend that I don’t mind that I don’t know you
or what your schedule might look like on any given Thursday afternoon
somebody wrote this rulebook and so we will make the effort
to be more scarce in the social situations that we might share

It won’t be long before I
Forget just what it felt like
To feel anything for you at all

In lines at grocery stores I’m dozing off into you arms
And I hope some days you can’t help but to doze off to me to