Recognition

RECOGNITION

                                    I remember that haze,

                                    Beer fresh and bongos,

                                    Brown sugar canvas lips and

                                    The beats behind mumbo-jumbo

                                    In the microphone.

                                    Sigh—

                                    I can feel the sleepy love

                                    Crushing my chapped winter lips, wet

                                    Between sets, jealous girls

                                    Gonna make me smile when they

                                    See that hot fire

                                    Wrapped around your waist,

                                    ‘cuz your body reflected the bar lights

                                    Shine—

                                    Pretty soon like the moon

                                    Like light on beer bottles

                                    And stars shown glowing on the way home,

                                    Hands in your hands,

                                    I coulda sworn ‘bout that love,

                                    I coulda sworn it was there.

                                    Suppose I think about the days

                                    You tried to teach me to forget,

                                    Alls I did was remember it,

                       

                                    I have to go, I know,

                                    Just think of me at dawn

                                    With lights on the lawn, underwear

                                    damp in my back pocket,

                                    Remind me, why’d I go home?

                                    You know I coulda saved you from that loss

                                    Leaving you bare with a reality

                                    That scared the shit outa me, because

                                    I didn’t know you after that.

Man, I hate your reasons, whys,

                                    And I don’t knows,

Just the way it goes, I suppose.

                                    Sometimes the smoke seems to clog

                                    your logic to a dirty nothing but excuses.

                                    What does that mad mushroom

society have to do with me,

Why we don’t work well anymore?

And I don’t know you like I aught to.

                                    You gotta know me though,

                                    I’m gonna tell you truths,

 Like moaning and sweat

 and what we knew so well,

                                    I’ll share my scotch and soul with you

                                    So you can’t forget the words,

                                    Booze and love, and bounce, and

                                    Beat the crazy outa me in music,

                                    ‘Cuz it’s the only freedom.

                                    Baby I might be right, but

                                    Make me wish I was wrong.

                                    I love-you—

                                    The haze days of childhood.

                                    I’m the man in the moon, 

                                    I’ll see you across the water, look

                                    To the sky, see the dark spots

                                    Cry across the black,

                                    And play a song for me.