Old Hussies Never Die

Oh the seasons pass with exponentially increasing haste
And no regard to one’s perspective or the scale on which it’s based
One thing stays the same with every passing year
That’s the brazen sisterhood we hold so dear
Old Hussies Never Die, they just drink better wine
Eat chocolate on a chaise, and sparkle by design
Old Hussies Never Die, they just go on to the next
Cocktail hour in the sky
Ever more to laugh
Never more to cry
Old hussies never die

Since You Put up with Me

Your big brown eyes have seen me throw up in your car
Your luscious lips have not said grow up girl so far
Though your understanding ears have heard me sing the notes all wrong
Your saintly self still listens to the song
Since you put up with me
You make me want to be
A good girl in the worst way and a bad girl in the best
An angel if you need one or a dancing demoness
I never wore a French maid’s costume but I would at your behest
Since you put up with me

Idiot For Love

He knows they say she’s crazy
Knows what people think
Says he wouldn’t change a thing, takes another drink
But Mikey B regales him with a tale, as if on cue
About her dance floor exploits, and a couple renowned moves
Bobby looks like he’s been stabbed which isn’t far from true
Says he’s got to get some air, you know he’s got the blues
We go out to find him smoking by a beat-up old Dodge Dart
Seeing once again how violent the breaking of a heart
He always said it’s crazy girls that make the world go ’round
She had his favorite flavor, best he’d ever found
It’s plain to see he hasn’t yet had punishment enough
But who among us hasn’t been an idiot for love
He says he’s never been ashamed, you know he knows the score
Things that people laugh about just make him love her more
He says she hadn’t been that way the times they were alone
I say I can’t point the stupid stick of love at anyone
I heard she has a record, long as Mickey’s bar
Triple-decker trouble in a tricked out muscle car
You don’t take her home to mama, yet that’s just what he’d done
How was he to know that she was only having fun?

Over With Some Wine

You say another romance bites the dust
And this time it’s oblivion or bust
You’ve seen this scene before and drank the drink
As another lover drove you to the brink
You’ll find love you lovely girl so don’t despair
He’ll see your heart and all the lovely things in there
‘Til the day this mean old world is rid of swine
You can just call and I’ll be over with some wine
You say you cannot take another round
You always end up bleeding on the ground
But the next one could be what you’re in it for
Not the game you’ve come to dread down to your core
And it’s hard to say ’cause it just looks like luck I guess
As those the gods whimsically choose with whom to mess
We’ve all been there a time or two so who’s to say
There ain’t a method to the madness anyway

Rappaccini’s Daughter

Beatrice tends the garden with such love
It takes repeated viewings to see it’s all poisonous
A gecko and a dragonfly expire within her breath
To creatures from the outside world a touch from her is death
By day a terrifying nursery rhyme
It’s at night and with some wine the colors look their most sublime
Giovanni drinks the image while sinking inside a dream
He’ll only see what he desires as death begins to gleam
Her narcotic beauty has no peer
Matched only by the loneliness of her sad exile here
She never chose the separation and she won’t choose to stand still
As poison’s informed her whole life she knows the cure can kill
At one with her botanical domain
The fatal aspect of the flowers is the lifeblood in her veins
The alchemy with which her father forged her solitude
Will kill anyone imagining with love they could intrude
She sees no harm in walking with him near
And liquid bravery blinds him to that which he should fear
Gradual exposure and increased immunity
Will make him one with her and her attendant chemistry

Bare Branch in Winter

Bare branch in winter against the blue sky
I look up at you and see no reason why
I should expect to see green in the spring
But I do anyway and I hear the birds sing
Sun on the water like diamonds that dance
Using the wind and the waves to enchant
Sparkling amorphous they shift out of time
Filling my line of vision a bridge of sunshine
Deer in the forest upon the high trail
Your grey winter coat is a tree colored veil
Standing so still I almost pass you by
Never seeing the grace I’m so lucky to spy

Haunted

You visit me so vividly in dreams
A treacherous mirage traversing a cold moonbeam
And like a sucker-punch stuck on repeat
I see you with no knowledge of our played out history
And while you’re here I cannot see the impossibility of what’s implied
But the morning always brings a brutal wakeup call that rings like someone died
This is what it is to be haunted
A fresh knife to the heart every day
Once more forget all it was you’d so wanted
And scrape the years of absence away
I can’t afford your vision with its lack
Of time and distance and regret and things I can’t take back
It’s a toll-gate on the road away from you
Like I hadn’t paid the other thousand times that I went through
The token-taker laughs at me and the relentless comedy of my return
Oh it’s my recompense, part of the laughable expense at which I learn

Thanks for Being You

You could have been like other men who in the end were dogs
Could have been the prince I kissed who turned into a frog
But you were so much lovelier, so good and kind and true
Than any other creature that I knew
You turned the pattern on its head
Grew even princelier instead
You even have a cat named Jed that you’re nice to
You’re preferable to pythons and pigs and panthers too
Thank you Darling, thanks for being you

Souffle

He’ll bring a stack of records, tonight it’s R&B
Guess I’ll make souffle with French green beans and shittake
We will hear the Hesitations, but for now I’m hearing Monk
Just me and my stereo getting geriatric crunk
You start with bechamel sauce, for this you need a rioux
Later add white pepper and some grated nutmeg too
Make sure the oven’s preheated to 400 degrees
Combine the sauce and egg yolks with some shredded Gruyere cheese
You’ve got to beat the egg whites ’til they look just like whipped cream
Combine it with the sauce, pouring it over the green beans
Put it in a buttered vertical-sided round dish
You can do this using almost any vegetable you wish

Angel Rant

Terrified and feeling fragile, walking wounded and unraveled
Sick of all the shit you have to do
To keep your heart from hemorrhaging and hold your head together
While you try to find a different kind of glue
You’ve traveled through the coldest regions with no cover but your prayers
No one there to hold you when you’re shaking with despair

I’ve seen you walking where the skull and crossbones shine
I’ve seen you drinking from the cup of poison vines
I’ve seen you dreaming where the devil’s angels dine
Don’t you think it’s time to leave your hell behind

History has taught you not to get your hopes up though you got to
Look up or you’ll never see the sky
When all the fear you choke up dissipates, you’ll see you’re still not broken
Get yourself out of the way and fly
Through the valley of the shadow, and the dark night of the soul
To a place where angels pour on you the songs that make you whole

Daffodils

The freeze didn’t kill my daffodils this time
The cold snap came like an inclement vernal crime
It was just mid-January, the leaves started to appear
Does anything so early stand a chance this time of year
I feared they would not get the chance to bloom
That the February frost and cold would spell their certain doom
But the mercury came back up, and the stems resumed their climb
And the cold didn’t kill my daffodils this time
Happy yellow heads are opening
A small army of suns begin to sing
That in spite of everything in case you still require a sign
The cold didn’t kill my daffodils this time

Panties

Nashville stop throwing your panties at me
It’s embarrassing after awhile
You don’t want to be letting your girl catch cold
Showing off the old vertical smile
Vickie’s and Fredericks serve up the supply
Oh I know you got knickers to spare
Nashville stop throwing your panties at me
Or at least could it be a clean pair