2

number 4 shuffle

of pirates 'n poets 'n outlaws 'n sinners

old highways were run

fast on the shoulder loose on the curve

in the suburban nightmare

i heard lenny bruce laugh

"accept what is not what should be"

and burroughs blow hot jazz literature

in twilight tangier

my mind thirsted

stones rolled rebels yelled

an electric poet howled across the landscape

rimbaud wrote in van gogh's bedroom

"woman nurse those fierce invalids home

from hot countries"

cassidy drove through the kerouac night

screaming out of the womb

i romanced self-destruction

shadows hiding nerve and feeling

indiscriminate pleasure

to ease the confusion

i have slain the beauty of innocence

squandered my time on pockets of gold

laid with delusion

smiled with madness

a vacuum of dependency

greedy, hungry, discontent

wasting what was in my path

picking only pleasures of lying eyes

i took what I could not carry

with such ease, wasted minstrels speak of faith

as faith gives the grace of choice

hearing goethe echo

"he who strives upward him can we save"



i stand

manchild of years

history lessons and compass in hand



12 x 12 new roads appear

poundin' with the heartbeat

of a newborn

under one sky

capable of love