Ghosts
End x End
So
by Bob Lupo
Ghosts
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My head full o’ stones…
They said we were attacked, Enemy torpedoes in the night. All the Country’s Generals sang Glory, glory hallelujah songs And shipped me off to Viet-Nam Half-a-world away: A place to save, A conflict to win… Or Dominoes would fall And Tyranny would reign In Malay And weaken the USA. It was freedom’s last dance… Moses Jones that bag o’ woe, Hung in the Everglades not long ago, A shoelace above slavery & a hole in the hangman’s soul Wailing the dreams of Robert E. Lee, Wistful hymns of reverie In the Land O’ The Free. It was freedom’s last dance… Moses Jones that bag o’ woe, Hung in the Everglades not long ago, An ol’ Cypress tree his stage t’plea Amid the hangman’s glee: Lord Jesus, lemme lay my troubles down! Lord Jesus, lemme lay my troubles down! In the Land O’ The Free. It was freedom’s last dance… My M-16 full throttle Grenades rimmed my chest, Leeches made love to my legs And Sinclair Oil & Aristocracy Demanded my naivete, I smelled hypocrisy. Myths in the muddy mist Deuces wild in the chase, The die rolled one-by-one Snake eyes in the elephant grass. |
Whiskey, Weed & Asian Women Supple forms & mangled limbs, Long live the living. It was freedom’s last dance… What color fear In the morning light, Racks of slaughtered meat Running red. Words stampede like cattle Slated for doom and war kills all but the dead. I walked the haunted land and knew Nobody should die for a Lie. I see mouths scream, See eyes covered in gauze, See arms shredded Faces blown away, Pain slays me. I see youth slip dead, Names flee my throat I howl. Numbed back to the World I play games, Teeth, clatter-click Smile into the Hole games. Pull the pin, Fire in the Hole! Dark & Empty & Black / Clatter-click. Moses Jones that bag o’ woe, Hung in the Everglades not long ago, An ol’ Cypress tree his stage t’plea Amid the hangman’s glee: Lord Jesus, lemme make peace with my soul! Lord Jesus, lemme make peace with my soul! In the Land O’ The Free… Freedom’s last dance. |
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End x End Brown leaves skip along rain-slicked streets, Kids in the rain lost in noise… Once threads of renewal Bedded by moist soil & nurtured by nature, Leaves die where they fall, useless slush Crushed by churning wheels and hostile winds, And turn to dust… Too many soldiers off to doom, A president’s place in history & glory to generals all. Once nurtured by mamas Once a person & a soul, Soldiers die where they fall. Taps the last salute, Extinguish the light. |
So And then there was me A lonely stretch of imagination A species wormed from the Earth, Clever and shallow as sin Sand to the sea, Gross as blood in church Pleas wail to Heaven, A woeful victim of fate Promises O promises Flailing in failure, Fault lines inside the Soul Cheap and brittle as death, Nothing to do but laugh. |
