EZ-Rain How lucky to find you out on the lawn at midnight With your sister and her friend Nathaniel Fifty thousand stars cut holes Through a lapis ceiling And fell like easy rain With the spirit of a radiant mystery From a pill you promised wouldn’t harm me Laying on the ground, took hold, Like braided branches It felt like easy rain Had I opened the gate too loud? Had I known you were raised on a cloud I’d have stuck around How lucky to find you out on the lawn at midnight Will I be so lucky when the sun comes up again And I drift awake and find a hurt so simple It lands like easy rain

Madeline Sits in a folding chair Same one as last week With her persimmon And no one mentions Her bionic arm Her bionic arm Madeline Paid her taxes For 2014 In 2011 And no one asks her If something’s wrong With her bionic arm

Broken Watches I have that picture of you standing holding an ice cream cone And there’s a 1970’s breeze Blowing your curly hair around like cotton candy Your skin is soft and pale and I can almost feel it against my finger I’m sure you’ve had your first kiss your first cigarette But maybe you’d never flown in a plane across the Atlantic I can tell you like carnivals and you were against the war You had an older brother who went over you won’t see anymore The cold cold war is all you ever seem to dream about You wake up sweating through your tank top Worried there’s someone walking around in the house And you can’t seem to get yourself out of bed… I relate There’s not a bird in the world you don’t know the name of Though really you’ve only ever seen a few You can still remember the card tricks you learned a kid But you only every break them out at parties when you’re tipsy Maybe you took a trip all the way down to Florida Watched whales jumping through the air at Sea World You saw your grandma Ida holed up in the trailer park And pressed your head against her heaving chest you knew she loved The cold cold war is all you ever seem to dream about You wake up sweating through your tank top Worried there’s someone walking around in the house And you can’t seem to get yourself out of bed… I relate I found your picture walking down the street when I was your age in a box full of broken watches I’ve kept you with me through these crazy windy years I guess I like the way you keep time stopping how you’re frozen Has some new worry supplanted those old dreams Maybe I’ve passed you walking down these streets Goddamn I’ve been grieving I lost my only human Most days are a bear thick and consuming But I still have your picture and sometimes it takes me away

“You’re Almost There” by Craig Werth, February, 27, 2019 you wait, nightly, humming, brightly. hopeful, graceful, hungry, playful. (you’re almost there…) you want, clearly, missing, nearly, small smile, steady, always, ready. (you’re almost there…)

Baggage Rollin' around the world Searching again Look here I am first row Rollin' around the world Searching again Say I belong to you Claim me Lost in a circle Flown all around the world Where are you now? Claim me Feeling worn out, exposed Blue, ‘cause of you, case closed Forgotten somehow There’s a part of me Broken but hoping I lightened the load You’ll try over Head on Locked up guarded protecting Your secrets love, you want to think I’m tough, will carry on Rollin’ around the world Searching again Look here I am first row Rollin’ around the world Searching again Say I belong to you

Tom Pirozzoli The Lodestone I came upon a tattered book I picked it up and had a look A young girl’s story of a time held slave and her plans of escape it read like this I hear the water on the shore I see my children at play l write this down for what it’s worth For it was not always this way Just a child in 1741 The year the slave traders come Breached our shores in the dead of night Stole men and women and children alike. A girl like me does as she’s told But I watched I waited patiently I saw The captain’s pride was his Lodestone ’Twas his guide across the seas Girls and boys were cabin slaves In time I gained the captain’s grace As he slept stone drunk one night I stole his keys I stole his prize I Slipped the guards a-sleeping by then Freed the women and men Over the side With a boat and oars Ever so quiet for nameless shores. There are men who would steal our right to be free but time revealed it was all we could be Once out on the sea Far from the slaver’s hand The Lodestone gave us hope Of safe harbor for to land I am young no more But each day I watch the shore No man alive you see Will ever again take freedom from me

In Here Bob Moore I can’t say how my spirit came to be. I grew up in the company of birds. They came when hands would scatter seeds. And when they sang, I thought I heard their words. They seem to say however cold it was, that living here was home among the trees, and folks who sat upon a bench would come because their time in here was free. And I have relatives not for from here. In fact, they’ve all grown up or so I’ve learned. I get the latest news not from a paper. I get it when my feathered friends return. As far as I can tell I’m old as dirt. I’m older than the fountain and the sign that greet the people when they walk— In here they lose the shadows in their minds. And I have relatives not for from here. In fact, they’ve all grown up or so I’ve learned. I get the latest news not from a paper. I get it when my feathered friends return. And this old park, it sleeps from dusk till dawn. And time moves at its own pace dawn till dusk. Until the park walls disappear, I’ll open up my case again and busk. I’ll open up my case again and busk.

Hey There Purple Sailor –Bonnet Island hey there purple sailor what else can we do but wave goodbye to your perfect half sail designed to pull you the ocean tides are changing when you wake up path to ruin we can’t control what we do we can’t control where we’re going we can’t control what is coming hello there hydrozoa caught up in the tide I see your body lost and lonely darling as you’re floating by you go where the current carries you the waters on the rise we can’t control what we do we can’t control where we’re going we can’t control what is coming hey there purple sailor what else can we do but wave goodbye another galaxy disappears now just clarity clarity clarity

Where Do You Go (Suburban Eve) by Christian Hulseman Your smile’s contagious but so is the lie You’ve got the short hair of courage but the fear in your eye It’s been so long since you recognized your face The party moves around you, but you’re lost in the wine Sometimes you feel so empty at the strangest of times You give yourself to him but you’re so far away CHORUS Ah girl, where do you go (when you go and you’re gone) Looks like you got it all right now, but you feel nothing at all You gotta get back to where it all began to fall….. You were too young back then to know what you had Just settled for a promise and the looks of a man You think that apple won’t fall but once in a life Something wakes you up in the middle of the night from somewhere deep inside like a perfect light you close your eyes, but you can’t keep her away CHORUS Ah girl, where do you go (when you go and you’re gone) Looks like you got it all right now, but you feel nothing at all You’ve got to get yourself back to the garden again somehow SOLO CHORUS Ah girl, where do you go (when you go and you’re gone) Looks like you got it all right now, but you feel nothing at all You gotta get back to where it all began to fall….. Get back to the garden again somehow…..

The Fence by Joel Glenn Wixson My daddy built fence when I was 17 years old To try to keep my Nelly Sue away Now I resented Daddy for that selfish thing he did, And I don't even talk to him today Now I have not seen dad since I was 17 years old But you know that I see Nelly every day Cause she and I were married and we had our selves some kids Ain't it funny things turned out that way It seems that there was something that my daddy did not know When he was out there building up that fence He thought that he could make me mind by pushing me around It turns out that did not make any sense I guess that when you build a wall to try to keep things out You can't be sure just `what will come your way And maybe you should take the time to work to make things right Or you just might regret it all some day My daddy built fence when I was 17 years old To try to keep my Nelly Sue from me Now I resented Daddy for that selfish thing he did, It turns out all he did was set me free

Georgia Sky Lacey on the bus as the sun burns out She says I don’t really like my own mind Every time I try and fall asleep these days It feels like I’m battling Frankenstein And I’m stranded left behind Jenny takes her hand and says hush my love You know that I’d never let you disappear I listen to you talking to your god sometimes Quietly when you think no one hears About hunger and your fears Lacey whispers with her eyes closed I could use a little antidote And the moon is nearly full And they’re so far from where they need to go Watching through the window at the blurry sky Everyone seems to be dead asleep Lacey looks longing into Jenny’s eyes Tell me my peach what’s the matter with me I can’t loosen this disease Sorry my love I need to get some rest Jenny tells Lacey then shuts her eyes Lay your little rabbit head on my lap When we wake up we’ll be hypnotized By the cleansing Georgia sky Lacey whispers with her eyes closed I could use a little antidote And the moon is nearly full And they’re so far from where they need to go