Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, it’s so much clearer.
I forgot my shirt at the waters edge.
The moon is low tonight.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
I’m not sure all these people understand.
It’s not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water.
They cannot see me naked.
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday.

Nightswimming, remembering that night.
Septembers coming soon.
I’m pining for the moon.
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
Could not describe nightswimming.

You, I thought I knew you.
You I cannot judge.
You, I thought you knew me,
This one laughing quietly underneath my breath.
Nightswimming.

The photograph reflects,
Every streetlight a reminder.
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night.

How proud was he
Of his favorite fighting son?
Taught him to eat, drink,
Fuck and hold his gun
Took him off
On southernly excursions
To swim naked and baked
This was the ritual
Half on, half off
Half father, half son
How proud was he?
In mountain hotels
Counting holes in the moon
In the moon
Soldiers of June
Soldiers of June

during my worst times
on the park benches
in the jails
or living with
whores
I always had this certain
contentment-
I wouldn’t call it
happiness-
it was more of an inner
balance
that settled for
whatever was occuring
and it helped in the
factories
and when relationships
went wrong
with the
girls.
it helped
through the
wars and the
hangovers
the backalley fights
the
hospitals.
to awaken in a cheap room
in a strange city and
pull up the shade-
this was the craziest kind of
contentment

and to walk across the floor
to an old dresser with a
cracked mirror-
see myself, ugly,
grinning at it all.
what matters most is
how well you
walk through the
fire

-Charles Bukowski

Cold hands touching my face
Don’t hide - the snake can see you
Old friends you might not remember
Fading away from you
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory

And we looked
And we passed through the hallway of shatterproof glass

She runs through the night as if nobody cares
She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I’m never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory

(Robert Pollard @ The Paradise 4/21/2006)

The sign shed light on who is lonely
Run and hide - I’m alright
Light me, blood clot
I am only a child of light
And I’m going all the way
And I’ve thrown it all away

Service time is lonely
Live it up before you pass away

In my sight- no more fighting
Don’t be defensive- not with me
Every issue presents itself
We address them quickly
And throw them all away
And I’ve thrown them all away

Service time is lonely
Live it up before you pass away

I feel life passing on by us…

Send in the striped white jets
In through stained glass ceilings, ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh
Color them white or red

Don’t let anyone find out
Or expose your feelings, ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh
Cover your head instead

And penetrate this dark heart
And as the wound is healing, ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh
Crawl to the other side

Where things are new in brilliant blue
And striped white jets come speeding through, ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh

And we must not forget
The sudden pain of birth and greed
And what’s expected of this superbreed

And those who dream to touch the sun
And those who run
Who always run

Perfect striped white jets
In their hangars bleeding, ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh
Cover them all in black

I got a hand
So I got a fist
So I got a plan
It’s the best that I can do
Now we’ll say it’s in God’s hands
But God doesn’t always have the best goddamn plans, does he?

I ain’t quite the beauty
Pulls out two guns and shoots at the pretty, pretty view
Gotta keep thinking, things, hunters and kings
To block out the view, I gotta get
New bell to ring
New song to sing
A steady hand to ring
A readiness of things I do
I gotta get a new plan to bring to the people
People I can trick them into thinking anything
Oh rust, just right in the light
It’s gold, it’s gold

I got
Water and holes in my hands
I’m a digger of holes in the land
It’s the easiest way
And you know
It’s the easiest way
So I go

Lalalalalala

I got water and I got holes, so
Lalalalalala
Sons and daughters of hungry ghosts
I got water and I got holes, so
Lalalalalala
Sons and daughters of hungry ghosts

Lalalalalala

I got a hand
So I got a fist
So I got a plan
It’s the best that I can do
Now we’ll say it’s in God’s hands
But God doesn’t always have the best goddamn plans, does he?

I can’t believe in the guns
I can’t believe in the view

I sing, sing
Lalalalalala

I can’t believe in those hunters and kings

I got a new plan to bring
I got a new song to sing
And it goes
Lalalalalala

And you know it’s the easiest way

Sometimes I feel
The need to move on
So I pack a bag
And move on
Move on

Well I might take a train
Or sail at dawn
Might take a girl
When I move on
When I move on

Somewhere, someone’s calling me
When the chips are down
I’m just a travelling man
Maybe it’s just a trick of the mind, but
Somewhere there’s a morning sky
Bluer than her eyes
Somewhere there’s an ocean
Innocent and wild

Africa is sleepy people
Russia has its horsemen
Spent some nights in old Kyoto
Sleeping on the matted ground

Cyprus is my island
When the going’s rough
I would love to find you
Somewhere in a place like that

Somewhere, someone’s calling me
When the chips are down
I stumble like a blind man
Can’t forget you
Can’t forget you

Feeling like a shadow
Drifting like a leaf
I stumble like a blind man
Can’t forget you
Can’t forget you

Can’t forget you
Can’t forget you