Neil Young


the approach of the voice
moves, as if in total failure
not even body or mind are yours
or even to remain at all

then answering sarcastically
"OH IT'S MY MIND"

galvanized is heavy stuff
now you know
where in the pipe house
we're going with this?

up Broadway, just as it begins
to taper at the top of Union Sq.
a crowd is looting a dumpster
full of S&M gear, stepping through
piles of whips and vinyl straps

florescent lights 30 stories up show
through window's closeness distance
is 3000 miles past suicide, or near
all day long and nothing to say

subsume crayon artifice, the deluge
withstands corrosion, afterthoughts
of preternatural flippers, an onslaught
typing through summer pertinence,
causes the desert to attempt, almost like
Spring today, that resistance and sanity
are not ours to have, but only to release

to not even be able to formulate the words
that might begin to describe
the actual conditions,
description is not the problem,
lying is, and obfuscation
so let's not pretend there's no them,

the Pentagon, World Bank, Boeing
the IMF, CIA, FBI, GE, Lockheed Martin, Texaco ...
Bill Clinton works for them, so does Cory Flintov

unable to get back to the city from
the New Jersey side, through the maze of schools
up corridors onto cliffs, inaccessible bridges
it is impossible to get to the other side
the price is too high, and I forget
about it, since there are two boys here
in danger of falling into the river, I grab them
and pull them from the edge --

or maybe my life is perfect?
and dark projects rise into the night air on 10th Ave.
all these years I had nothing,
overheard in the Morgan Deli
now I have something to live for

Feb. 20, 1997, the same as any other time or date --
strips of foam on the door to kep the wind
from coming in

blue windows behind the stars
yellow moon on the rise

you throw yourself into the open door