poem of the day 06.08.10

taking it all away

i can’t save you this evening
i can’t make you laugh the way i want to
they are taking it all away
we don’t even know who they are anymore
because there’s so many of them
so we watch the vastness of the night
we watch movie clips for inspiration
and drink more of this jug wine
than we should
they say a storm is coming
wind is blowing up from the estuary
but we haven’t sucked down
a drop of rain in this miserable city for almost a month
a storm is brewing nearly everywhere in this broken land
the president is eating tar balls on the beach
and the rest of us are getting shit-faced on ruined credit
it’s getting cooler outside tonight, though,
feeling more like the fall than
the miserable summer that was already
starting to bear down on us
but what does it matter
if i can’t save you this evening?
if i can’t take it away and store it somewhere else?
i have to be worth something
but i’m sweating here
trying to figure this one out
as you tell me the fates are aligning against us
let them
they haven’t won the battle yet, my dear
we still have a few tricks up our sleeves
a little magic in our hearts
and if they fail us, you get the gasoline
i’ll be the matches
we’ll set this place up in a blaze
bailing out between the cracks in the bedroom door

...i know this little cafe in paris
on the boulevard du montparnasse
where the wine is cheap and the peanuts
taste like ocean salt

we can hide underneath the blood-red awning
watching all the lonely faces
we can wait this misery out there