INDEX:
The farm kid blues
Industrial Strength
The Europeanization of America
Ronald Reagan
Middle of Nowhere (The Lane)
In Style
The farm kid blues
I miss that Kansas Thanksgiving
I just want to go back home
I hate this city living
I just want to go back home
Nobody's there, the farm is gone
Just have to keep plowing on
I'm never going to die
I'm just going to go on home
I'm so tired of working
I just want to go on home
If there'd be no place to go
He would have told me so
Just have to keep plowing on
(October 30, 1999)
Industrial Strength
We hit another dry hole today
But there's no time to rest from the toil
We have to move the rig right away
Gotta keep giving 'em cheap oil
Found another lost calf down in the grove
I'll call to see if the vet can stop by
We'll have to wait to buy that new stove
Gotta keep filling that food supply
Lost an entire lot of chips this morning
One guy failed to have the tooling inspected
We'll have to let him go, he's had one warning
Gotta keep everybody connected
Lost another stunt man today
A two-day delay, yesterday it rained
Have to roll extra tomorrow to make up the delay
Gotta keep 'em all entertained
(November 28, 1999)
The Europeanization of America
Cross the raging waters
Sail here
Come here to live
Come here to die
You'll be free for awhile
Tyranny's been banished
Death was the price of liberty
And suffering
Without any doubt, without hesitation
Absolutely
Then something happened
Just take a look
We gather at stagnant waters
New formulas, old ideas
Darwin, Marx, Nietzche, Freud
Some of their pioneers
We take these to heart same as our distant cousins
But when they put them into action
We have to intervene
We have to save democracy
(Now we don't like tanks anymore
We prefer airplanes)
Democracy's worth killing for
Liberty was worth dying for
We've discovered dying's no fun
Our leaders must agree
We were special
Something happened
We're the same now...
They didn't lead us to the cesspool
We ran for it
They just got there first
(December 06, 1999)
Ronald Reagan
He wasn't one of them.
He was one of us.
He was better than all of them,
And he was just one of us.
(June 11, 2004)
Middle of Nowhere (The Lane)
Walking down the road,
A shady lane of old,
Puts me in a mode
Of strange feelings untold,
Fluttering like birds,
Nerves instead of words,
Surging outward inward,
While moving steadily onward
Toward the trees up ahead.
By their mystery I'm led,
Stepping in rythym to the sound
Of the wind sweeping the ground.
A field on the left,
Trees hang low to the right,
The top of the hill barely in sight.
Passed by that shack
A few steps back.
Who, when, where did they go?
Guess I'll never know.
Just brown rotting wood,
They're gone for good.
Sounds, smells, perfect grace,
Hazy sky, brown, green, open space.
Somebody's watching, I turn to see,
But that can't possibly be.
The climb levels out at the top,
The rutted road comes to a stop.
On the other side of the tracks
It's covered with buckbrush and sumacs.
Going to get rough from here on in,
But for once want to get to the end.
The shortcut home walking the ties
Wouldn't yield any surprise.
Cross the fence, it's not so bad,
Just part of being a nomad.
Now each step is put with thought
To end up where a snake is not.
There's some old wire in the hedge row,
This was a trail from a long time ago.
Wish I could have seen it then.
Life was simpler way back when.
Now it's so complicated.
Why is it so complicated?
Wow, it's like a tunnel now,
A path of old leaves flattened somehow.
No bright sun anywhere,
Made darker yet by cedars here and there,
Treetops deflect an occasional sunbeam.
It's exactly like a dream.
The first time I've seen this piece of land,
Most of the critters here have never seen a man,
There's that waterfall I've heard about
Now I'll get to check it out,
Just a chunk of limestone broken away,
I'll have to come back on a rainy day.
What could be the nearby hole in the ground,
Shallow, lined with rocks all around?
Leaving the trees it'll soon be over,
Just one more patch of grass, weeds, and clover.
That was a different world in there.
I offer a brief, critical prayer,
Alone, in the middle of nowhere.
Cool winds and warm winds stirring,
Imagination swirling,
Emotions unfurling.
Some days it's hard to survive.
Today it feels so good to be alive.
Slide through the fence
Without tearing my pants.
Finally civilization, or at least a gravel road.
Walking will be easy now as homeward I go.
(August 2004)
In Style
I have a blazer for every occasion
Even a suit that I wear on vacation,
It's light earthtone
Brown herringbone.
The ties in my closet are sorted by color
From thinner to wider
From brighter to duller
They're J.C. Penney's best
Permanent Pressed.
I'm all dressed up,
I'm intact.
Girls are impressed,
And that's a fact
I'm in style.
I'm in style.
(ca. 1985)
Without a Trace
Ten years ago on a day much like today
A light breeze, a few clouds, he went away
Simply disappearing without a trace
His life didn't end, it just suspended in place
He sobbed, of course, out of control
Then was no longer seen by any soul
His journey continued after drying his eyes
No one could see him, nor hear his sighs
He searched every face to be noticed by one
For one glance of concern, there were none
Thousands of people passed him by
Rushing to nowhere, averting their eyes
He had no idea way back then
That he'd never be seen again
Occupying an empty space
If he had known
The pain of being alone
He would have used all his might to hold on
The day he disappeared without a trace.
(January 2016)
--all copyrighted Aaron Cook--
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