A Thousand Sighs In the same breath a thousand sighs became the wind and blew south along the ridge at eventide or dusk more like, picking up speed it captured uncle bobs hat in its grip and off it sailed looking for a puddle to wallow in which it did find subsequently. Oh such a fury did that small windward gesture make, the red on my uncles face gave me a fright, the memory of which I have kept till now and might have even whence I will be facing the death. In meantimes I keep my council, cards close to vest and that will be the most anyone can say about my paltry residence on this rock spun round the sun. Howard Beye 2008

The Black Eyed Cat 1 The Black Cat swung out on a very dark night, When the moon hid behind the hill, The Black was out there lookin' for a fight, And I think she's out there still, oh I think she's out there still 2 The Black Cat swung down to salty pete's, She was lookin' for to steal some fish, As she went by sailor Bob said hi, I think you're the cat for me, oh I think you're the cat for me. 3 The ship set sail the very next day, And the black cat climbed up the mast, She looked to the left and she looked to the right, And she realized the ocean was vast, oh She realized the ocean was vast. 4 Sailor Bob named the cat old Slippery Sam, And the cat she liked that name, The rats went runnin' as the cat was comin' For she treated them all the same, oh She treated them all the same. 5 The mate made the cat a little pirate's hat, A paring knife hung by here side, As she walked the deck with a patch on one eye, All the sailors they stood aside, oh The sailors they stood aside. 6 Now a pirate's life is really misunderstood, Robbin' from the kings and queens, When people walk the plank they all shed a tear, But what matters in the end is the gold, oh What matters in the end is the gold. 7 The mate had his eye on the captain's chair, So he waited till the middle of the night, When he got to the main cabin the captain wasn't there, And the mate got a dagger in the back, oh The mate got a dagger in the back. 8 The crew took sides and the fight was on, Soon the deck was awash in blood, By morning light everybody on the ship was dead, And the cat sailed on by herself, oh The cat sailed on by herself. 9 The Black Cat swung out on a very dark night, While the moon hid behind the hill, The Black Cat was out there looking for a fight, And I think she's out there still oh, oh I think she's out there still.

Sweet Rain Mama 1 Sweet rain mama spillin' off my tongue, I said the sweet rain mama is spillin' off my tongue, Hold me in your arms and bring my fever down, Your salty smile is crackin' my stony heart. 2 The black dog's are barkin' and we're bringin' in the corn, I said the black dog's are barkin' and we're bringin' in the corn, Full moon shinin' knockin' on your door, We be dancin' nasty 'round your kitchen floor. 3 The river man poles the barge along the bank, I said the river man poles the barge along the bank, A woman watches wishing he'd stop for a kiss, The river man blushes as he catches her eye. 4 Wipe your eye walk down the dusty road, I said wipe your eye walk down the dusty road, Keep on truckin, searchin' for your truth, When you find that tree won't you steal an apple for me.

Gossamer Wings She was a fanciful thing, flitting around the room like she owned it ... 'Yes indeed', she thought to herself. I know exactly what I want to do with this colour, my god who thought peach and puce would be a combination. Intolerable really! She wouldn't stand it another minute and started screaming and screaming. Nurse came running and so did brother and sister. No matter what they did, nothing worked. The screaming simply got louder. Then everyone except baby turned their heads to the sound of clomp, clomp, clomp which meant only one thing. Daddy was coming and when daddy came it meant big trouble. Daddy was big and busy and he didn't like being disturbed. Big busy daddy riled up was a sight to see. Oh my. The door to the nursery opened with a crack and a bang and the clomp, clomp, clomp was so loud across the floor that I held my ears and the wind was so strong from daddy going past me that I jostled and the tip of my scarf found its way into my eye. Through my closed eyes I heard and through my finger plugged ears I saw an angry daddy and an angry baby go by in a huff and a puff and I was jostled once more. Clomp, clomp, clomp went daddy's shoes on the floor and the stairs and out onto the patio. We all ran to the windows facing the garden. Daddy held screaming baby in his outstretched arms. Baby's gossamer fairy wings all akimbo. Baby was getting the one last chance to stop her baby business before a full body dunking in the fishpond. I heard the screaming and the dunk gurgle, gurgle ... splutter, splutter, scream screaming, SCREAMING, ... louder, Louder LOUDER. We all ducked as the windowpanes shattered and glass started dripping and falling and flying all around. After some quiet, we peeked our heads up over the sill to see what was happening and were surprised to see baby sitting on the lounge chair by the pool and daddy writhing on the ground his hands on his ears. We all looked at each other. Nurse got up and straightened her clothes and dusted herself off and marched down to collect baby. Nurse walked most resolutely past daddy who had fallen asleep by this time, and picked up baby with her gossamer wings all shining in the sun after the dip. Baby came back into the nursery cooing and gurgling and her little wings flitting. Nurse let her go and she started flitting about the room. Daddy was not quite the same since that day. He never clomped again and he always took a post noontime nap. To shake out the cobwebs was how he put it. Baby somehow communicated to nurse that she wanted her room repainted and that was accomplished, the two of them working side by side. Baby doing all the delicate filigree work out of nurse's reach. My it has been a long time since. I don't recollect much of my childhood but that day certainly stands out. Now where is my tobacco, a nice pipe full would hit the spot right about now. Howard Beye 2013

Cybelle 1 If you go I want you to know, I won't stop the path you take, you'll travel far I believe in you, I'll try to watch and the hurt will keep, and even though we didn't last, every minute of the time that past, made sense to me and did me good, I wouldn't trade one moment of this gift from you. 2 The years go by I set my clock, to ring the morning wide awake, the coffee's on it smells like love, I drink it black in memory of, the best of you that I recall, how once we danced nude in the rain, I hold your hand the rest is clear, don't fear the future when you are here. 3 On the soggy grass my socks are wet, the dogs run wild towards the distant hedge, where a spider makes her thorny home, I laugh in wonder while you read your poem, about distant lands and conquered queens, angry bullfrogs and feathered snakes, that chase what little is left of you to give away, don't hold back with me. 4 The day will come I know it will, when the wild dogs will bark no more, and all the crazy dreams I've had, will vanish back to their mythical home, a source of energy so intense it shapes a billion stars, and leaps between us when we kiss, don't stop your hands touching me.

That Time Before it Was Known In that time when all was quiet, not before dawn, the other time when the streets were barren, the cars stopped helter skelter, the street lamps bent westward. That time when the wind whistled, keening, a high grieving note. I ran down, I don't know why but i did, I ran along looking for something to remind me of the day you gave me the one bright red thornless rose. Having carefully stripped the stem for me so as not to injure my hands before the match, infections of the dermis being quite prevalent in that time just before the last afflictions. I was very touched by your so generous gesture of affection and the more so as the rose slowly withered and you were stricken out of the blue as so many others had been, were, would be and started to wither yourself, taking to the couch in sight of the rose, its withering a mirror to your own tragedy and it all happening so quickly, quite quickly, too fast it seemed to shed any tears. Oh but the crying came later, much later and wouldn't stop, till I bed down in a lake of tears and felt as dry as a husk to be blown along by the next wind east.

Easy To Please "This evening we will all go out to the movies" said Sarah. Grandma gave a little smile. She was usually pretty easy to please. She didn't like war movies. Dad discovered that one day when he took her to one at the old Bijou in town one rainy Halloween. Grandma had volunteered as a nurse for the Republican cause in Spain. A bad time she said, a lot of handsome, naive young men who believed in justice and democracy fell before the fascist machines guns. She won't talk about it at all. I tried one time to get her to open up, you know, to get some catharsis. I got her pretty drunk on her favourite whiskey and she talked about an old dog of hers that she had when she was a kid. She found it down by the railroad tracks dragging a mashed leg around. She brought it home and her dad told her if she wanted to keep it she would have to saw the mashed piece of leg off or he would get the .22 and end the misery right then and there. Dad fed the dog a whack load of whiskey, then held it down and while the dog howled and in between up chucks, grandma at the age of nine performed her first amputation. I think that incident encouraged her to become a nurse. She talked about that old dog which went on to a long and healthy three -legged life and she cried a lot. No mention of the war. Maybe that is for the better. I am easily disturbed by any talk of gore. Mom was telling us about the new movie in town, something about a young professional couple, who buy a haunted house, some kind of comedy. Grandma gave a little smile. She is usually pretty easy to please. Howard Beye 2012

Chilled to the Bone 1 We marched all day so clean and so strong, My brothers and I we marched until dawn, We marched and marched til we came to that place, Where the dying man said that time was erased, I wasn't alone as we marched up that hill, One thousand men died to enforce one man's will. Chorus, Black crow, black crow flyin' bring me on home, My heart is aching I can't leave it alone, I wake every morning chilled to the bone. 2 Now Jack was my brother so clean and so strong, It took only one bullet and I left him behind, The wind blew the rain on that terrible day, And I wished it was me that had been in the way. Now what will I tell his mother and dad, What did he die for was it worth it to them. Chorus 3. I try to remember as the years flow on by, just what I stood for as that night turned to dawn, as I saw Jack falling and the spray of the blood, as I took cover beside him face down in the mud, as the shells rained down all over the place, The night was so fearful I puked in disgrace. Chorus 4. The horses are running so clean and so strong, I sit on my porch and watch the leaves blow on by, I think about Jack and that little white cross, And the mud and the blood and the lives that were lost, While my grandson plays with blocks on the floor, And I'm far away reliving that day. Chorus

The War Report What with all the technology, all those wires connecting the tubes to the machines and the airwaves full to bursting with frequencies, it all seemed like utopia. One could have anything one wanted and so we did. We wanted and wanted. But a problem soon arose, not enough to go around, and there were casualties littering the streets, streets teeming with shoppers. They begged and they smelled so strong. What were they eating? You know with a little bit of grooming you could probably get a job and not have to beg. Yes that might be possible but I don't want to be a slave at the bottom of your pile. Why is this happening? I can't find any decent slaves any more! I will have to go offshore to lands more amenable societies more integrated where they understand the meaning of a dollar. So hard to stretch that dollar not the same elasticity as once was expected and attained. The stretching dollar, elasticity at its finest. What about the Yen and the Kroner and the Pound. The Pound Sterling now there was a currency my brother, a currency you could depend on backed by Men of War, cannons at the ready. Those Red Coats, they knew how to form a square, they wouldn't cut and run, fighting down to the last man, against any and all comers, the little brown bellies with bones in their noses and their machetes, muskets firing, oh the smell of Saltpeter. You built an empire on the backs of the sturdy little men who farmed at home and fought wherever you sent them. Howard Beye 2008

Wish This Away 1 If I walked even one mile in your shoes, And I saw all the things that were making you blue, I'd wish this away with a wave of my wand, But I can't my love, so you've got to be strong. Chorus, Strong like the wind and the rain and the stars, Strong like the rock that is weathered by waves, Strong like the tree that bends in the storm, Oh strong be strong in the hug of my arms. 2 There are things in this world that you can't understand The cruelty of people to your fellow man, I'd wish this away with a wave of my wand, But I can't my love so please you be strong Chorus Strong like the wind and the rain and the stars, Strong like the rock that is weathered by waves, Strong like the tree that bends in the storm, Oh strong be strong in the hug of my arms. 3 I can see by the sadness that crosses your face, You've run really hard but you're losing the race, I'd wish this away with a wave of my wand, But I couldn't my love so now you are gone. Chorus Gone with the wind and the rain and the stars, Gone with the rocks that are weathered by waves Gone with the trees that bend in the storms Oh gone you're gone from the hug of my arms.

How We Came To Be Here I'm a white man, sittin' at the right hand, makin' a master plan, to reclaim the land, of my father's who came before, enjoying the free-free-freedom, of the stolen kingdom. Putting aside the people, pushing them and shoving them, along out of their places, along to other spaces, taking the rest for themselves. These are my fathers causing so much sorrow, leaving no hope left, no hope for tomorrow, I'm little and growing up feeling wrong about the wronged, the first born and second born sons and daughters of the land. Cavalry coming, blades swinging, heads rolling, ancestors doling out the punishment for being Red Skinned and in the way of progress towards salvation. What you use we won't share. Oh no. The Red Brothers and Sisters have so much to teach, the Iriquois Confederacy showed us the way and the US constitution was written to say all man are created Equal. But the word white was left out causing confusion and doubt to all the yellows, reds and browns looking in at the party. Brownskins in the fields, Yellowskins building the rails, Redskins left wondering why their early friendship had failed to bring peace. I studied that in school, and I ain't no fool it burrowed under my skin, it burned in my heart like sin. The shame of this hurt, I wore it like a shirt, that couldn't come off my back, started to stink from the lack of anything to do, so I dreamed and schemed of going back to attack, the first of the ones on the shore to be no more so the rest wouldn't come and when I was done in my mind I thought what a crime to hate my father's and mother's like that. No righteousness left, I've got nothing to cheer, and everything to fear about the way I came to be HERE. Howard Beye 2007

Fragile, she stood on the edge waiting for the next train to arrive to take her to more solid ground. The wind blew her dress against her legs in a leisurely manner. It caressed her arm and cupped her cheek with just enough pressure to lean in like a lover. The last of the leaves scurried past, long lost left to fend for themselves, dried and crinkley. She shivered, and went looking in her pack for a sweater. The night train to Swanson was due in and hour. She turned around saw the stations lights come on and the station master bustling around lighting the lamps. What a lovely glow she through and felt warmer.

Hold On Tom Waits 1 They hung a sign up in our town, if you live it up your won't live it down, So she left montereo son, just like a bullet leaves a gun, With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips, she went and took that California trip, The moon was gold and here hair like wind, she said don't look back you just come on Jim, You've got to hold on, hold on, yeah baby, you've got to hold on, Take my hand I'm standing right here you've got to hold on. 2 He gave here a dime store watch, and a ring made from a spoon, Everybody's looking for someone to blame, you share my bed your share my name, Well go ahead and call the cops, you don't meet nice girls in coffee shops, She said baby I still love you, but sometimes there is nothing left to do, but You've got to hold on, hold on, yeah baby, you've got to hold on, Take my hand I'm standing right here, you've got to hold on. 3 God bless your crooked little heart, St Louis got the best of me, I miss your broken china voice, I wish you were still here with me, You build it up you break it down, you burn your mansions to the ground, When there's nothing left to keep you here, when you're falling behind in this big blue world, You've got to hold on, hold on, yeah baby you've got to hold on, Take my hand I'm standing right here, you've got to hold on. 4 Down by the riverside motel, it's ten below and falling, By a ninety nine cent store, she closed her eyes and started swaying, But it's so hard to dance that way, when it's cold and there's no music, When your old home town seems so far away, but inside your head a records is playing a song called, Hold on, Hold on, yeah baby, you've got to hold on, Take my hand I'm standing right here, you've got to hold on.