Train Wreck

Listen! PA blares: “Beware of bears. Stay on the train, cause whatsisname,
Jesse James, is on a tear. Look, he’s right over there. Be scared!”
Conductor, he’s still collecting fares, bar car selling its wares,
dining car serving filet mingon and poached pears.
Under the smoke, in the locomotive, Casey Jones?
No. Pinocchio with a nose full of coke. Yo!
Driving that train with a balsa wood brain, thinking he’s holy,
while his brooding Strombolli (who bumped off Geppetto)
got no-bids for gouging the ghetto,
killed thousands of kids, like quail in the meadow.
Now his bulging eyes lift lies from a ripped up libretto,
tongue shrieking in some basso falsetto,
mouth twisted – a living Picasso –
as the train - throttle on max,
streaking past the huddled masses in flooded shacks,
whistle screaming, - careens off the tracks.
You can smell the oil, see all the loyal hacks stuffing their sacks,
you can feel the fear, hear the bald puppeteer, his lips in the ear
of the coke-head engineer. Look at him sneer,
still on the make. With the whole crew on the take,
windshield might as well be opaque.
B’sides, everybody too busy kicking ass to locate the brake.
Whistle blowing some weird riff, long train arcing off the cliff,
a necklace strewn across the stars.
Marionette engineer stuffing his ears to muffle the cries,
his nose overgrown from too much booger sugar or too many lies.
Puppet and puppet master, strung out, falling faster,
out of appeals, people praying, everyone kneels.
All the macho dirt bags leaking sand, who never had a plan,
Have run out of deals.
Loudspeaker, still spouting its spiels,
softens into static squeals…
In the quiet, the depth of deception congeals.
Oh my God, the mind reels…
It was all hype; all spin and no wheels.

Train Wreck

New Poems

From By Heart

Some Earlier Poems

Audio Recordings