George Dixon's Lament




Stovepipe hat, stovepipe boots,
Ankle-deep in red clay,
Light from a silver dollar moon,
Filtered through the canebrake,

And crystalline breath,
Cypress branch claws at the sky,
Like the hand of death,

With regrets to Fredrick Douglas,
Daniel O'Connell, and …

The Legend of Architeuthis





I woke up when the floor it dropped,
Rocking and a reelin' from a ten foot wave top,

First the mainsail, haul in the jibs and boom,
Clear the deck boys now give 'er some room,

Oh...
Nothing but water and foam,
And a thousand miles between here and …