livin' the blues...

So I was talking blues poetry tonight with my friend Grant, who's this amazing blues musician, and coincidentally this morning I was working on my favorite blues poem that I've written; it's been on my mind all day. Anyway, after percolating on this for some 14 hours, I think it's just time to post this poem and get it out of my system.

Okay, this is pissing me off - in the line 'south west north east', there's supposed to be a lot of space between the words, but blogspot keeps removing the additional spaces. Grrrrr... I hate auto-formatting.

wandering hermit crab blues

ann went down to the river
to get herself a lover.
ann thought it might be fun
to find one that didn’t run.

so. now ann crouches in a cluttered room
sees herself sweeping out kids with a broom.
ann cringes to watch the artistic wife
of her lover, her love, in a realistic life.

ann’s legs are hurtin and feet dust-bit.
ann’s eyes are tired of all this bullshit.
ann’s been walkin a long fuckin way
ann’s gonna get to a crossroads someday.

south west north east

space upon space piled in between
ann closes her eyes and sees what you mean.
her heart will slow its jumps apace
ann just wants to touch your face.
just want to see if that skin and bone
ain’t the doorway to my new home.

ann hangs her head and admits
a salty hermit crab she is.
scuttles about from shell to shell
careless sometimes; always means well.
too drawn by hidden rooms inside,
by tattooed colors, ocean-dyed,
she moves on in and sets a spell
till cramped legs make her shift
or she stumbles, takes a step amiss.
whether shell shatters, grows
out of fit or she outgrows it,
time comes, there she goes –

tattooed on this crustacean mind
every home my heart did find
time-scarred spirals I’ve had to flee
I leave them – yes. They stay with me –
shattered, perfect drops of shells
shards of mansions I knew too well.