The Ghost of Phil Ochs

 The Ghost of Phil Ochs

I think of Phil Ochs

staring down America 

holding a promise

it never kept 

I pick up a guitar 

I hear someone else  

into these chords 

as if they could help

how short is a lifespan 

what can be done with it

I’ve never felt god the cemetery didn’t help 

neither did the ritual trip and other circumstances 

when I play guitars when I sing to myself 

ghosts aren’t that far something tries to help 

new york city keeps changing

new york city might care 

rubbing money in faces 

a stranger hands me a kleenex 

feeling the world 

done up in plastic 

vomiting on the stairs 

keeping it moving with ourselves

Vows

 Vows

everyone’s crazy 

some hide it some parade it 

all suffering with it 

a few monetize it 

everyone’s crazy

 just give it three months

 for the masks to drop 

and the moves to run out

 that’s when things get interesting 

that’s when things get real 

we acknowledge the three-sixty view 

and then we start to deal 

that’s when we start living 

that’s when we know the freak

partners in this business 

held together by love and fear

Exclamation Points

 Exclamation Points

Don’t you

 know 

who I am 

I write poems and 

then go to bed 

like no one else can 

I stand up 

then take a bus 

seen by dozens 

I post photos 

and release songs 

listened to 

and commented 

on 

more than once 

and who 

are you

how dare you be so young 

and beautiful 

without being 

clever

Our Initials

 Our initials 

I wanna believe everything 

without discernment 

travel the universe 

of your moods 

I’m just so happy 

not to feel alone 

even if this feeling 

is made for fools 

we flatten initial 

differences 

digging them as friction 

that finds a groove 

we intake 

all these indulgences 

knowing full well 

they’ll be paid in full

Mechanical Bull

 Mechanical Bull

you know how it goes

it just goes to show 

entitlement blinds

you to its outcomes 

oh the ride 

doesn’t stop you 

thrown again into those 

special circumstances 

remixing old

strategies in a way 

that flatter you 

riding on fumes 

back home 

reworking scenes

in your mind 

until you’ve won 

while a hope 

for tomorrow

 

pleads for 

another shot

The ideas

 The ideas 

where do they come from 

where do they belong 

inside out upside down 

wrapped around and around 

you get attached to them 

you blow them out of your head 

some people get buried under them 

others throw up their hands 

do you take them out to examine them reconsider them or just replace them 

are you wedded to your opinions 

will you fight for them to the death 

or just leave them for someone else 

take my advice as I can’t use it 

Vinyl

 Lonely men record collection 

these are my records of seduction 

those what’s left from the divorce 

there are a handful 

from my childhood bedroom 

mixed with some that 

just arrived in that box 

I’ve carried these crates 

through stints as a deejay 

there are many that I can’t spin again 

I’ve sold half several times over 

then I think 

there are many worst sins 

I don’t need your condescension

your pity or your uninformed views 

I just ask if you have the time to listen

There are many things I’d like to play for you