don van vliet SINGING
INK
poetry and fine art - poem
from switzerland 1987 book
DON VAN VLIET * SKELETON BREATH, SCORPION BLUSH
originally the lyrics to a song on the long
unreleased bat
chain puller album recorded in 1976, brought out in 2012
it was previously released on the 1999 grow fins
set
the rug ripped up in cloth popcorn balls
the walls an old candy striped sack
in the corner wrinkled black and white
a table held up by legs
the peeled back red enameled mouth of linoleum screamed
at the pasteboard door
a knob rolled off in some corner sticky
a curtain blew into a sink
dead flies and newspapers
charred fire brown wings and toast
hobo ain't been around for some time
the gate danced without its paint on
odd jobs is written on
spiders were the window's eyes
the sun made them look silver
the little girl from in back of the clothesline
cast a shadow like a crow
its beak spoke open
why doesn't odd jobs come around anymore
he used to ride his form-a-heap bike
and his basket was a whole candy store
he used to make x's from door to door
all the women and the young girls around here
ask why old jobs don't come on home
and the gate without its paint on
danced and creaked and moaned
here he comes peddling up on his form-a-heap bike
a bag of skin and bones
spokes were scraping two rust fenders
don van vliet 1976
*
you might be
interested in the other poems from the book:
gil
the tired plain
seam crooked sam
a tin peened reindeer
three months in
the mirror
infra-grams
*
captain
beefheart electricity