I wrote this song when I was a young man of 22, although it traveled under a different, more pretentious name at that time. Still love it.

DOWNLOAD SONG HERE!
DOWNLOAD CLAY CREEK EP HERE!

Kiss ‘n’ ride, Chicago!
You’re riding inside of me
And I’ll tear holes in your sweater I’m wearing
If I feel comfortable, I’m lazy! Yeah!
Our blood coagulates in its fusion

Repercussions are for suckers
Like irony and quarantine, you know
All these cities, you know
All these streetlamps, you know
I’m confused forever
So don’t go blaming me

Don’t go blaming me now
Don’t go blaming me now
Don’t go blaming me, yeah
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah

Erikson c. 1997. From the CD insert.

Download audio file (erikson-nine-sidewalk-lines-32-hidden-track.mp3)

Posted for my 32nd birthday. Which means that I’m twice as old now as when we recorded it.

This was the hidden track on an album my band Erikson put out towards the end of high school.

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I could babble on about Babylon, put the truth into your ear

Oh, I could stand on the corner with a sign in my hand about how the end is near

We spend so much time telling others what they want, that they don’t even have to hear

Sure we’ll stand United as One – as long as there’s something to fear

The apex of all Creation – or a sign of the Apocalypse?

Probably neither. But I’d prefer to engineer something more realistic.  With much less orange.

I wrote the final poem first on a snowy spring break trip to Maine during my last year of college.  I couldn’t tell you where the lines came from but once I had committed them to paper, I knew the poem could be even better.  So I printed out the poem, cut out the lines, and put the cut out lines in a hat. I then rearranged the poem line by line as I removed them from that hat and in a few months I had eeked out 32 more poems that have since survived several hard drives, a couple wars of aggression, and a hare-brained scheme to move to Vermont.

Here’s the final poem:

XXXIII.

Towards the root notes
Of New England climbs and dives
Unfolded during the volume
White thighs complete
With nervous twittering
Where’s Montana
Divvied up among ossified lookers-on
And the elaborate equation
Under an undulating Bronx
“What’s wrong with you?”
Vibrating in quick audacity
Where’s the one thing that I bought
No more shakiness
Through the thistles
Of an inaudible barre chord
“Just off Main St.” in Penebscot, Maine
Under the chandelier light
And not even wearing a brassiere
I can hear everything there
“Everything is wrong”
Weighted the consonants incorrectly
From the vowel shop by the harbor?
Where’s Wyoming?
Pushing glass back into the dirt
Into new English signs
With you and more importantly
I climb and dive

Is something wrong with this picture?

My only concern regarding a society liberated from the force of government would be the ongoing aggregation of corporate power in the face of depleted natural resources. 

I’m beginning to realize and fear that this reality is a part of the human condition and will continue to be a challenge to any system or non-system.

Voting is childish.  All belief in all government is anti-human.  Government  places superhuman powers to those who aspire to power – namely sociopaths, charlatans, and hoodwinks whose only goals in life are the accumulation of power over others.  It is quite unfortunate yet strangely amusing that the average Consumer enjoys being led over a cliff by the pro-torture crowd but it’s important to keep voting in the Big Daddy types to make us feel good about ordering McDonald’s from 12 mpg Suburbans, hating Muslims, Voting, and Moving Forward.  The President’s made it abundantly clear that we’re definitely not gonna be doing any Looking Back.  So clear, one could call it transparent.

It’s OK to hate your job,just pay into the pyramid and shut up.  It’s OK to blame the politicians but don’t forget to Vote.  It’s OK to invade nations, just turn off the lights before you go out. You’re encouraged to contribute, but don’t expect a tax deduction.  Don’t explain your case, just pay the fine. It’s OK to talk, just don’t let thinking interfere with your work.

Blood and oil mix all too well

The US government is openly admitting to the mass murder of 77,000 Iraqis.  We all know the actual number is at least 10x this amount.  Murder through collective action is still murder.  When will we wake up to who we are and reclaim our future?

The Two Choices

I’m pleased to announce that I will be sharing some of my original visual art at The Barn on 21 August in Townshend, VT.

I asked if I could crash the show, which includes music and beer and for some reason they agreed.

The Barn, in Townshend Vermont represents community, artistic anarchy, and peace, love, and empathy in their purest forms.