Song To Save My Life

The coffee’s hot,

and the words that I haven’t caught

make every line a fisher’s knot.

Oh, the rusty hook in me.

The wind, she sings.

I could steal a song from beneath her wings,

but my mind’s on bigger things.

I’ll just let her fly.

And even I know, I know someone will say

I couldn’t write a song to save my life today.

The neighbours talk.

Hear them whisper around this writer’s block

like the teasing of a ticking clock.

Oh, the spaces in between.

The paper’s stare

like a beaten flag in broken air

makes my prison camp this kitchen chair.

And the cavalry’s gone home.

The whisky’s strong.

She and I, we get along.

Then she muscles in on my song.

And I let her have her way.

The dreams I dream disappear like summer steam

in the morning when the kettle screams all the water’s gone.

The coffee’s hot.