as a child back in ohio
they gambled for my toys
they loaded up a pick up truck
with my relatives and tore
off for another part of america
leaving me behind
in a county home in L.A.
for the orphaned & the blind

i learned to be invisible
a naked camera eye
a lamppost by a lighthouse
an antenna in your side
i wasn't made for handgrenades
i was made for making signs
i heard the noise behind each word
the notes in every sigh

i met railroad poets, potentates
rock royalty, potential mates
posers & composers & fate
decreed i orchestrate
experience through templates
executives could tolerate
if it came in underbudget
& within the bounds of taste

they kicked me offa campus
& i quit a couple jobs
i made penicillin for the willing
shooting movies for the mobs
still my poems followed me
like undomesticated dogs
the world was all that was the case
in my arguments with god

at first devoid of virtue
& lastly cleansed of pride
i flouted death's selection
by accidentally surviving
but she still lives inside of me
a creature without form
on the pages of my yesterdays
i'll keep tomorrow warm