Ah Memorial day, what does it mean anymore? It gets sadder and sadder with this war stretched out like a patient, etherised upon a table, upon our conscience. It used to mean the start of summer: "Break out your white dress baby we're going dancing". So I went to a barbecue...
There was plenty of swayin' and shoutin' in the twilight. The bugs were light and we only broke five plastic chairs. And that's all I got. There were no parades or flags at the cemetery. No revolutionary war muskets fired right on cue. The store was closed so I got to go to a barbecue. This war is like a sigh in the night, a passing backward glance of regret. A bump in the road for this crew: herders of sheep, stampeders, breeders of fear... liars mostly. And now we are stuck in the desert, mucking about with no clue. How many Friedman units until Operation Iraqi Freedom is done? I dunno, ask me next memorial day.
Perhaps it's just another photo op. but lest we forget, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. So to those who went before, I hoist this burger to you...
there were some good things to remember about this past May I swear. Like when Kimon and Billy caught pnemonia? Ah don't exaggerate. We had us some gigs down at the Lizard Lounge and that wasn't half bad. My brother Tom came by all the way from California to sit in and play Viola Lee blues and some Robert Johnson too. Hell, one week Ry was gone and we didn't even miss him. In fact some people were glad he was gone...well it did give us a chance to have the rip roarin', toad stompin', Tim Gearan sit in, with songs like Ain't Got Nothing on You (also known as Milton Berle) and Cryin Time. That was the night Kimon was sick so Lou Ohlric played bass (maybe a couple of youngsters in the audience missed 'ole kk) but it was a heck of a night. Sean took a piano solo ( which won't happen again for a long while). Later Tim got his night moves working..."I woke last night to the sound of thunder" And that's enough of that.
Last night weren't too bad neither. We had two roses on our lapel, Polenzani and Cousins singing together like you never heard... Did I mention Drunk and Floppy. No not us. The songs that Rose sang. Then some Hailifax tune and Pig in a Pen. Yes all I need is a pretty little girl to feed him when I'm gone. So Take Me Back to Tulsa, with Prince, the Provincetown Jugband and some extra jimmies on top...and let me die happy. But please don't bury me yet. We've still got one more month of Tuesdays to go...
Thanks to Matt Malikowski for making the table sound so good. KC and Keith and the Lizard crew...and to TS Eliot for that Lovesong of his.