There'd Be Some Words

Today I drove my baby to town,
and that is all I have to say.
There’d be some words, if wrote ‘em down.

I took her to the bank, we drove all around,
we ate lunch, and we found time to pray,
me and my baby, when I drove her to town.

And my baby bought me a brand new gown—
whatever might make me a better lay,
or help us find better words to write down.

Now she's on the run, I wear a frown.
She plays the ace, I play the trey—
days I have driven my baby to town.

Then didn’t we both cry tears of a clown
when we realized what we’d been doing all day—
sparking then quashing words to jot down.

I don't rule the roost and I wear no king’s crown.

You gave me the world, and now you can't stay.
Plenty of words, if I just wrote ‘em down
some day, when I’m driving my baby to town.

__________

Afternoon Delight

My monster tuxedo cat Orzo is yowling
because he wants to be outside with me.
And I’m taking off all my clothing—

it’s pretty exciting
to be naked on the back porch—though no one can see me,
except my monster tuxedo cat Orzo who’s yowling

in the window. But I won’t let him
out. As I did yesterday right, before my poor friend Chey
called, just out of hoosgow for allegedly assaulting

her abusive boyfriend with a beer can—pregnant, drunk Cheyenne—
so he was bleeding all down his face and shirt. The baby
will be taken care of somehow,

if she lives. Chey will never stop fighting.
“Love you, God bless,” I said. Where’s the fucking cat?
I was afraid he had run off and I would never find him,

but pretty soon there he was, marching
out from behind some plantings near the apple tree—
my monster tuxedo cat, Orzo, who’s yowling
in the window now, while I put back on my clothing.