God Likes It When I'm Humble

I am slipping, man
I am losing confidence
I am questioning the reasons
I am unsure
I wonder what I'm working towards
I wonder what I've forgot

I am dying in Austin
This perverse illussion
This perfect town

Hold me by my rattail, momma
Hold me back
Hold me to my word, momma

These people here
Acting like people
Scare me

I am not like them
I am exactly like them
I thought I was special
They are better than me
I am nothing
I have no ego

I am jealous, though
Of how much ego you
Don't have

Turn me sideways
Turn me round

Maybe I can write a poem
Maybe I am lying

Help me, brotha
I am dying

Help me I don't know

Help

I am not that far away

I am losing traction

I am slipping, man

I've heard the noise before
Statue Liberty
I've pressed enough buttons
I pressed more buttons
I've changed the way I talk
To people
I've changed the way I talk
To dogs

I hear noise
Ka
I hear the bird Kaw
Kaaaaa
Pressing buttons Aggghhhhh
Pressing more buttons
I change the way I
Walk
I change the way I
Talk

I try to understand
Everything

I fall short

I am proud of my effort
Distant

I am proud of myself
Delusion

I am proud of my brother
Jealous

I am trying very hard

I am lying to myself
I am a good liar

I am a good person
I am a good thing
I am good
I am nothing
I am neither
I am curious
I am willing
I am nothing
I am sure
I am uneasy
I am not dead

(but... when I am)
Bury me with my Puma's
God loves me
When I'm
Humble

- cheyenne gallion

(featured in the poetry forum 07.18.09)

((originally publsihed in Mad Swirl Six: The Blue Note Issue))

Point of Departure

(CG)
I knew you all
Before these shadows
That we now cast
Could see the light
That gives them
Everything that we have become
A story to lead us home
To each

Other’s
Knowing embrace
And tortured days

Like the shadows
That spoke to us
When Mr. Radio
Said that Ginsberg is dead
That truth is a beatnik
Snapping
That these tortured days are
Nothing more
Than training for
Growing up

(JO)
Someone forgot to tell
the radio that it was wrong.
Allen is not dead.
Rippling thru his voice
is our truth
is our vision
is our destiny

is our responsibility

The torch is passed
and the muses shared
the mediums may have evolved
but message is the same

“Hear ye’ hear ye
all you mad ones
find your fellow mad ones...
...and speak the truth
...and express the heart
...and live the dream
...and teach the experience
...and learn the way
...and destroy the barriers
...and evolve to purity
...and...
...and...
...and...

(CG)
We’ve been driving for years, man
We’ve been driving through the gaps
That time forgets
We’ve been looking for that Xanthos
That’ll settle the score
We’ve been listening to everything
Cause that nugget‘s
gonna find its way to our ears, man
Its gonna stir it up for good man
Its gonna manifest that mad
Mad swirl
And suck our motives to the
Bone

We must always die
Before we are reborn
Just as we must fall asleep tonight
Before we can start to climb back
Up out of this hole

(JO)
Just as you must dwell in the darkness
before you can appreciate the light
Just as you must see
before you can seek
Just as you must die
before you can live

These just as-es-es birth more just as-es-es
as the swirl of life spins on mad axis-es

these ageless questions sit loosely on our tongues
that have no answers or solution
that have no compromises or facts
that have no law or doctrine
that only perpetuate the ultimate question,
the one and only question...

“Can you hear me?”

I ask you brother
“Do you hear me?”

I ask you sister
“Do you hear me?”

- cheyenne gallion (CG) and johnny olson (JO)

Denton's Only Secret

To the town
Of acid half
Life symposiums
Of One-night band
Slams
Chicken Dances
Prolific motherfuckers
Scarin
Up
The tooth rot
Makin
Flinch face

Where
The kids
Are dreamin
Purgatory
Love stories
And The
Old men
Go away to
Die
In the hills
Of Krum

I’d trade
My
Sharpie for a
Bowl
Right now
‘n Go
Read them
Austin
Cronicles

Yeah I’d be
Dreamin bout
South Texas
By the
Time
That propaganda
Licked my
Lungs

But we’re In Denton baby

And Denton’s
Only got one
Mall

So let’s
Save out toasts
For Mexico
And pray
We make it
Out
Alive

- cheyenne gallion


Where are you Erika

Singing for San Antonio’s
Indecisive cock
Praying for
A hard one

I’ll be in Dallas
Chain-smoking till dawn
Till the Earth rolls over
Till Saturday
With her gentle hangover
Nudging me back
Into the womb

Who’ll host us innocent
Death hawks
With our bloody
Beaks
Cackling;
and laughing
at our costumes

Who’ll have us
Dirty lovers

I’ll be dreaming of Mocron
Of Doc
Stuck in-between his
Many moons
Whispering to me
The secrets
That will set us free

Hi squirrel
On the power lines
I saw the sun rise with you
Now
We are brothers
Waiting for the revolution

- cheyenne gallion


Paranoid Manifesto

When during lunch
I snuck back and
Smoked a joint
With Smokey, the janitor
I became increasingly
Paranoid
My manifestos were
Loose in the office
Perhaps
In the hands of
The HR guy

Was it coincidence
My boss was
Explaining marketing
To some hookers
While
Checking for hand grenades
In my armpits

Never-the-less
This called for Stevie Wonder
All I had was a vinyl of Songs
In the Key of Life, but
Smokey had the summoning incense
Without a turntable
I had to improvise-
Using a thumbtack, a screwdriver
Some baking soda
Ether, one of Smokey’s teeth
And a line from the Zeppelin song
We gave it a shot

I had Smokey
Sit on the ground
With the record
On his head and
Spin in circles
As I lit the incense
I repeated the ancient chant
Smokey began to talk
He began to cuss rather
Which was weird, cause
Smokey never cusses

Then I noticed the voice
Struggling to find
A vibration
I realized Stevie was manifesting
Within Smokey’s body
This was not supposed
To happen
The record must have
Been too close to his head
And Stevie sounds pissed
Or Smokey does
Or…
One of them is pissed

I decided to leave
Before things got
Weird
I left a bag
Of microwave popcorn
And a pack of gum

- cheyenne gallion


A Block or Two More

A mouse knock at three AM - empty peep hole

She crouches in the entrance way - tucked away - on her way

'I need some ashes', looking down - holes in can - rocks in hand

She called me a hippie once, I remember
'thats alright', she said. 'I'm just a fucking christmas crack-whore,
and it's december'

"Some ashes? Sure", I say - "I've not long ago smoked my bowls.
I'll help you prey, babe".

Last Saturday, when you could smile on your back - chlorine nap - nipples drag
We threw our wine glasses on the ground and made blood oathes - preyed to
the cab driver - you died the most.

"You're too pretty for Garret St., you know.
You should move east a block or two"

She says "Yeah, that's what Bobby told me.
But it's funny how the streets crawl sideways at night".

"That all sounds sweet', I thought. "I'll call you Echo".

And maybe next year, when Courtney's lily wilts, I'll hear you're name and
remember watching rippled water with a Christmas crack whore - at the edge
of dawn - and the wilderness of our December.

- cheyenne gallion


Tryin'

And i don’t care if i’m dying
Cause I’m tryin’ hard
to be a poet
to be a man
to be a lover
to be a friend
to be a warrier
to be me
to see truth
to be free
to stand tall
to be strong
to take slaps in the face
when everything’s wrong
And that’s right, I’m cryin
Cause I don’t know how long I can keep tryin
When the sun don’t shine like it used to
And I keep turnin’ down love and pickin’ up booze
So how many holes can I dig for myself
Befor falling gets old and I get dumb
How many friends can I burn
Until all thats left to love is crumbs
So hear I go again
Running wild through the streets
Lost between years
Tryin’ to find a beat
Tryin to sing a song
With a cracking voice
Trying to figure it out
With nothin to rejoice
Tryin’ to hold on tight
To something that aint there
Made me cut out my eyes
And shave off my hair
But mama’s in the door way
Says everythings alright
As she pulls over the blanket
And turns out the light
And now the tears are making
A puddle in the floor
So I smoke another joint
And cry some more
But I don’t think cryin’
Is going to mend my soul
And I damn sure won’t find truth
At the bottom of a bowl
So its onward now
For better or worse
Cause onward now
Is the only verse
And all I can do
Is face today
With love in my heart
And words left to say
That I’ll keep to myself
Cause no one will hear
But that’s alright
The words were meant for my ear

- cheyenne gallion