Lullaby fish (1989)

  

slept thru the big banjo pickoff 

and was awakened

by a hot turd of sunlight

that commenced to leeching energy from my skin

in the forms 

of precious money be it rubies rubles or scruples

slept thru them dueling mandolin gods on high

and sought music in my dreamstate

with pasty beerbreath and tinfoiled sleeping bag

i felt like

a pig-n-ablanket 

listening to no music

save the crunch and smelter of aluminum cans

and the slurp

of green river flowing thru the willow garden

so deep and dark and flowing

with teemings of catfish

no noodling can capture

slept thru the balladeers in the concert hall

of cattle pens while thicknecked farmers

sat on their daughters

&inverted their day off the tractors,

plowing self

woke up to the skipping of rocks

one two three and nearly

four i killed a lullaby fish

1989 Winfield Kansas Bluegrass Festival