On the death and life of Arnold Buckwitz ('90s)

Grandpa died today, oh wow

Passed out of the death we call life, out of the here and now

From the clammy pale halls of critical row

Where the mighty have fallen and sunken so low

Never to think clear thoughts again

Or converse and commune with the sons of men

Whose task it is now the mourners to call

And gaze with indifference at death’s fearful pall

Too stricken to think of a damn thing to say

And wishing that everyone would just go away

I pick up this pen to wearily tell

The state of my heart, though it send me to hell

When your whole life is cobwebs and ashes and dust

What profiteth a man, if live on he must?

I’ll go to bed now

Forever

Goodnight—Dial tone

Back on the farm in ‘29

We were all three brothers, lads young and fine

Ridin’ horses and killin’ swine

Cause then we didn’t know no better

Years went by and I married a girl

And we had some kids—cause we had to

Moved to California and joined the church

Bought a house and the freeway plowed through our work

Never did much, never did see

Too much of the world, except in my dreams

In a spaceship—all of my own

I guess there ain’t no place I haven’t flown

The wife died and I crawled up inside

Deeper than I’ve ever gone before

Cause I just realized in the blink of an eye

How this life just sucks more and more

And the beat goes on…but we don’t know why

 

 

 

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AB