Repatriot
I ain't betrayed this country
This country betrayed me
I seen the Monongahela
Stuck twixt its
Banks in seventy-two
Seen the Cuyahoga
Burnin'
Side a Cleveland
Three years before
Nobody died, 'cept everyone
Just choked and a few voles went
Belly up in the liquid soot
And the lowlife companies just
Shrugged like always
Repatriot
Scene Pete Seeger
Tom Rush
Dick and Mimi Fariña
On a Appalachian dulcimer
Yeonda and Camichlian with his box
Gonna make me famous never did
Just ended up faceless
Carolyn Hester
Paul and Rocky and even Gravas (last row)
Smither came later, to get sobernstraight
Music like you'll never hear
Hot cider like you'll never smell
Lamejeune god like you'll never taste
You'll never hear
You'll never smell
You'll never taste
At the Yana while
Monboquette pitched
A one hitter
Gainst the Yanks
Then we snuck up to WMEX at one am and sat in the back
Inside the glass
Lissnin to Ginsberg and the Shantelles
You dig?
Repatriot
I ain't betrayed this country
This country betrayed me
Got carried
Low in the backseat
From Charles cross Shawmut
And Dudley
In a black Chevy
On the fire night
The shootin night
The white don't belong here night
By two soft-smilin blackcats with
Red berets
And words of awful soft wisdom
Shoeshine M-1s in the damn trunk
And a half pint of Thunderbird
Just for me for good measure for peace
And Freedom
And Justice
And Frien'ship
Can you believe that
Can you believe that
Repatriot
So forty years later
I get stomped
By eight Blackwater Incs
New guys
In Bogart's
In Raleigh
In the spring
Near Oleander and Camillias
Over nothin but Mash House and ignorant
Brain
Death
They were leavin for Anwar tomorrow
Left me with one scratch
Not countin the sprained thumb
Was all they Left me
Eight went
Two came back
Other sicks didn't make the stats
Cuz they weren't government
So you tell me
Sucka
Tell me
I ain't betrayed this country
This country betrayed me
You can have
Me
Whichevah
Way you want me
Cuz I'm just
Looking
For the one inch left in
The Lower Ninth
Where a cat
Can still tap dance
"Repatriot" copyright in full, 2007, ddjango/P!Banger. All rights reserved. Reprint only with author's permission or full attribution.
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