Requiem for The Cosmic Vagabond

Three lines in a second rate paper

"No service by request of family"

falls miserably short

in commemoration of any man

let alone

one who was my mentor

muse, straight-man , un-indited co-conspirator

un-ending source of bad jokes and good music.



Let us take you

away

away from an inauspicious end

in a town you loved to hate

from a family

who never forgave you

for being the sand

in the vaseline that lubricated

their slide into oblivion

for speaking unpoplar truth

unprofitable truth

for putting your elbows on the

country club table



let us take you away

Let us burn you like the Viking in your heart

let us burn you

in a cathedral of trees

sourrounded by poets ,madmen, gutter punks

farmers and shaman

"Rage against the Machine"

Screaming in the back ground from some unsolicted

anaglog source.

Let us bundle your corpse

into the "Yellow Submarine"

the old Chevy ,heavy on the axles

with books, batteries,

spare alternators and U-joints

Let us light the pyre

Kindle it with bio-diesel

and a big pile of Ben-Franklin Bills

ignited from the cherry of a sticky stick of "the Finest"

"It's not smoke til ya burn it!"



Let us let the old truck burn

hot in the starlight glade

'Til the tank blows and the steel belts glow

White in the embers

Let the flames carry you up

toward the clarity of space

the clarity you always sought

Away from the memories

of Ghettos Burning

of Molesting priests, Insane Mothers

and the chains of smaller betrayals

personal demons

nagging decay of age

Let the high stratos winds lend you their strength

and carry you high.



When the fires have died and all firery toasts have emptied the Tequila



the words once meticulously underlined

of the philosphers have been re-defined

reduced to quietwhirlwinds

of white ash



We will gather your ashes

mingled with the ashes of the words

take them all in the blue boat

weighted with fishing lures

fashioned from the gold in your teeth

to the still waters of Little Bear

We will release all that remains

to the hand of the Blue water

the cloud movie playing overhead

and the soundtrack of the waves

kissing the sacred shore.