Songs for Murdered Women
Fifteen love songs
I wrote you fifteen love songs
I put them in a pail
And sent them down a pulley
from my heart which lives in jail
The tower walls elusive
The witch, she’s quite the shrew
My pallet, desk and window
Are all I have of you
Remember me, free rider
Remember me, bright knave
Remember me, bold starlight
For now it’s time to save
The future Miss Rapunzel
From languishing, so blue
She must be notified post haste
The cavalry is you
By you I mean her good self
Could be none other less
She’s got to shimmy down the ropes
And free herself, I guess
Don’t ever wait for princes
Or witches to feel rue
Belay yourself right down the wall
And you will see, it’s true
The woods are wild and open
There are friends along the way
Just shine your light in darkness
And soon you’ll hear them say
This was Rapunzel golden
A prisoner of those
Who thought they knew her better,
restrained her with their prose
Their murdrous expectations,
their gaslighting and lies
But now look at the maiden
Asleep ‘neath starry skies
The moss it is her pillow
The foxes stand close by
She dreams the dreams of innocents
Already on the fly
She’s headed for tomorrow
In a place you’ll have no home
So turn back, dark-souled hunters
Tis elsewhere you must roam
🦊
Ophelia by the River
Was Ophelia by the River
Dressed in white and crown
Had she gone there quite forlornly
Her sorrows so to drown
Did she trust that patsy Hamlet
The boy without true voice
The pantalooned pretender
Who couldn’t make a choice
Who dithered as he grumbled
About a life unfair
The things he’d been left out of
The ones who showed no care
For all his tiny feelings
His sensitive ennui,
the hopes and dreams he clung too
the future he could see
Himself as king, a consort
A lady by his side
But first to kill your enemy
and let your wistful bride
Be swept away by madness
Your jealousy and greed,
The things that never mattered
The things she did not need
Adieu my bonny lady
Adieu my river bride
Adieu the real slim shady
I’ll see you on the tide
The tide that takes all winners
Has no skin in the game
The tide that takes all losers
To it, it’s all the same
Its patient timely patter,
Its lapping on the shore
Erodes all time and memory
Alas, we are no more
So choose your folly wisely
If courting you should go
Don’t talk to ghosts, or sentinels
Cuz they don’t really know
The value of a bed of moss
A tree, a rose so red
A tavern light, a dish of stew
A place to lay your head
Steer clear of the ephemera
The specters in the tower
That other uncles’ enmity
The chiming of the hour
Rejoice in life
And seize it whole
Give thanks for all that’s real
This midnight clock, the garden walk — that kiss you got to steal
The patter of a nothing day
The sparrow who still sings
The smells from old cooks bakery
The ignorance of kings
Be free be free, my River maid
Don’t let them take you down
Be free be free, sweet river maid
Don’t choose yourself to drown
[It’s not too late, the twilight
is still waiting, as a friend
It’s not too late,the starlight
shows a path,
a different end]
So don’t step in that River,
instead be on your way
Don’t weight yourself with pocket rocks,
instead be free to say
I am Ophelia, proudly
The girl who did not drown,
I am Ophelia, verily,
I’ll see you round the town
🦊
Songs for murdered women
There’s a ribbon twisting highway
That I see when I awake
And a raven on the tarmac
And a body in the lake
And the lonesome horn of truckers
Kicking gravel in their wake
I can see parts of her eyelashes
Are frozen to her skin
There’s a coin purse with no coins in it
A jacket that’s too thin
A busted nose
A broken phone
A whorl of jet black hair
A hungry ghost whose lost her host
A life no longer there
the low winds they come howling
On this stretch so cold, so bleak
I see his face half scowling
It’s a place that none should seek
For favor, or good fortune
A steady hand or smile
A lucky break, a leg up on
this lonesome highway mile
[A chance for warmth
A getaway
Hot coffee in the diner
It’s just ahead
I guarantee
And babydoll, please smile]
[And I won’t bite
And don’t be scared
And stop with all that yammering
And please sit tight
And please don’t squirm
My head it keeps on hammering]
They say it was a murder
Full of ravens
Perhaps crows
An unkindness
on old blacktop
Where friends
are sometimes foes
They say her soul goes wandering
I’ve seen her through the years
A snowy wraith, an ice-borne queen
This highway full of tears
Now some folks they get nothing
And some folks take it all
And some folks do the listening
And some folks take the fall
And when a spirit finds you
And wants to be fast friends
Be sure to listen carefully
About their lives and ends
But do no tarry overlong
In this between world place
Just long enough to write their song
And leave in peace and grace.
🦊
Medea on the Corner
There’s a murderess on the corner
I see her every day
A tattooed neck
Two dead white hands
A look so faraway
A hoodie and a beanie
Two plastic broken shoes
A lumpy broken body
That’s bruised in different hues
She’s come straight from the shelter
She’s come from rough roads past
She’s been to hell and back again
She means to make things last
She means to set things straight, you see
A woman badly used, a handsome man, two perfect kids, three fates disastrously fused
She’ll burn it down, she’ll take it all
All with her to the grave,
The memories, the old homestead
The kids you could not save
Watch out for cold Medea
Or white hot should I say
Steer clear of old Medea
And don’t get in her way
She’s standing on the corner
Looking grim and dank
Standing there so patiently
Waiting with her shank
I’d give these prison bitches
A very clear wide berth
Just nod your head and scoot on by
Be happy on this earth
For all you have and all you do
The magic? That’s all yours
So double down on life sweet life
Beyond the prison doors.
🦊
Cassandra
She was cursed they say
To see bright things
Just on their way
The hubris, wars and greed
You see
She could foretell
Most easily
No one believed this trusting bride
With fire and vengeance at her side
They called her nuts, a crazy kid
The things she saw, the things she did
Apollo damned her right and true
She scorned him first and came to rue
His gaslighting, the whispering snake
Her broken path, his curse, that Jake
That meant whatever she did see
Would come to pass, a prophecy
That no one trusted or believed
That’s how it was, she was deceived
And war and war and famine came
And death and sorrow it did rain
Across the lands of many, yes
Who doubted her, who did not guess
That this was just another lady
Who’d stood up yet one more slim shady
Who wanted to be left alone
To tend her temples and her home
But here he came Apollo, fine
The gift of gab, the songs divine
The full court press, the love, I guess,
The well-matched wits, the game of chess
But when she wouldn’t bend you see
He made of her an enemy
He cast her out
He made her doubt
The visions that she had without
Of futures dark with smoke and fire
Broken hearts and bad desires
The fall of Troy, the beauty Helen
And ugly Ajax, his big melon
And some stand up
And some, they drown
And some they get to wear a crown
It seems to me if you don’t yield
You’ll wind up in
Elysian Fields
Your future home
That quiet place
Where you may stroll in peace and grace
A sunlit grove a quiet nap
two folded hands upon your lap
A book, a nook, a reverie
A life that’s due to you and me
So when the greedy gods and kings
Stroll casually by with things and rings
Remember you are free my dear
And live your life without a fear
The things that matter, wind and sea
Sublime sunlight, the shaded tree
Have always been for you and me
So let them pass, ambitious ones
The not enoughs, the haven’t dones
The greedy gaggle, racous boys
The must have nows, the endless noise
I’ll see you in the forest soon
Under the cold sweet winters moon
Lunar eclipse 11/11/21 New York City
🦊
Odysseus, don’t come home
Some people
like to think that Penelope
[Such the good girl]
Was busy as the worlds first man repeller
Surrounded at her looms
By a sea of clamoring men
Sweaty, intent on conquest, greedy
Some people
praise those traits
See her crying in bed,
moping around the palace
Staring in her looking glass
as her face,
it turns to dust
Some people
say she tossed and turned
Beset by nightmares as Odysseus roamed free
Fucking and fighting his way across continents
Enchanted, encircled, entwined, in the doldrums
Deep in the belly of the beast
But I saw different
I saw her weaving that funeral shroud
Devoted wife and daughter
Doing and undoing the work of the day
Her shuttle making, unmaking promises
While the boys, 108 of them
lay snoring in the hall,
They’d come for the wine
And stayed for the fortunes
I saw Penelope,
the night she dreamed of treason
And woke up screaming
A vision far away, her own good man,
a traitor, the murderer of her soul.
I saw her face.
I felt the knife.
I saw the love extinguished.
Some people say
That Penelope is a good girl
But I know different,
that Penelope
She’s a dead girl,
at least the one
that you abandoned, left behind
That Penelope
She’s the beyond girl,
Beyond your chest thumping needs
Your feats and displays
Your bloodbaths,
your slaughters,
your totality.
She’s freed herself
Her son is safe,
Her chambers are calm
And she wanders freely in the gardens
After midnight, writing her own epic tales
That no one will hear, or look for:
She likes moonlight
and still waters,
The ladybug
she frees
cool marble planks
she sits on
To catch
a summer breeze
She likes the veil
The palace cat
The love notes, quite her own
A box of things, some loves and dreams
Odysseus, don’t come home.
🦊
The Forest Mother
Was that Baba Yaga dreaming
Did you sadly lose your way
In a forest dark and dreaming
Did you pause and her hear say
I dance beneath the moonlight
On chicken legged bone
My long beak’d nose, my wrinkled face
I am that famous crone
I am the one who’s fearsome
Who haunts the children’s dreams
I am the one quite near some
Whose politics and schemes
Drive poetry and magic
Deep into the wood
Drive beauty, faith and bravry
Out of home and ‘hood
I’m am the one, that she-devil
That witch, that sorceress
I am the one, the woodland queen
My motives you must guess
But if you come here cunningly
In hopes you may me slay
I’ll drive you out, I’ll eat you up
I’ll turn you out and say
Be careful what you wish for
When into woods you roam
Be careful on whose door you knock
Whose cabin, tiny home
My one great eye can see you plain
My nose, it seeks you out
My spindly limbs, my leathery skin
Will find you, without doubt
I’ll smell it on the wind, your fear
Your darkest needs, my darling, dear
I’ll lift you up
I’ll spin you tight
I’ll eat your heart
I’ll set you right
Until I hear you knocking come
I’ll stay right here, I’ll be all smiles
I’ll sit upon these crocodiles
I’ll dance and sing,
I’m like no other
The one true queen
The forest mother
🦊
New Years Eve
The sign of a good party
Means that no one one wants to go
We’ve left some things unsaid
We’ve whiffed some games and so
Here are some basic facts
That I can share with you
Here’s what’s I see most verily
The moments that are true
There’s so much love that rages
It’s like a huge bonfire
The kids and friends and sages
We need this next deep mile
To be together in the flesh
A life we hold so dear
To reminisce and laugh and guess
About the future near
[The good news is
The night rang long
We shared our feast
we sang our song
In the great (h)all we got to be both
You and you and you, and me
The birds dashed through
The clock struck six
It’s time to enter in the mix]
The road ahead, unsure and true
And yes, there’s so much work to do
We cannot linger, should not tarry
Let’s mark the road, let’s lift and carry
And please keep going
Please do regard, the child’s poem,
The rhyme that’s odd
My broken words
My confused face,
My effort to connect to place
And persons, things
All that I love,
The storybook,
The untold love
It’s all right here, it’s quite at hand
It’s all quite clear, so please demand
Your heart to speak through
Loud and true,
The things you say, to reflect you
Your truest self, your kindest face
The best of us
Let’s live with grace
🦊
Artemis runs by the River
She’s the one that you can’t see
The window box
The garden fox
The one like you and me
She’d had enough
Of all the stuff
The things she didn’t need
The plastic toys, the silly boys
The endless wars, the greed
[She wanted above all you see
To be quite free quite free]
Artemis runs by the River
She knows all the homeless and those,
who seek respite, a place to quit,
a quiet spot, a rose
The shade of a cool arbor
The feeling of soft moss,
The River wild, the quiet child
The moonlit grove, the cross
She watches you on benches
She runs along by side
She hunts and plays,
she whiles the days
She’s no ones wife or bride
She’s swift of foot
She loves her knives
Her quivers, arrows true
But do not stumble into her
She’ll take your life, sans rue
She runs beneath the moonlight
To hear Apollo play
She runs, beneath the starlight
His sister, on her way
They say he plays in basements
Seducing all the queens, the courtesans,
The little girls, the ones with all the schemes
Artemis runs by the River
That flows into the sea
Artemis runs by the River,
Invisible and free
🦊
Ariadne throws some shade
You took a love most holy
Desecrated it with intent
You stood to lose, you sang the blues
You turned and then you went
You left me on this island
You left me quite alone
You used me up, you filled your cup
Then onwards you did roam
You left me here
Auf Naxos
Naked, bruised and bare
The girl whose eyes held oceans
The girl who showed you care
[The one who helped you find and slay
One Minotaur, one maze ]
And while I lay here dreaming
Dionysus drew me near
He propped me up, he filled my cup
He said let’s play my dear
For one year I was dreaming
For one year was I drowned
And one year I spent screaming
But now I think I’ve found
The goddess, sweet Aurora
Comes through this very day
And all the things that still await,
So long, I’m on my way.
🦊
Boy, that Hera
The original smother mother
You call her a homebody but I reckon
She was just a busybody
Couldn’t leave well enough alone
Maybe that’s ‘cuz she’d been abandoned
Married a stinker, handsome enough guy
dropped in her lap, took off like greased lightning
But you can’t keep a good man down, so they say
And I believe them, just look at them bastards go
There’s not enough blood in the world
To end these wars, they’d have to drain
the deepest coffers, turn the planet into a slag heap to be done with it all, all the huffing and puffing, the looting and shooting, the Martian runs.
[Another day, a new perucke, a different set of problems, let her rip boys, let her roll.]
Hera sleeps with one eye open,
she knows what time it is.
🦊
Athenas Resting Bitch Face
Athena could do anything
She didn’t give a fuck
She’d sprung up fully formed, you see
All wisdom and all pluck
The boatwright and the warrior
Protector of the loot
The plow, the rake, the chariot
The olive tree, the flute
The first in war, the first in peace
Protector of the city
The diplomat, the stone cold fox
The owner of this ditty
🦊