By the second verse, dear friends My head will burst, my life will end So Id like to start this one off by saying Live and love I was young and at home in bed And I was hanging on the words some poem said in 31 I was impressionable, I was upsettable I tried to make my breathing stop Or my heartbeat slow So when my mom and John came in I would be cold From a bridge on Washington Avenue The year of 1972, broke my bones and skull And it was memorable It was half a second in, I was halfway down Do you think I wanted to turn back around and teach a class Where you kiss the ass that Ive exposed to you? And at the funeral, the university Cried at three poems theyd present In place of a broken me I was breaking in a case of suds at the Brass Rail A falldown drunk with his tongue torn out And his balls removed And I knew that my last lines were gone While, stupidly, I lingered on Oh, but wise men know when its time to go And so I should, too And so I fly into the brightest winter sun Of this frozen town, Im stripped down to move on My friends, Im gone Well, I hear my father fall And I hear my mother call And I hear the others all whispering, Come home Im sorry to go I loved you all so But this is the worst trip Ive ever been on So hoist up the John B. sail See how the mainsail sets Im full in my heart and my head And I want to go home With a book in my hand In the way I had planned Well, this is the worst trip Ive ever been on Hoist up the John B. sail See how the mainsail sets Im full in my heart and my head And I want to go home With a book in each hand In the way I had planned Well, I feel so broke up, I want to go home
mainsail, john, hoist, home, poem