Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just
glides
Upon four-legged
forest clouds
The cowboy angel
rides
With his candle lit
into the sun
Though its glow is
waxed in black
All except when
'neath the trees of Eden
The lamppost stands
with folded arms
Its iron claws
attached
To curbs 'neath
holes where babies wail
Though it shadows
metal badge
All and all can only
fall
With a crashing but
meaningless blow
No sound ever comes
from the Gates of Eden
The savage soldier
sticks his head in sand
And then complains
Unto the shoeless
hunter who's gone deaf
But still remains
Upon the beach where
hound dogs bay
At ships with
tattooed sails
Heading for the
Gates of Eden
With a time-rusted
compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian
hermit monks
Side saddle on the
Golden Calf
And on their
promises of paradise
You will not hear a
laugh
All except inside
the Gates of Eden
Relationships of
ownership
They whisper in the
wings
To those condemned
to act accordingly
And wait for
succeeding kings
And I try to
harmonize with songs
The lonesome sparrow
sings
There are no kings
inside the Gates of Eden
The motorcycle black
Madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy
queen
And her
silver-studded phantom cause
The gray flannel
dwarf to scream
As he weeps to
wicked birds of prey
Who pick up on his
bread crumb sins
And there are no
sins inside the Gates of Eden
The kingdoms of
experience
In the precious wind
they rot
While paupers change
possessions
Each one wishing for
what the other has got
And the princess and
the prince
Discuss what's real
and what is not
It doesn't matter
inside the Gates of Eden
The foreign sun, it
squints upon
A bed that is never
mine
As friends and other
strangers
From their fates try
to resign
Leaving men wholly,
totally free
To do anything they
wish to do but die
And there are no
trials inside the Gates of Eden
At dawn my lover
comes to me
And tells me of her
dreams
With no attempts to
shovel the glimpse
Into the ditch of
what each one means
At times I think
there are no words
But these to tell
what's true
And there are no
truths outside the Gates of Eden
