Seventeen

from "The Emergency Lane" by Dudley Saunders

come down daddy
set your clothes on fire
lay your body down
in the middle of the night
tell me pretty stories
about things you believe
things you get
things you leave

'cause the stars pour down
just like an ocean in the sky
I'm caught up in the undertow
and I I I I
can't believe
I'm sitting still
I took that pill
and I
am just so
high
just so high

now the days disappear
and the nights run away
like answer to arguments
you never got to say
and it's october cold tomorrow
and springtime yesterday
and today?
today
pass that joint this way

I got my own life
on my own side
I got whisky
when I'm out of beer
I got all the things
I never should have tried
and I got one thing
that worked its way
right through to here
hold it up to the light
shut one eye and peer
right into it like a crystal ball
like a telescope
do you see
do you see what I see here

and right now it's warm as thunder
when there isn't any rain
and a million miles away
is where that storm is gonna break

and I'll do the things
I'm dying to do
and baby, dead
dead is on the way
well they tell me that's what mama
had to say

I got my own life
on my own side
I got whisky
when I'm out of beer
I got all the things
I never should have tried
I am seventeen
and it feels so queer
sick and bad and disgusting
I am seventeen
and I
I
want to get
high