Jonesy Boy

Cats hissing in the dark

Turned-over garbage cans around the park

The dangling, brittle scab on your knee

Oh, you’re pretty cocksure, son

You’re like a Villonian singing nun

Pray you wash your hair out in a sink

Armed with a mandolin

A snotted rag and a Delphic hymn

Shaking off the dew before it sticks

Oh, give us a melody

Before they send us back to the sea

Replace these wooden legs for ones that kick

Oh, Jonesy Boy

I can’t remember before

There ever was war

My boyhood home is now a jail

They paved over the ol’ creek

To make a road for lumbering teak

And shipped off my family by rail

Oh, I hope you stay a boy

At least to bring some old men joy

Even just to watch you tune your strings

They’re blowing the shofar now

Off to stick another sow

The soil is hungry again for offerings

Oh, Jonesy Boy