The Name of My Next Band

 The Name of My Next Band

The Meant To Dos is going to be
the name of my next band. The one
where I’m lead singer and I tell
it all. I’ll really lay it down
like I’ve never done before,
my inner truth and all those
raw experiences. The ones
I’ve never talked about,
or cried over, because I
don’t cry, I just tear up
occasionally, anyways though
I know I should cry more because
I feel as if I’m splitting in two
like at my birthday party
last night I both couldn’t believe they,
my daughter and her boyfriend and my girlfriend,
had given me a cake
with two candles and yet I
also felt so far away like
someone else’s voice was saying
‘thank you!’ … It really is
just like the Beatles song
that used to play on the radio
all the time,
“When I’m 64…”

Learning To Talk will be
the name of the next band
after that one fails because
I feel like I’m dumb so much
of the time and there must be
something to say
to connect with you.
I hate to see
anyone sad.

And the band after that one fails,
because really I’m too old
now to be staying up late at
basement shows, I’d call
Babylon Quakers because
I woke up this morning missing
my Friendly roots, going to meeting
every week, the silence was golden.
But I lost the thread when
I went out into the world
of Babylon and no one knew
my name. There’s a guy at work,
working class from Fishtown, who has
perfected the art of talking
to anyone (without needing names),
we were discussing
potato chips yesterday
and junk food.