Ellipse

Some months you barely remember
Some years can stop in September
Some centuries haven’t ended
Some seconds linger forever
 
Well I’m sitting here in Harvard Square,
waiting for him to appear,
An old friend whom I haven’t seen
in many a long year.
Headphones plastered to my ears,
I’m contemplating staying here
‘Cuz after all I guess you’ve gotta live somewhere
And I’m trying to listen to some Polish rock band
But sitting alongside’s this Vietnamese man
Who’s playing on a violin-thing to entertain the throngs
And it’s turning Myslovitz into Black Angel Death Songs
 
And I don’t pretend I’m Neil Young
to deserve a borrowed tune,
But I can’t help writing songs that sound
like Yo La Tengo do.
I’ve gotta walk without thinking,
Dream without sleeping
Leap without making a choice.
I’ve got an open invitation to these
towns across the map
But in the city that’s the most like home
I lack a place to crash.
And they’re building walls across the Mall,
and barriers galore,
And I tell myself that DC rocks but does it anymore?
 
And you say that when you want to know
what’s up with me,
it’s always pulling teeth.
But it’s just it’s hard to summarize
a lifetime I’ve spent
chasing wild geese.
My orbit isn’t circular,
but usually it does form an ellipse.
I’m spinning past the zenith point
Predictable and beautiful
Like this.

~ 2004