Cheshire Bridge Road

Cheshire Bridge Road

Early Sunday morning walking with you
on Cheshire Bridge Road
passing sound of radio.
Gee, I think it'd be nice
to have a couple of cups of coffee with you
and watch morning come.

Walking on Cheshire Bridge Road
early Sunday morning with you
barefoot in the dew.
Sunlight burns away until the fog is gone
and brings in the dawn.

Every time I see your face
it reminds me of music.
Every time I see your face
across that bar.

Early Sunday morning walking with you
down Cheshire Bridge Road
passing sound of radio.
Still would like to have
a couple of cups of coffee with you
and watch morning come.

-Will Dockery

Walking (To The Edge Of Town Tonight)

Walking (To The Edge Of Town Tonight)

She seems to speak to me
in some alien language.
I'm sitting on the corner,
I'm feeling strangled.

But I can't respond
to some imaginary kiss.
She's taking advantage
of this mysteriousness.

So I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
The moon looks like a skull
in the sky tonight.

I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
I know the Underground's
got something going on tonight.

It was there at the coffee shop,
I still had my old job as the bell hop.
She told her story,
I wasn't listening.

She smiled in the air,
I'm afraid to tell her I care,
she was bringing me down
and her eyes were glistening
.
I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
I see a blue moon over the water,
electric glide.

I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
I don't know what I'll do
when I get there
but it'll be on tonight.
Right on.

She dances in many colors,
almost put me in her spell.
Just like easy money,
she seems to spin so well.

But I can't respond
because she's already gone.
She's opened the door and it won't long.

I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
I see a neon light flashing
just out of sight.

I'm walking
to the edge of town tonight.
I don't know how I'll get there
but when I do
it'll be all right, right on.

Can't you hear me making sounds?

-Will Dockery (words) - Brian Mallard (music)

I Met A Girl

I Met A Girl

I met a girl
she came from California.
It was in a dream
we knew each other instantly.
She was a little freckled girl
from out of my high school past.

And she looked up at me
and talked real spacey.
I've forgotten her name
though she told it to me twice.

We talked
a really detached situation.
She said years ago
I was so shy she thought I was gay.
At this point I kissed her
and put my finger to her hole.

And she looked up at me
and talked real spacey.
I have forgotten her name
though she told it to me twice.

I don't know why it was
that I would think of her.
I made a couple of puns
about her name that made me blush.
But her softness in tone
made me feel all right.

All I want to do
is get in contact.

-Will Dockery (May 8 1982)

Nothing But Pain

Nothing But Pain

No sea deep enough,
no dark black enough.
No death painless,
no resurrection coming.

Open myself up,
I see twisted roots.

What has happened,
what will happen,
down to the end,
and down deeper.

No sea black enough,
no dark deep enough.
Sleep not final,
dreams to awake,
to this terrible lie.

I know. Nothing but pain.
Darkness and pain.
I know.

On and on it remains,
it's all so simple,
nothing but a grim heart.

-Will Dockery (May 18 1999)

Hats off to Larry Beaujolais

Hats off to Larry Beaujolais

Talking with Clifford Oliver,
he says...

"Remember Lawrence?"

Yes, he had a French name
like Larry Baudelaire?
As I recall.

"More like...
Larry Beaujolais,
he worked up in the office
at the lumber yard."

We liked him
down at the warehouse
waiting for him to send down
a customer.

"He was an amusing guy...
but sad."

Lawrence had a drinking problem
plus had been injured
from a mugging
in an alley down on Lucky Street.

"You had that tape recorder, Doc
recording found sounds..."

I still have
some of those
recordings
I tell Clifford.

"One recording you were making
way back in the warehouse
tapping an iron beam
with a hammer
loud layering echo
through the warehouse
drove old Roy Harper crazy."

I might have erased that one.

"Larry was uptight
but he loved his drinks and smoke
after work
in his little rented room
near Piedmont Park,
Orme Circle...
you were delivering his green bud
about every other night."

Yes, one of nights
was the last night
I ever saw Cindy Covington.

She gave me a ride
I can still remember
staring into her
smoky blue eyes.

"Well, one afternoon
Lawrence strolled down
to the warehouse
and placed another weed order
not knowing we had been
recording improvisational banter."

Right, our podcast
on the edge of forever,

"Long story short
dope deal got recorded
and we spent a week
making Larry sweat
playing that snippet endlessly
until finally a boss man
overheard it...
shit hit the fan that day."

Lawrence comes running
around the corner
yelling...

"Don't do me no favors!"

Nobody got in any real trouble
Larry had simply
been revealed
to be one of our ilk after all.

"Then Larry was a no show
for a couple of days at work
we'd sit there all day
wondering about him.
Knocks on the door
would get no response...
so I took his front door down
and he wasn't home."

And, as it turned out
that was the last any of us ever saw
of old Larry Beaujolais.

-Will Dockery

Corso and His Ladies

Corso and His Ladies

Hanging out in Atlanta
yesterday
with my friend Clifford.

Cliff is the "Great Rememberer"
of our scene
circa 1980-1983.

These new poems
will be the permanent record
of those times
from the memory he shares.

He says
"Hey man, remember
that former boxer
my friend
we'll call him Corso
because of his resemblance
to a famous poet?"

Yes, I do, I say.

"You let him stay
at your place for a while
him and his two girlfriends
the stripper
and the skinny girl..."

Yes, I wonder where they
went off to, Cliff?

"No idea, man
haven't seen either of them
since that time...
Jeeze
That was 36 years ago, Doc."

At least...

I remember Corso well
he was only around
for a couple of weeks
but I will never forget him
or his two ladies
whatever their names are.

-Will Dockery