Coal Train Raga

                                                        for Jay Inslee

                                                                               on his reelection and his recent speech to the UN

           first an oil train

         longer than a mile

           then a coal train

         wider than your smile

           both going north

       both bringing warmth

   I wish you were here baby

       for my coal train blues

                rumbling by

            longer than a mile

               first an oil train

                       then

                  a coal train

               going fast baby

         pounding the rails baby

       both bringing warmth baby

        I wish you were here baby

            for my Coltrane blues

                   lullaby baby

               it’s a lullaby baby

            those trains rumbling by

          bringing some warmth baby

            both bringing warmth baby

              I wish you here baby

                playing your blues

those more pious living in the East

believing water springs for their own good

demanding from us who live out West

some sober sacrifice be made like youth…

that we should sacrifice children to their god

to profit their buffet routing coal trains past

our borders of common sense oil trains too

that sometimes explode traveling too fast…

Wyoming coal baby Dakota oil

a mile of best coal from Wyoming stripped

on its way to China on its way to hell

we sold our coal for a song and a dance

at the stock exchange bell at risk of a knell

they sold our best coal so now we've been flipped

           first an oil train

         longer than a mile

           then a coal train

         wider than your smile

           both going north

       both bringing warmth

   I wish you were here baby

       for my coal train blues

                rumbling by

            longer than a mile

               first an oil train

                       then

                  a coal train 

               going fast baby

         pounding the rails baby

       both bringing warmth baby

        I wish you were here baby

            for my Coltrane blues

                 lullaby baby

             it’s a lullaby baby

          those trains rumbling by

      bringing some warmth baby

        both bringing warmth baby

             I wish you here baby

              playing your blues

  

          copyright © Dick Russell, 2015, 2019

                    For Heather

                tonight more golden

                       than before

sunlight touched her smiling upturned face

                             

                                                 copyright © Dick Russell 2015

                      On Reading Robert Duncan

                                        for Eric Mottram

      He spoke of you

      in that time when water

      was a mile down hill

      across ditches through fields

      from the shrine

      your name’s two feet

      so hard to decline now that

      nouns not often decline

  

      from a glistening slate roof

      in sunlight after rain

      a gutter dripped water

      one drip

      quickly two more

      before one dripped again

      repeating in sequence

      one drip two more
      before one dripped again
      in metrical sequence  
      sounds of separation

      twelve feet between negation

      between two sounds

                  drip     splash

               no sound of separation

                 no sound of door being locked

               nails being tapped

                 no white sound just starched aprons

               no sight of nurses just visions in blue

                    sitting at a bedside

               waiting to administrate

                no sound to measure

                  distance between things

                  pipe and rock

                twelve feet between

      in that temple made

      by six rows of two columns

      twelve  feet high twelve feet deep

      enclosing five conjugations

      some voices, some moods 

      and in the center of that shrine 

      sitting beside two smaller columns 

      First Second and Third

      High, Just-As-High, Third

      three gods of first person three gods of second

      sound waves spoking out

                                                  &

                     Robert Duncan said that:
                            Ezra Pound said:

              “the study of literature is hero-worship”

                                  

                                   Dick Russell

                                   copyright © 2015