Some Images Never Change Lyrics

Plump pigeons

Swimming their plumpness away

Cackling at me

Every day I walk down my stairs

Stop laughing

The feathered ones

Are a peanut gallery

Never satisfied with the new day

And its strangers

Never satisfied

Unless they humiliate

Two males holding down female

Under an April sun

Releasing their posterity

In savage ways

And she waddles away

As if it is an annual event

A family reunion

The Provo River

That cuts through Raintree

Like a chisel

Is the duck's bathtub

The rolling grass

Surrounding the river

Is their bed

The balconies that enclose the habitat

Are their gods

Feeding them

On a divine timetable

Not based upon the birds' hunger pangs

But on holy convenience

Every now and then

I, too, slide my chamber door open

Step-out onto the green terrace

And shower manna

To the lost tribe of feathered ones

Yet, I do not blindly throw my gifts to all

I pick and choose

Which walking feather ball will receive

The Indian runner with mohawk

The only one of the bunch

Pleases me

Here

And do not share with the rest

The blue burned crowns of the mallards

Capture infrequent crumbs

For the white one with bloody red hairdo

Is my favorite

He is my Joseph of Egypt

The rest are his brothers

One coat for the unique one

All others must go cold

The bread falling from my hand

The thoughts falling from my mind

Remind me of fifth grade

My family was affluent at the time

Dad's luck with not being caught by police

Was running hot

Like a crap's player on a streak

When you hit it, you just run with it

He always told me

We had so much money

We kept our change in Cuban coffee cans

Cafe Bustel

One hundred percent pure coffee

Yellow and red

With Spanish writing covering it

Heavy with silver and copper

Mostly circular portraits of America's first president

Mom saved those golden-red cans in the kitchen

One cupboard was full of them

She scooped out cafe molido

Feeding the mildest of Dad's many addictions

And replaced the grounds

With the coins

If I ever needed extra money

To see a movie

Or play a video game

I formed my hand like a shovel

And scooped out a bucket full of change

Craning the chinking cash

Into my front corduroy pocket

Closed lid

Shut cupboard

Jumped off counter

Out door to wherever

One afternoon after school

After Mrs. Williams' class

After kickball

After winning the game for the team

After watching the Challenger blast off

On TV in our classroom

After seeing televised death

We played with my GI Joes

I was Snake-Eyes

I was always Snake-Eyes

Max was Destro

Jeff was Cobra Commander

Billy was Storm Shadow

They tried to gang-up on Snake-Eyes

In a conspiracy to overthrow

GI Joe's Headquarters

But Snake-Eyes was too powerful

He wouldn't die

He lived over and over again

He survived their bullets

He flew away from them

He went to the kitchen for a Coke

Destro, Cobra Commander, and Storm Shadow

Followed Snake-Eyes

Time out

Max, Jeff, and Billy got Cokes, too

As they slurped and guzzled

Their red cans

I climbed onto the counter

And stood above them on the breakfast bar

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Today the king will come before you

And grant you life

I then opened the cupboard adjacent to me

Peeled off the plastic lid of a coffee can

Dug my fingers

Into the cold, dirty, metallic coffee grounds

And tossed handfuls of coins into the air

Watching them pelt the heads of Max, Jeff, and Billy

Brown and silver eyes winked at me

As I thrust more and more handfuls into the air

My friends scattered

And scratched

And smiled greedy smiles

Gorging elementary hands with money crumbs

The twinkling rain reminded me

Of an exploding spaceship

Shooting sparks and smoke and spirits

Into the sky

And falling falling falling

On the ocean of ducks below

Some images never change