David Berman
Blue Arrangements
I see you gracefully swimming with the country club women
In the Greenwood southside society pool
I love your amethyst eyes and your Protestant thighs
You're a shimmering socialite jewel
From the Carbon Dioxide Riding Academy
To the children's crusade marching through the downtown
Well, I think I'd die, see, if you just said hi to me
When something breaks, it makes a beautiful sound
Sometimes I feel like I'm watching the world
And the world isn't watching me back
But when I see you, I'm in it too
The waves come in and the waves go back
And the kids in the corner all covered in dirt
Caught trespassing under the moon
My father came in from wherever he'd been
And kicked my shit all over the room
All over the room
All over the room
The room is dark and heavy with what I want to say
I see murals in the radio static and on your blue blue jeans
What would you say if I asked you to run away?
It's been done so many times, I hardly know what it means
I took these blue arrangements and threw them in the sea
When older waves from older caves brought them back to me
I took these blue arrangements and stored them on a shelf
With coins on the mantle and time in a candle, in the end a boy raises himself