i’m glad willie nelson
has long hair.
why, when you’re older,
do you need to look like
you’re clean
and neat
and mature
and sensible,
and yes,
no more kid stuff?
why not look
like a roughneck
or a crazy person?
the primitives, you know,
used to be nuts
because
they didn’t have science to interpret
the ghosts…!

but the janus face of the
history process
killed that spirit
of wildness and imagination
in stifling fear and exaggeration
through bland rationale.
in other words there’s no
juice any more.
so old
willie let his hair flow
and his beard hang
and displays his wooden guitar
on stage with huge holes,
and plays endless hits
full of electricity flowing.
while the rest of us
are
oh, oh, oh, so polite
and oh, so fine
and oh, so stilted
in money and mind.
and suffer spiritual
setbacks
and payback while the wolf
gnaws
in the night.
did you think
amer-Ican dreams
were gonna save you?