leddeliverance and the last bust

by the end of seventyfour everyone 
had been busted done minor time or was on parole

–imagine the word-

either possession consuming sale or intent to sell

was on the score (add paraphernalia galore 

with all of the above) and worst of all 
the gang had gone to the dogs with circles in tow

even cliques of two and ragtag combinations

with a common destination

space and deep space and beyond if you got lucky

and with the ever present hard rock band 
plowing the way to make sure you got there alright

specially with all the hard dope of choice in

_or choiceless_ only eager to consume the same

to go along all the way or quasi

what do you have to lose was the general consensus

_nobody’d change their style

if anything some had gotten quite paranoid 
that’s all _it was the way to go

next day you’d be at work

smoke joints drop something snort shoot whatever

carol said they played stairway to heaven endlessly

at the factory and everytime someone freaked out

you’d hear houses of the holy rising over the din

and miraculously things would start to fall into

place and charley would doze off 
or stop barfing so

when the rumor started about the zeppelin 
comin’ to orchard park with their new album

which hadn’t even come out

the excitement threw us in a frenzy

with casualties all about 
randy crashed his dodge kenny quit his band

charlene ended up at meyer hospital again

donnie got ripped off big buying drugs in virginia

street and i got blamed for it 
it was a mess

but then the new album was out and everything

appeared to be tidy _it was huge 
no one believed it’d be better than zosa

and the rollercoaster was on its own now

_when tickets went on sale we had ours

then there were news about trouble in florida 
boston rumors of cancelled shows

but we were high on a roll

nonstop the turntable wearing the score 
until a crash thundered and i opened my eyes

to a man pointing me with a gun

saying something about drugs in the fridge

and policemen plain-clothes and dogs 
swarmming in my home

and the top dog asking me to become a rat

so i went to jail holding a ticket for a zeppelin

recital a farewell concert 
or the last of the first leg i forget

finally the blimp went west 
while i spent thirty days in the can

before putting up bail just in time to catch

Joe Walsh being formidable

as the season announced summerfests 
and it went well

a regular hot summer with rains at dawn 
while staying up taking on the night full

with Rock'n'Roll and heartbreak moves

and physical graffiti blaring out of every car 
until summer came to a close with the bars

at the lake and indian ed -the snitch- 
put a gun to his mouth and blew his head

now when our hero has fallen

now when our hero has fallen straight down and directly

hit bottom he walks on living stones set as a path narrow

across the needle eye unendurable and unsanctioned

he peers defiant into the untrodden path disappearing

in the dead of nights beyond convinced that no death

comes without certain errors suffered by degrees in time

crawling through the hole his hands burst on fire sudden his

sight darkens the only one unblinded by faith he walks at

last free of terror at ground zero among the rest faithfully  

bleeding his thoughts to fuel the recipient mother vessels

flying to great beyonds each of them full with treatises

of our lore and a great black bible holding the claims for evil
to what is simply explained with plain observance and reason

failing our hero dumbfounded tho filled with honors at heart