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lyrics

My Will
I'll make a broken music, or I'll die.
~ Theodore Roethke

The music is already broken.
I stand tangled
in flames and briers,
my body aching
against the warped
metallic sky.
The wind comes
like jagged pieces of glass
and fills my ears.

I fear the music of the wind.
I fear the black edges
of its lightning.
I know the crystal thunder
that follows.
It comes as noiselessly
as a fistful of daggers
flashing to its mark,
shatters my heart.

All around me blink
the green/white eyes of aspens,
blink the fire/ice eyes that see in all directions.
I, too, try to dance with the motionless sun.
I cry the song that tears into throat,
slap hot rocks with feet.
It is no use. I am crushed like a fly
against the glass that keeps me from the world.
This is nowhere to die.


I stand against the wind
suffocated by the air rushing in.
Like a small child, I close my eyes to disappear.
I am blind. I am hiding.
I am the fire that lives in the ashes.
There is no light,
only this groaning heat.
This is not death.
Why am I still pretending?

I prop my eyes open
with white slivers of hawk bone,
lie on my back
in the haunted dust,
and stare into the sun,
and stare
as the sky boils off,
until all that surrounds me
disappears.

As the cracked marbles of my eyes go out,
I gnaw the searing white flesh of sun,
suck the open salt from its blood,
until there is no music,
until the whirlwind of color and life
falls through the black hole of my mind.
We cannot escape this loneliness, even in death.
I leave my song to the silence,
my soul to the wind.

credits

from Into Light: The Poems of M. D. Friedman, released January 1, 2024

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Mad Dog Friedman | Mad Dog Blues | Peddlers of Joy image

Mad Dog Friedman | Mad Dog Blues | Peddlers of Joy Lafayette, Colorado

Mad Dog writes from the moment and sings from his heart. His influences include sources as divergent as William Butler Yeats & the delta blues. His songwriting is sincere, simple & often humorous. He has recorded many solo & collaborative projects featuring his spontaneous compositions on harmonica, Native American flute & Theremin. He is also the founder of Mad Dog Blues & The Astral Project. ... more

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