What a waste my life has been;
dreaming a poet's dreams while dancing with death.
What is life anyway but a dream in the mind
of a tired and sleeping God?
I know that Percy said I should not mourn
for Adonis but truly, I do.
Donne said that death should not be proud.
Proud is an idiotic way to die.
And Vincent, my swirling mad genious,
I hear your voice from the other side.
Caravaggio is there, drunk, waving his sword
claiming his knighthood they took away.
I see Jesus calling Matthew.
It is ironic that the greatest masterpiece sailed away
while the painter followed on foot across the desert
only to die in the sand of a foreign hateful land.
I suppose the fellow he killed near Rome
had a laugh in his grave at that.
Papa, when you blew your brains out, did it hurt much?
Did you take one last long look at the sea
and smoke one final fine cigar?
You gave us A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises.
Will it set just as beautiful on that distant shore?
Hey Jack, can you believe some thought you did yourself in?
I know better, even if you dreamed the thing drunk a time or two.
You loved life, The Snark and Charmian too much to go that route.
You even loved that old sow you had for a pet.
I loved you Jack and the world loved you too.
We have White Fang and The Call of the Wild to remember you.
That skinny guy in the cowboy hat with the Alabama drawl
wrote some great songs then died at twenty-nine.
If anybody has the blues to moan, we have him to thank.
Gentleman Jim called him Mr. Williams once.
He just stared intense with those thin smiling lips and said, "Its Hank."
Ray, they made a movie about you starring Jamie Foxx.
They didn't leave out the pain or the heroin.
I just remember Georgia on my Mind.
Jimi, I hope you and Janis are playing the stage in heaven.
You made Woodstock rock back in sixty nine.
There's Charles. Did the world ever figure out that you were Charlie Brown?
They will never forget Snoopy, or Linus, or Shroeder or Lucy.
You spent your whole life working for Peanuts.
What a waste my life has been. And I'm running out of breath.
I am but a dream in the mind of God
dreaming a dream and dancing with death.
