Free Association Moving Blues

Clean the fridge, clean the baseboards, clean cupboards and microwave

Steam the rugs and scrub the walls, vacuum and sweep and save

Some energy for Yellowstone, for crazy geysers wild

That feel as if they’re going off now, spraying my insides.

(Yellowstone, that unearthly place, shaped by steam and heat

Yellowstone, mud volcano, Artist Paint Pots and keep

Writing writing writing though about what I don’t know

Writing writing writing — who knows? Maybe it’s a poem)

Clean the house, I’m clean inside at least so far’s I know

Clean and jerk, lifting high this new life — go! Let’s go!

Clean and jerk, you either lift it, or else then you just can’t

Can I lift this new life high? Hold it, and what I want?

Or does it crash, bounce on the mat, wait for me to try again

Does that make me the “jerk” that jumped into th’ oncoming train?

Clean and jerk, I do it well, but then I also do

The not-quite-jerk, like any one, like any human bean

I am a “bean” and I can clean; I can also be a jerk

But when I go this place will be as clean as I can work

Helped by my two roommates, we all will do our share

To get us out of HERE, and get us all to THERE.

Clean and jerk, clean and cry, clean and laugh as well

Try to get us out of here, in one piece and spry

Some of us are older, our bodies do complain

Of extra work and too many jerks, and falls, and don’t like pain

So we will do this carefully, we do the best we can

To get us out of here quite whole, and load up that moving van!