A goddess with her bag of yarn
milks the calf for all its got
says she’d rather have than to have not
Then she turns toward another man
she snaps just like a rubber band
and lands between the roses and the thorns
she once adorned, now betrays

She says it could be tried or it could be true
but how the hells one to get through
to a boy like you who’s got nothing to lose
I thought at first it was a joking thing,
a funny poem in the kitchen sink,
but then she shaved her legs and made for the door

It was midnight on the farm,
behind a red barn we danced.
Measured in barbed wire -
wrapped in electric light one night.

Tell me truly - don’t you lie,
just how small is a moment in one’s life?
Could it be forever? Maybe just for one night
could it live in black ink
like that Romeo and Juliet line
where art thou? where are we?
where’d ya go? into a memory?

are you still there
painting the barn red?
have you fallen down?
are you Heavensent? -
are you some Lorelei,
in your river of lies
still asking why -

Why did you go
to the water that ran below us?
you threw my roses away
what more is there to say?
you were swept under the rain

yet I still recall -

Midnight on the farm,
behind a red barn we danced
measured in barbed wire,
wrapped in electric light we loved

then there was some movement behind that barn
sudden movement, a shadow crawling alive
everybody went real quiet like this, “Ssssh...!”
it was as if life had ceased to exist
then it did

a cold light opened soft over the riverbank
and briefly I thought of you reaching in
cause there was a real beautiful light
laying somewhere beneath that current
and then ya did, I saw ya sink sink sink
sink down, sink down into the bottom now

it was midnight on the farm
as a moment reached for a yawn
and all stood still,
I heard the hills arrange in seven rows
a haiku of yellow and shivering shade
there was some God in the rafters
and the Plains reached for laughter
but all was swept forever after
that blackness had reached through and past her
and I felt the light! and I saw the light!
break through the night
and all was obsidian, and silent and simple
a moment opening! wider! wider!
nights great mouth engulfed you
entirely,
memory!
it was taking all of me
up up!
until there is nothing!
no sweet forever!
no precious bells!
no thick silver!

no conscious fever
no sin, no sinking feeling
no material seeking
I was headed to the midnight screening
with my head all undid
the fever coming up
I could feel it start
start to erupt
into a garden of light
you pick the blossoms of a black night
midnight was a creeping
through the grass a poem was seeping
it spelled
M-I-D-N-I-G-H-T
on the farm
M-I-D-N-I-G-H-T
on the farm
just you and me

Midnight on the farm,
behind a red barn we danced

come on now bring it up,
bring it up, get higher
how much longer?
not much now, I can feel it!
it starts just like that sound!
rising up! now you must listen very closely
to this next part it starts like this
the sound, the fury, the idle cross
water wash away our loss
now comes the final part
the last prayer of a godless heart
take it now!

it’s midnight on the farm
everybody's arm in arm
bells ring out beyond
the evening stars fall upon
the plains once burning hue
painted now a sterling blue
and all the awful poetry
turns to dance so simply

we gonna move to the country
find us a little home
where it’s all gone like Jesus Christ
that is to say it’s all
gone, gone, gone
but not gone quite yet -

come on baby slide it to the left
take a pedal from the rose
and place it on the bed
we’re moving from the grey and idle streets
to green of our open country

taken by a tongue into the morning light
six bells breaking the twilight
six bells ringing in the night
coming down, coming down, coming down
oh let’s move to the country!
find us a little home
where it’s all gone like Jesus Christ
but it’s not all gone -
open country !