Long Tonks Poems

holler say what
yo yo yo
all the saint over there rise on up
git on up
everybody else where
git on up hold them arms, hand and eyes up toward the heavens
things gonna git better 
(when you)
Pray
(when you)
Praise so....

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1908
Last day at school for me
Some thirteen years Ive had
And Im going to be a farm hand
Just like me dear old Dad

Here now its Mr Peters
A silence falls over the class
'Registration' he says as he...

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HIS THUMB HELD OUT ON THE MIDDLE OF AN EMPTY ROAD
HE CAN'T STOP SWEATIN, THE SUN BEATS DOWN
HE TAKES TO HIS HEALS WITHOUT LOOKIN AROUND
HE LIGHTS A CIGARETTE CAUSE IT SEEMS HE'S GOT NOWHERE TO...

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Every time I turn the radio on I hear a feller's plaintive song,
About his achin' heart and how his woman done him wrong!
How they once held each other close beneath the harvest moon;
Now, he sits...

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When cowboys sprawl 'round the camp fire after the days work is done,
They strum guitars and tootle harmonicas and sing to have fun.
Real cowboys don't sing Honky-Tonk or She Done Me Wrong stuff.
They leave that...

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Everybody, and his brother
Stopped in, at one time, or another
Not for the greasy hash browns
Or the coffee, with a half a cup, of grounds
They weren't there for Ruby or Ruth
Whose numbers were in the phone...

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I'm a cowboy some call me redneck, I'm a lover and a fighter, I  try not to do no one wrong, I treat women like ladies, I drink whiskey and I get crazy, I...

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Cowboys wear their hearts on their sleeve
They sing in honky tonks and dive bars,
Drink their memories down, they spend their weekends in a bar where they can be themselves, wating to have their spirits glisten....

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Garth

Many years ago, a quiet, respectful, man came into our lives, from Yukon, Oklahoma, hoping to make it in the music business, he brought with him, a passion to sing from the heart, a dream...

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He wrote the lyrics to the songs
a thousand singers sing.
He stood alone at life’s crossroads
and felt the church bells ring.

He taught me how the feelings feel
he helped me hear the sound.
Of the bottom of a...

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I wait in all the crummy
little barrooms of the soul.
I look about and sniff the air,
drink, and wait.
In the demi-world of honky-tonks,
which vie against night's
inner gloom, beneath mantles
of thick smoke, pinches,
slurred speech and propositions,
I leer...

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There's mud on the windshield
And pain that I still feel
Like fightin' a raw deal
But I've nowhere  better to go

I'll go home to Dallas
And build her a palace
Toast her with a chalice
Maybe she'll still love...

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How I wished, free flow of wheels
No words to tell , "how it feels".
When vehicles swish
Well, well, well!
This is what I relish.

How I missed, the rumble and rush
Noisy Wide tyres! are my first crush
Fizzing of...

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If sixty years before in my place of birth
had I been living in that Texas town Fort Worth.
With long horn steers moving to and fro
what would I have done, where would I go?
Herding cattle or...

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Her heart was like a clock that I wanted to stop and rewind the dial back.
Remembering the beginning.
Following the curve of ticks as everything around disappeared.
The ticks and tonks that throb as pulse.
The blossom of...

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This old train station's lonesome
But it's got a hold on me
I was born to be a rider
Of these rails that carry me
Lots of boxcars been my motel room
And honky tonks my home
It's in my blood...

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Her hands don't feel like satin, 
she's been working since she was a child.
Never was a pure white angel,
she was always a little wild.
She can fight like a man,
but loves like a woman.
Some people say...

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Transporting me from here to where?
I cannot follow my muse, nor do I dare.
Trixie is outrageous, much more energetic than me.
She takes me to honky-tonks, and drinks petite tea.

I find her in bordellos with men...

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Hung up my saddle and its reins
Now I'll count the losses and gains
My reputation's got some stains
I've still got Texas in my veins
 
I got old with some aches and pains
My knees creak whenever it...

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