It’s The “Spangled” We Love Best About That Song

Originally posted 10/3/2008.

once you were chucked salt berry
fogerty full of sloppy chords
skip to my lou reed

you got all slippery with your own clean sauce
tossed out your faded paper bag of dark wanderings
bought your commercial anthem from the fluorescent aisle

come back to your game desire
come be slaphappy sharp
come to the war against plastic

you used to have a mouth full of splinters
honored the dingbat and the idiot
those who broke the social charm with a fart

you were gas monster
huffer of free roaches
smoker of the right goddamn herbs

you feared not death
when it came through charred fences
borne on tornado cellar blown open

you were the scent of acorn porridge
you were delta mysterious
and that devil in the crossroads still valued your willing ass

you used to not be such a freak for safety
you used to not be such a doom escape
you used to stick your cane in the bike spokes

and watch the cards fly
into the dead end street
you knew the cut was coming

your children
hate you more
now that you’re safer

we’ve got nothing
riding on the bet against your death
we’ve got nothing in the skin we ripped open for you

you big poor land
you’ve gotten so big you’ve shrunken
under your own weight

you’re better than this
you know you are
you love the tawdry scent of your former scandalous past

you’re all about descent
and not a scrap of care left
for your tradition

bite me or better yet
infect yourself
be the sick fuck we loved to love

no matter how bad you made us feel
we loved your all jazz
cotton ball friendly face

we love some of you still
down underneath your crystal fraud hippie faking
wall street loving gutterpunk

surrender oprah
we’ve still got hot dogs
and we’re not afraid to say they’re the bomb