showed up here Tuesday afternoon said he’s looking for a place where the noise makes a tune got a job at a fairground with balloons said if you think these shapes are empty you should look at me and you walking toward that place where the noise still hums a tune with no flag to remind me who to hate with no burning piles of people to consume built a home with cardboard from the store used the nearby pond to wash his uniform but it turned to mush with the first summer rainstorm took it as a sign and he was gone later that morn walking toward that place where the noise still hums a tune with no flag to remind me who to hate with no burning piles of people to consume when will that entitled street rat show his ferris wheel shift started hours ago said the boss, “I may have paid him low worked him right through lunch but who don’t cut corners on this road” Thumb in the air, by wooded interstate, a thousand passersby with no time to be late Hums a tune, but he can’t recall the name something about a train, but it don’t matter anyway

I had a friend called gentle Hasad taught at the school and prayed at the mosque wore a turban had a beard down to his chest a foreign plane spotted him from above sent in the squad to pick him up took him to a prison island way out west He’s in the jailhouse now drowning ’neath a towel I should have told him once or twice to quit looking like what his people look like he’s in the jailhouse now He’s in the jailhouse now foreign land no trial I should have told him once or twice to quit praying to god and loving his wife he’s in the jailhouse now I knew a guy they called him brother Jamal he liked to read and play basketball tall and strong with Rastafarian dreads but the cops stopped him for breaking into his own home and jamal said leave me alone so they beat his ass for resisting arrest he’s in the jailhouse now they got his name on file maybe for now it’s just a couple days. but they’ll get him in a year for kissing mary jane once you’re in you’re never out He’s in the jailhouse now can’t afford the bail I should have told him once or twice, the strongest gang in the city wears ties he’s in the jailhouse now I knew a little girl named Esperanza with raven black hair and skin of bronze her folks were personas trabajadoras buscando asilo but they got separated at the border the guards took her from her mother and locked her up in a cage compliments of her tio… Sam She’s in the jailhouse now.. too scared to shower I should have told her once or twice, that her presence there fetches a good price she’s in the jailhouse now She’s in the jailhouse now the dream of ellis Isle I should have told her once or twice, it ain’t for her that the dream was designed she’s in the jailhouse now I knew a guy named Johnny boy Smith milk white old guard political grifter interfered in a federal investigation He loves Ayn Rand and Machiavelli profits off suffering daily but now he’s finally got what’s coming to him He's in the jailhouse now a ten million square foot house he's got it really bad, he had to cancel his vacation to trinidad he’s in the jailhouse now He's in the jailhouse now with his favorite frau he's feeling iced out and sad since the government went and froze his ass…ets he’s in the jailhouse now Well I knew a couple, shoulda never got hitched she’d call him a cuckold and he'd call her a bitch each week they’d trade off throwing the first blow he'd bruise her face, she’d use the Slugger, she’d slap him and he’d slap her the neighbors finally called the cops and wouldn’t you know? she’s in the jailhouse now visiting her spouse I should have told him once or twice take it like a man, but never hit your wife she’s back at her house now She’s in the jailhouse now, bringing the kids around should have asked him once or twice didn’t your parents ever teach you how to treat folks nice? She’s back at her house now We’re in the jailhouse now We’re in the jailhouse now we should have told them once or twice, putting folks in a cage is this country’s pastime they’re in the jailhouse now. They’re in the jailhouse now They’re in the jailhouse now all kinds of folks commit those crimes but some folks are doing way more of the time sometimes for nothing at all they’re in the jailhouse now They’re in the jailhouse now Whoever told you Justice was blind? It’s got 20-10 vision in both its eyes, we’re in the jailhouse now won’t you let us out?

You can blame it on your children you can blame it on the laws but the nets you cast on others’ backs are the ones in which you’re caught you can blame it on the homeless that welfare carnival but your disease lies in your cashmere skin and the cure is for the poor does Jesus save you a fortune? (does Jesus calm your ocean) does Jesus guard your doors (does Jesus row your oars)? When you talk to god atop your ziggurat, ain’t it funny? the voice sounds just like yours you’re royalty in every country you fit in at the top but you’d best set your mind to that needle’s eye before the sewing stops (you might wake up any day and you’ll see your pretty face on my gleaming sickle blade you’ll know I’m coming for you if you see the blackness of your soul, that vacuous hole, in the fabric of my coat, you’ll know I’m coming for you) you can sell a man for silver you can sell a man for shoes but when the noose you set is wrapped around your neck you’ll sing your three piece blues (you’ve had your beachfront game of chess and heaven knows I am the best you don’t have many moves left you know I’m coming for you take your money, set your sails replace every old entrail but like Fedallah on the whale you know I’m coming for you) You can sell a man for silver you can sell a man for shoes but when you’re in the pit you built for others to fall in and when the noose you set is wrapped around your neck, you’ll sing your three piece blues

If you've lived here a while he likely knows your name it’s written on a card hanging from his prayer chain He’s likely to call if pop into his brain, about your sickness, your children, or just to say hey Been here for decades driving down the same streets stopping to talk to whoever he meets, "hope to see you on sunday, I’ll save you a seat I’ll play you some bluegrass in the key of G" He’s cicero joe preacher orator with the roman nose talks with his hands and an old banjo and they come every week to hear cicero joe Cicero Joe makes hard ideas easy to follow Looks a little bit like ray romano and a lot more like Jesus than most He’s a sensitive man but that don’t mean he ain’t strong he’ll tell you he loves you and he’ll tell you you’re wrong and you don’t have to agree, these days many folks don’t but they still go every week to hear their friend joe Because he did their wedding, or their parent’s funeral or was caring and gentle as their little league coach because they know he’ll come see them when they’re withered and frail they know he’ll go visit their children in jail He’s cicero Joe he thinks the current empire’s no better than rome he’s an institution here in old Toledo they come every week to hear cicero joe Cicero Joe if you let him, he’ll pray for you before you go looks a little bit like al Pacino and a more like Jesus than most. he ain’t perfect, but he’d be the first to agree supported the war in 2003 and ever since then, he’s been deeply grieved but he’s learning and growing like a mustard seed he thanks god there’s forgiveness for a wretch like himself and he’s happy to share it with anyone else and say, "it’s more than just words that keep this earth from hell if you mean what you say, you’ll live it as well” Cicero Joe condemns the balance stacked against the dark-skinned and poor. sermons run long, but that’s just how it goes, they still come every week to hear cicero joe Cicero Joe more like John Muir than he is like the pope looks a bit like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves and a lot more like Jesus than most. if you ask him, he’ll put the old white robe on and dunk you in the river like old locust John and say, “it’s a metaphor, friend, not the salvation work if it was, every sunday, I’d flood the whole church” he believes in the grace of ephesians, and the actions of james says you can’t separate them, cuz they’re one and the same the rest is a mystery that can’t be explained, love god and each other and break every chain. Cicero Joe meets god by the trees like Abram by the oak talks to the firs and caws to the crows comes back from the mountains with a song that he wrote Cicero Joe been there for the highs and there for the lows talks with his hands and an old banjo and they come every week to hear their friend… Cicero Joe

I’ve heard it a million times before The strength and the courage of mighty cortes If you ask me though he should have sent all the ships home And set himself ablaze instead Could have saved a lot of people quite a headache Whenever I have to take a piss I calculate how long it will take to drive to Mt. Rushmore and summit it and choose which ugly bastard’s face upon which to micturate There will eternally be enemies against which to defend but the person whose meaning on enemies depends is certain in the end to make enemies of friends

God bless the shareholders in their Porsches stand beside them, economically advise them to the artery most full of blood mine the mountains, develop the prairies, fill the oceans with styrofoam God bless the shareholders, keep their taxes low God bless the shareholders as the purchase their tenth home

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir yes sir, three bags full. one for the master one for the dame, one for our eyes when they show us their names baa baa black smoke have you any coal? yes sir yes sir mountaintops full some for the hesitant prophet’s tongue some for my grandfather’s rotten lungs baa baa black cars have you any souls? yes sir yes sir, world wars full some for the ocean, some for the sky, all for the god who never cries baa baa black tree have you any coals? yes sir yes sir forests full for the thrice denied Christ, asking, do you love me now, as the alder and the pine vanish into clouds baa baa black numbers have you any toll? yes sir, anything anyone goes some from the immigrants and some from the war anything that i can fit beneath these bootstrap soles baa baa black snake have you any oil? yes sir always a stomach full some from the shale stone some from the sand I’m a traveling hearse through breathing land, effusive exploding gravel in the earth for the new blood transfusion baa baa black brother, have you any holes? yes sir, yes sir, police clip full. Some from the elephants and donkeys too little shells of Plymouth rock still landing on you new shiny machine still needs bodies for fuel baa baa black sheep have you any wool? yes sir, trash heaps and trashheaps full. but none for the weary, the hungry, the old, none for the huddled mass of refugees, none for the kids staring through chain link none for a frigid soul in need of a fleece but some for our eyes, as they keep the peace