V.J. Calone: Selection from "unwound..."

The following poem is selected from V.J. Calone's latest chapbook, "unwound, and other songs." If you would like to find out more about Calone's work, contact him at brateragency@gmail.com

Roger that

Among the snowy trees you brought the world to its knees.

Feeding the wants and the needs

through a frosted window pane you feel the pain.

From the snowy hills from Gloucester to Notting Hill.

You find you're on the coast again

Cozy but it ain't no cliffs of Dover.

There's always a cause and always a hope out there.

Roger my old friend. Here we are again.

You've lost yourself inside yourself

again and I wish you were here again but you're off on a crusade.

Early in our days in the studio you amazed.

But soon the sessions became crazed

with the ravings of a loon. Well, at least you were in tune.

In those early days

When we were sheepish as you would say.

Well, who am I kidding, the dogs had their way

and we were we part of the machine.

Is there always hope out there? Because there always is a cause.

Roger my old friend. Here we are again my friend.

We find ourselves alone at the end

peering out a frosted window pane

have we become the pigs cresting on the wave?

I could not know you -- how could any of us? You burned bright like a furnace

and rang as loud as a bell.

Although we knew you all too well

it soon all went to hell.

One which you helped pave and forge.

And although that may not have been your intention we are still on the same road.

In the snowy pines you wrote the music and the lines.

Tilled the earth planted the seeds.

Through the dry days and the rains.

Deep in the snowy fields.

From winter wheat to summer corn.

You sheltered the weak and helped the scorned.

Now your life's at the candle's end.

There's always a cause and always a hope out there.

Roger my old friend. Here we are again again.

Have you found yourself inside yourself?

And oh how I wish you were here

for just one more year as the memory starts to fade.