Your skin changes color
You have a marvelous tongue
You warm up me all over
When we’re sitting in the sun
Your nictitating membrane
Really makes me wanna sin
When you slither all around me
You know I always shed my skin
We could raise a brood of geckos
On grasshoppers and kale
Dig a hole for your eggs, dear
I’ll even grow a new tail
If you’ll be my little mamba
I’ll be a happy crocodile
Fending off a thousand vipers
Just to see your scaly smile
By Richard W. Bray
Life isn’t fair
Everyone agrees
Don’t put your angry on me
Sorry bout your temper
And your bonnet full of bees
Don’t put your angry on me
Take a deep breath
And have a cup of tea
Don’t put your angry on me
Journey to the park
And climb the biggest tree
Don’t put your angry on me
Watch a funny movie
And laugh until you pee
Don’t put your angry on me
Rage is a prison
Set your spirit free
Don’t put your angry on me
by Richard W. Bray
Bullies are angry
Bullies are mean
They gotta put you down
To empty their spleen
Bullies wanna conquer
Bullies divide
Spreading round the hurt
Cuz they’re broken inside
Bullies disarrange things
Bullies hurt your health
Every single bully feels
Sad for themself
by Richard W. Bray
‘Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand
When we with Daisies lie—
—Emily Dickinson, If I Should Die
Darker nights than ever
Hearts of shattered glass
Hefting laden caskets
Setting granite in the grass
They will come for all the bodies
Then they’ll come and take our homes
The machine keeps right on turning
And grinding up the bones
When disaster makes you richer
What could ever make you whole?
Is it just the love of Mammon?
Or the absence of a soul?
They will come for all the bodies
Then they’ll come and take our homes
The machine keeps right on turning
And grinding up the bones
by Richard W. Bray
a movie in the afternoon
with you
a walk, a talk, a Gershwin tune
with you
in a cabin in the hills
with you
in a field of daffodils
with you
snuggle on the coldest night
with you
feeling safe and holding tight
with you
everything is warm and true
with you
in a universe of two
with you
by Richard W. Bray
How’d you make the world
Collapse and disappear?
How’d you make your voice
The only thing I hear?
How’d you take my troubles
And tear them all apart?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?
How’d you patch me up
And nurse me back to health?
How’d you create a world
Where time was someplace else?
How’d you erase the past
And make a whole new start?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?
by Richard W. Bray
broken lives
and broken hearts and
foolish empty pledges
I’m rugged and I’m ragged
and sharp around
the edges
Don’t get too close
I’m booby-trapped
Broke from eating
Too much crap
There’s so much shit
When I explode
It’s gonna be
The motherload
all the lies
you swallow, they
never get digested
every segment
of your soul
will become infested
Don’t get too close
I’m booby-trapped
Broke from eating
Too much crap
There’s so much shit
When I explode
It’s gonna be
The motherload
by Richard W. Bray
all day long
I think of you
subsisting on
your residue
too good to be true
too good to be true
too good to be true
warmth and style
and royal blue
all wrapped up
inside of you
too good to be true
too good to be true
too good to be true
your hair, your smile
your ballyhoo
I would pay
to be your shoe
too good to be true
too good to be true
too good to be true
sophistication
through and through
you’ll never play
the ingénue
too good to be true
too good to be true
too good to be true
I live for love
I never knew
the psycho ward
is overdue
too good to be true
too good to be true
too good to be true
by Richard W. Bray
I got a friend named Looney Tick
He chewed all day and ate a brick
Washed it down with motor oil
He drinks it fresh before it spoils
I don’t believe in superstition
Minerals are good nutrition
I got a friend named Looney Tick
You never know what clothes he’ll pick
He’s decked out in all his splendor
Cargo shorts and red suspenders
I’m a walking fashion plate
How them haters love to hate
I got a friend named Looney Tick
Sanity is not his schtick
He cleans his table with a mop
He stole a car and called the cops
I don’t need no evidence
I’ll just use my common sense
I had a friend named Looney Tick
He fought a grizzly with a stick
His daddy told him that ain’t wise
But he believed his lying eyes
That bear is big but I’m real quick
Never mess with Looney Tick
That bear is big but I’m real quick…
The last we heard from Looney Tick
by Richard W. Bray
the city’s gonna kill me
if I don’t let it go
time to find a valley
where the living is slow
maples in September
mountains in the snow
the bend in the river
where the cottonwoods grow
deliver me from humbug
the never-ending show
time for some authentic
dirt beneath my toes
maples in September
mountains in the snow
the bend in the river
where the cottonwoods grow
time to grab my spirit
and hop upon a crow
that’s the only tonic
for my weary old soul
maples in September
mountains in the snow
the bend in the river
where the cottonwoods grow
by Richard W. Bray
