Living in a tacky tract house
On the mean streets of Costa Mesa
Celebrated Fridays with a party
Our backyard a sea of faces.

I provided beer and music
Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner
Nate purloined t-bones
And fired up the burner.

Attracted a raucous crowd
Everyone brought stuff
Never charged a penny
Always had enough.

On a warm summer day
Friends brought their band
Everyone was dancing
On our grass, dirt, and sand.

I was sashaying all alone
Feeling’ rather grand
When Kate showed up
Took me by the hand.

I’d seen her around
Thought she was with Eddie
Now she floated in my arms
Making me her steady.

We cavorted into the night
Got sprinkled in summer rain
Not a thing to lose
A whole world to gain.

My life might have ended then
An ecstatic blaze of glory
The stuff of So Cal legend
A romantic heartthrob story.

But as we all know
Life grinds on and on
We don’t get to choose
The exit where we’re gone.

I don’t know where Kate is now
lost touch in ninety-two
Too bad it didn’t work out
As we each found someone new.

But I’ll treasure that moment
Joy wrapped around some pain
Romance at the backyard barbecue
Dancing in summer rain.

1.

2. Down in the valley,
A red bird sings to me,
Recallin’ my true love,
Far away in Tennessee.

3.

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/153212

4.Crisp winter morning
Foraging goldfinch
Warms my heart.

5.

6.WAITING FOR BIRD

The stage is bare. An actor enters, dressed as a blackberry bush, and stands at stage left.
Another actor, dressed as a blue jay, enters from stage right.

Jay: [Walks to bush and begins to sample berries]

Bush: Go away. I’m saving my fruit for someone special.

[Curtain falls]

7. “The program is reportedly codenamed ‘Dove’ and run by Song Bifeng, a professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an…The bird-like drones mimic the flapping wings of a real bird using a pair of crank-rockers driven by an electric motor. Each drone has a high-definition camera, flight control system and a data link with satellite communication capability.”