Lullaby for a Victorian Baby Born with its Skull on the Outside

All Babies are perfect in their parents eyes
They see right past the things others might criticise
You’re extraordinary, a singular prize 
Can’t disguise the surprise see in peoples eyes

But sweet little baby oh what can i say
When I look at you takes my breath away
To think you were normal, you’d have to be blind
A baby like you is one of a kind

When I see you there, 
It’s so hard not to stare,
I can’t stop looking, so I just won’t start

There’s nothing I’d change
No matter how strange,
At least, you know,  for the most part

You’re perfect and pure
I’m pretty sure
Though I didn’t look too closely

Nothing bad I could say,
Flawless in every way,
….Mostly


Describing your features is hard, so to speak 
Because you are so exceptional and unique
Love those sweet baby eyes, so big and unblinking
I could look right through them and see what you are thinking

Your cheek bones and chin are so strong and defined
Your lil baby head is so smooth and streamlined
That cute button nose isn’t quite 3 dimensional
You have a beauty that is quite unconventional

Lullaby For a Victorian Baby Born With It's Skull On The Outside

It’s a long way to Denver and even longer back home. 
A long time to be out here on the prairie alone,
Long time with no place or people of my own
Too long being weary  and cold to the bone
 
Denver is nice, or that’s what they say,
Maybe when I get there, I should just stay 
At least for the winter, maybe I’ll see
If Denver’s got ladies as lonesome as me  

I see the Rockies there on the Horizon
Most beautiful sight that I’ve ever laid eyes on.
I used to have dreams as big as this sky
Stop chasing em one day, couldn’t really say why

I got a brother largely incommunicado
Fancied himself some sort of desperado
Always had less sense than bravado
I hear that he’s somewhere here in Colorado

Maybe he got here and he settled down
With Some little lady in some little town
Maybe he saw these mountains and gave him a pause
To see he wasn’t quite so big as he thought he was

I see the Rockies there on the Horizon
Most beautiful sight that I’ve ever laid eyes on.
I used to have dreams as big as this sky
Stop chasing em one day, couldn’t really say why

Long Way to Denver

I gotta swing by Costco to order up a birthday cake
Hit up the food court for that mother fuckin’ chicken bake
And while I’m her, cross a few things off my shopping list,
Double check and make sure there ain’t nothing that I Mighta missed

Flash my card at the door, that’s right executive member
I get a cash rebate every 31st of December
Probably grab some milk too, 4 gallons oughta do
And I’ll be damned, looks like Dockers makes a running shoe

I’m gonna go to Costco, 
get a couple pounds of cheese
Yes ma'am I’ll take another sample please
Get some gasoline and a new big screen
And maybe a Hawaiian vacation

I’m gonna go to Costco, 
for 7 pounds of jelly beans,
A stylin new pair of those Kirkland jeans
Get some gasoline and a new big screen
And maybe a Hawaiian vacation

Pick out a 3 pack of sheets, You know that cottons egyptian
So many daily probiotics that I need a prescription
Been here too long now I’ve gotta take my cart back,
Probably should started out with this pallet jack

I'm almost out of here, I can see the checkout aisle
Forgot the toilet paper, back another quarter mile.
Walking back up stream, hope I don't get trampled.
But I'll still get another round of samples.

I’m gonna go to Costco, 
get a couple pounds of cheese
Yes ma'am I'll take another sample please
Get some gasoline and a new big screen
And maybe a Hawaiian vacation

I’m gonna go to Costco, 
for 7 pounds of jelly beans,
A stylin new pair of those Kirkland jeans
Get some gasoline and a new big screen
And maybe a Hawaiian vacation

Goin' To Costco

I made a lot of poor choices, some unsavory  friends
Chose a few paths that came to bad ends
Followed bad advice more than once or twice
Sometimes paid a price, wasn’t always too nice
I’ve had some real close calls, things that might have turned out poorly,
Got a few friends that weren’t so lucky,  Who are missed sorely.
A made some stupid decision, wasn’t always too smart
And If I could go back and get a fresh start

There’d be more than a few things I’d do just the same
Cause any outcome other than this would have been a shame 

So I’ve got a few lessons to pass on to you kid
Though your choices you will make all alone
I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did
I want him to make all your own



You’re choices are your own despite whatever I’ve planned
Can’t pick your battles or your friends, won’t be holding your hand
And If you asked my permission I’d probably say no
But That doesn’t mean I wouldn't really want you to go.

Your choices are your own, And the consequences too
So remember that you own any of the dumb things that you do
And you’ll do some dumb shit, you’re too smart not to
And I know you know you shouldn't, but I know sometimes you got to

On a list a list of regrets, If I were to make one
There’d be more things I wish I had than hadn’t done


So I’ve got a few lessons to pass on to you kid
Though your choices you will make all alone
I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did
I want him to make all your own

Same Mistakes

When I was just a lil girl I asked my mother what will I be
Will I be brave, and will I be free
Here’s what she said to me

You’ll be racist and bitter, scared of everything new
Dependant on a government you think is out to get you
Trying to drag the world down with your last hurrah 
Que Sera, que sera

Let’s make America Great Again 
Like it was in in 1952
When the colored folks lived on the radio
Not right  next door to you

When Terrorists and immigrants 
were all so far away
And grandchildren never turned out to be gay

Let’s Make America great Again,
Like it was in 1954 
When everyone loved America,
And we won every war

When being Christian was a thing that you could flaunt
Could call a foreigner anything you’d want
And Commies lived in Russia,
They weren’t senators from Vermont

When I was just a lil girl I asked my mother what will I be
Will I be brave, and will I be free
Here’s what she said to me

You’ll be blinded and brainwashed, With no way to get through
So deep down the rabbit hole can’t tell what’s true
Fightin progress and change tooth and claw
Que Sera, que sera

Let’s make America great again
Like it was in 1951
When Jesus was a white man waving a flag
And packing a gun

And back in 1953
We were all really free
And the president’s birth certificate wasn’t a forgery

Let’s Make America great Again 
Like it was in 1956
When women stayed in the kitchen
And out of politics

Started each school day with a pledge and a prayer
And the old tent revival was our only health care



When I was just a lil girl I asked my mother what will I be
Will I be brave, and will I be free
Here’s what she said to me

Tired and frightened, scared of it all
Hoping someone would just build a big wall
Afraid of going outside because of Sharia  law
Que Sera, que sera

Unflammable

Queso

Top Shelf

They say that music is good for your health,
So Pfizer put it into a pill,
Now you can pop a pop song for whatever ails you
And your doctor will send you a bill

And if you get to feeling blue
Ask your doctor if music is right for you

Not all songs are covered by your plan

Take 1,2, 1234
Get a prescription if you want some more

Took some music into a laboratory
Took out all the unsafe parts
We got formulated regulated dosages from
a doctor of the pharmaceutical arts

Now they cracking down on folks that self medicate
Homemade stuffs too hard to regulate

I think we’ve got an epidemic on our hands
Too many people listening to contrabands

Take 1,2, 1 2 3 4
I know a guy if you need some more

I got some bootleg black market bathtub blues
The kinda stuff that’s hard not to abuse
Think you can cut yourself off with a little toe tappin’
Next thing you’re wearing blue suede shoes

I’m in a 12 step program for music abusers
With a bunch of other 12 bar users

Take 1,2, 1,2,3
Just sing one more line for me

Someday we’ll look back on before we knew
Just how dangerous music could be for you
Played it out in the open, Gave it to our kids
Kept it out on the shelf without child proof lids

You could go buy a record and have no clue
What that record might do to you

Take 1 2 ,1 2 3 4
Pick up today’s hits at your drugstore

Pop in Pills

When the weather starts changing hear this old house complaining
The roof leaks a little whenever its raining
There’s a few floorboards that creak like hell
Don’t even bother trying to ring the doorbell

The fence is falling over and the faucets all drip
The last steps a little short, watch out you don’t  trip
Wall papers ugly, carpets are strange
And there ain’t a damn thing I’d change

This place and I got some edges that are rough
And a new coat paint sometimes ain’t enough
Got a few edges that don’t line up right
we both groan when we’re settling down for the night

Lots of forgotten stuff crammed in the attic
Raccoons in the cellar getting problematic
Whole chunks held together with duct tape and string
And You know that I wouldn’t change a thing

Draft

Seems like we might be living in the end of days
Everything everywhere is going sideways
Looking awful bleak here on shit creek
And getting even worse from week to week

Well it turns out that a catastrophe
Doesn’t really bring out the best in me.
First sign of stress And I was more or less
A sack of shit slipping in his own hot mess

They say you don’t know yourself until you’re put to the test
And I’ve just learned a few things that left me quite unimpressed
Ain't proud of how I was behavin Acting cowardly and craven
Only one ass I was concerned with savin’

Cause when the going got tough, I dropped the ball
Abandoned every principle and every one of y’all
People needed me most and I just got ghost
First sign of trouble I abandoned my post

If we’re not dead in the next Armegeddon 
Gonna try and turn this ship around
Try to be a better person Instead of making things worse and
Draggin everybody else down

Next time we reach the end of days,
I’m gonna try real hard to change my ways
And I hope I get a second chance at the apocalypse

I got nothing left except excuses and shame
Traded everything away except my ruined name.
Wasn’t worth much before, then muddied it it up some more
Someday that it’s forgotten’s the most I could ask for

Burned a lot of bridges and sunk a lot of ships
Can’t lay the blame entirely on the apocalypse
Might not be the first time I’ve collapsed on a dime
Long ago’d have locked me up if cowardice was a crime

If I want to atone I’ll have to do something large
I got lot of guilt and history here I need to discharge
My only hope for redeem a shame this extreme 
Is to really step up and take one for the team

So the next time there’s a threat to humanity
See me at the forefront  of that calamity
Running away, broken and beaten
Cause we know that  history has a way of repeatin’

If we’re not dead in the next Armegeddon 
Gonna try and turn this ship around
Try to be a better person Instead of making things worse and
Draggin everybody else down

Next time we reach the end of days,
I’m gonna try real hard to change my ways
And I hope I get a second chance at the apocalypse

simpkind