Jeremiah

These lyrics came to me one evening while driving the roads on Kodiak Island and I thought maybe a few folks might appreciate them. Feel free to comment–especially if you are a poet or a songwriter. I fancy myself neither, so you won’t hurt my feelings. Stay tuned for some slightly more serious (and hopefully better) writing inspired by my Alaska trip over the next few days…

Jeremiah

There’s a man up near the tree line
Named for a prophet in a book
He’s hiding from his brothers
And the paths that they all took

His clothes are rags and colored
And his feet are bare and bent
He doesn’t own pajamas
Doesn’t know the president

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

He is dark and he is clean
Spends 90 dollars on his soap
But don’t ask about the mailbox
He just don’t get that joke

And he builds a lot of fires
Burning pallets, logs and bricks
If you tell him that it’s summertime
He says the smoke is thick

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

His best friend is a raven
Calls her Jezebel
Collects her fallen feathers
For a potion or a spell

He wears a tiny padlock
On a bracelet on his wrist
It is locked for all eternity
There is no key for it

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

Up there on the mountain
He builds a wooden boat
He grows a lot of radishes
With no shovel or rope

His frame is thin and solid
his muscles taut and long
He doesn’t have a birthday
Doesn’t sing a favorite song

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

He never makes a footprint
On the mossy, craggy trail
But the goshawk and the owl
Follow closely on his tail

He sometimes picks a mushroom
From a tree beside the brook
Though his whole world is the forest
That is all he ever took

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

He might not live forever
But he will not die alone
The magpies and the grizzlies
Will know when he is gone

Until then he will wander
Out of sight from all the town
’til within an ancient mossy stump
He lays his body down

Jeremiah
His house is caving in
But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin

But he stays up on the mountain
Where the air is fresh and thin
Yeah he lives up on the mountain
Where his air is fresh and thin