Bambara Jose Tries To Leave
Night's changing
Spiders seem to levitate in headlights
While deer hide dumb in the bushes
And three snakes hang from the branches of a small tree
In front of her house where he's climbing out of her room
José looks back through the window
She's tangled up in the sheets and she's smiling sweet
Talking softly in her sleep
He hops down to the driveway
Stumbles to his car parked down the street
And he turns the key
The church looms on the horizon
Like the dried up husk of some ancient bug
Legs scratching at the rising sun
Inside he gathers his things
‘Round the scattered bodies of his passed out friends
In a drunken spin
Jimmy yawns and says, “Hey, what's goin' on?”
“Shadows just seem darker these days,” says José
“Anyway, I'm gonna catch a train”
José waits by the tracks
Sunrise puts a squint in his eyes
And it seems like there's
So many little creatures scurrying around that he can't see
The train comes and he starts running
He jumps for it and he slips
She wakes up and she sees he's gone
Just like she expected
But she hoped she'd be wrong
Thought this morning
She could try it on top
“Never get old where you were young,”
He said while she was nodding off
He's kind of strange she thinks
Yeah but so is love
The kids in the church start to stir
As light pours in through the holes in the walls
Wondering if José is gone
“No one ever really leaves,”
Jimmy says through a cloud of smoke
“Where would he go anyway?”
The sun is up and the birds are pecking
Pecking at something lying in the dirt