Michael Walsh

Give Me A New Sky copyright2024 Michael Walsh


A Locust drone blew off my legs
under War’s marquee where lions fed
on see-saw songbirds, parades of dead
Roses of souls, my horizon’s fled

Jackals on The Hill, flags that hypnotize
Morals for sale, see the snake unwind
Bombs droppin’ on the wicked and the wise
They tell us peace is just over the next rise

(chorus)
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
Bloods in Liberty’s tracks
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
I’m not turnin’ back

Sawbones gave me swizzle-stick legs and a rebel tattoo
A ticket to the Revolution and a pen with a fuse
We have a see-through past, blow flies that won’t blow
Cops takin’ down rainbows with pistols and a firehose

(chorus)
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
Bloods in Liberty’s tracks
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
I’m not turnin’ back

Allah’s chased from the river to the sea
Jesus chained to a workbench in a gun factory
Children runnin’ across The Machete
Humvees on a spree
Makin’ empty pairs of shoes out of old enemies
The U.N. got a bloody nose and another Wounded Knee
Couldn’t climb out of Hell on the Pope’s rosary

(chorus)
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
Bloods in Liberty’s tracks
Give me a new sky
Before we fade to black
Give me a new sky
I’m not turnin’ back

The news is weavin’ synthetic horizons
In the streets scream a thousand sirens
I write gasoline poetry you can ride in
In hope’s arms I sigh in
Joe Strummer’s rockin’ my engine
It’ll never stop firin’

Joan of Grace copyright 2024Michael Walsh



My mother walked with me down Recovery Road
Her shadow casting angel wings across the sand
She never turned back, never let go
When the Devil tried to take me by the hand
When the Devil tried to take me by the hand

You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow

Years rolled, I walked with my mother down Parkinson’s Road
Her shadow casting angel wings across the sand
I had to turn back at the bottom of the cross
when Jesus took her by the hand, when Jesus took her by the hand

You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow

Grief’s flood of roses and mud swept me away to 1965
My mother and father were dancing in the kitchen
So young and so happy, it was there I wanted to hide
It was there I wanted to hide

You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow

Saint John topped Westmill Hill ridin’ a white ram
John picked me up, carried me on his back
And we headed toward new land
We headed toward new land

You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow
You better pull your boots on
Get out in the field and plow

Saint Joan copyright2024 Michael Walsh


They ran me out of Shanghai
the day the moon stole the sun
On a road boiling over the rise
filled with ravens, bones, and mud
My past lie up ahead
My future I couldn’t outrun

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome

Imperial guards burned down my san-ho yuan
Shot my horses, stole my guns
All because of the favor of one
of the Emperor’s concubines I’d won
She gave him only daughters
When she gave me a fat blue-eyed son
the sky fell on the Forbidden City
I set on the run

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome

I’m a man from no time or place
One history has shunned
The Fates hung me out to dry
Between the centuries I’ve swung
My soul on the docket
for all the wrong I’ve done

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome

I married a Hong Kong dancer in 1841
Victoria loaded our lives into a cannon
and the Opium Wars begun
Jade’s father was shot for smugglin’
They beheaded both his sons
We escaped on a fishing boat
to the Formosa port of Jeelung

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome

As Shangri-la burned
I threw ghost money at the sun
Taoist shaman danced
to the beat of leather drums
In scorched cane fields
where water’s thick with blood
The tigers of truth were coming for me
on their mad circling run

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome

The tigers dragged me to a temple
in the hills above Kaohsiung
I could hear my sweet wife
singing take me home to Sai Kung
I collapsed at her coffin
as pilgrims and farmers looked on

And Saint Joan took me by the hand
and said together we’ll overcome