An outward and visible sign
of an inward and spiritual grace - by Mike Semrad
It's a wonder I can find anything when blind. Oh! October flurry changed colors in mid run, didn’t it? This painting titled: “Wallowing Eagle to stand with Shadow”, looks as if it has run out of canvas and somehow still has managed to get into the opening. It’s downtown in the meat district. It is so smart.

Real nice show I hear.

The printers are on Strike! Prancing in circles in a hop, with there fingers flailing in front. It’s so cute. It’s a dance they all do when they want more. Me. I’ll work this job until my soles bleed. With my weak heart I cannot afford to go. I hear the show is amazing and fantastic and all those words that make sense. On the street before work, just for a minute, I had to stop walking the other day. I was thinking of going. Amazing. Fantastic. I guess I am a hedonist.

Blood River - by Mike Semrad

Welcome to this well oiled machine
Where the poison of heartache is amongst us
Old mans leg is dangling through the bridge that we have built
To save us from the skies cry

We built up this bridge so long and high
So our children and theirs won’t ask why

Blood River

Tonight we watch out the window at the rain
We watched it rise up and go back down again
Down to the valley to soak in the lines
Where the harvest grows as high as the pines
The bridge we built holds strong through the weather
Cause the blood we shed holds it together

We built up this bridge so long and high
So we don’t get swept down the valley where the forgotten souls lie

Black Record - by Mike Semrad

Spin old black record so I can see light
To walk through the crystals in the deep of the night
Like a german I march to through a city in pain
To catch my way home on the west Lincoln train

A scream from the hollow that tickle the tracks
The pier of the gypsy in a Hollywood plague
The Voice in the west is a pawn in the game
Of chaos and math and exercised fame

Pay the price to let the bell toll
The people don’t work, for it strengthens there soul
I’ll give you some gold to see what you do
Let your voice spray til the wicked is through

Oh on top of the bricks and the mud
I see my way down to the streets filled with blood
As God as my witness he lowers his face
To pull out a smoke from his cigarette case

His eyes lift with trouble, with a shimmering spin
He peers through the lights at the City of Sin
$300 hundred dollars for a triangle glance
while a talented mother just waits for her chance

July, 2007

Black Mud Survival - by Mike Semrad

Gotta a call from my superior-said the rap sheets in on me

He said, "you'll be eating from the ice-box...we've got all that we
need".

I focused all my anger and my heart was beating fast-

I just mumbled what we needed to make the winter last......

a cold drink of coffee and I'm looking for my net

%(with Industrial Decline I'd bet this to all happen again)%

I'm the candidate for failure if you read the racing form

the track is made of concrete and my racing shoes have worn.

The Cowboys on the side throwing rocks and makin' bets

and the canopy of steel still holds me by my head.

While the cold behind the clouds says: the money almost gone.

While the Champ is in the circle mouthing the Champions song...

The Match Factory is bleeding from the blades that we have thrown

the blades just keep a comin' cause the fleet has always grown.

Sweetheart take my trumpet and sell it on the web, I got melodies
o'plenty
dancin' in my head.

If we need the money we'll take it while we can-

the basket man at the Church I'm sure he'll understand

We got worms up in the freezer and the rockets on the rack

if you sell my items baby, I'll someday get em' back

We'll live upon the river in the cold and bitter grey

at night we'll sing to naked trees with our hot pot in the sway

Cause for me it's the idea of reliving as you go-

as the pictured soldier on the wall- the meaning changes as you grow.

Semrad 04-14-05