Put down the apples Make up your mind Some old man once told me that you're not the leaving kind anymore You might beat on the drums with matchsticks Stand up on your chair A younger man did tell me there's a different world out there Where we can ride If you'll tie up both your laces and decide But as you do your buttons And kick away the snow You should listen to your mother, She says, everywhere you go That the Milwaukee blues will find you And the crickets will remind you of the door The woven scrim will set in Like the oak leaves that you let in on the floor And this time it's sticking 'round When I was nine and twenty I knew a girl like you She'd throw open the windows Whenever a cold wind blew down from the west One day we two were walking Down a brick lane by the Seine A white dog walked behind us, Except he'd disappear just when I turned around All the same, his paws did make that clicking sound I never saw that woman fluster Or shed a single tear But when she left that morning, She whispered right into my ear That the Milwaukee blues would drive me To the creekbed and deprive me of my rest All the fences will be broken But I'll lack the key to open up the chest And this time it won't be found Now that I am older I don't scare with such ease When a cat comes scratching at my door I'll make her ask me please before I let her in The raindrops on the tin roof make a din But the Milwaukee blues sit silent Like a mantelpiece, compliant, over the fire Its teeth have all been busted Since its poetry fell rusted along the wire And this time it's staying down

Well, I said, the night was cold, And now the sun is growing old Above the street lights and the trees The evening wears a sandstone crown, So you dress up, I'll dress down And we'll make a spiral in the breeze Nine A.M. to noon was mine, But you stepped out of a cello line While I was looking for a friend And on the afternoon that we Went sailing on the dried-up sea, You gave me a look I wanted to see again But the tide was coming in & though it wore a lion's skin We slipped into its judgment like a stone And now I swim alone The desert sky was stripped and bare And you and I were standing where The distant mountain air slipped through the door The past was just potato stew And as I caught a glimpse of you I knew you were the poet we were looking for With the valley such a brilliant sight, I missed the girl just to your right, So now eighteen holes will rearrange Half was Texas swinging low The other half was in Mexico You and I, we never seen the change With the river switching ways I was losing track of the days And we slipped into their judgment like a stone And now I swim alone

June 19 was rusty About a quarter after three I walked up on the forty just to see what I could see The old well gazing dusty on the prairie dogs about Imagine my surprise when I saw someone climbing out First I see a bunch of fingers Then a pair of arms to match Soon enough, three more sets of limbs had sprung out of the hatch And four sun-kissed maidens stood beside me on the way Which one of them was loveliest I swear I could not say Where do you ladies come from and whither do you go These two are among the things that I would like to know But they had no answer to my questioning Instead they picked up their hands up high and they began to sing They said, all you need's an open sky And a kerosene lamp to see things by So throw on a pair of old blue jeans Never ask just what tomorrow means It's a beat-up guitar with the strings tuned low It's a forest up in Idaho And it might kill you if you let it in Olivia was laughing like she had someplace to go Kyri, she was winsome like an antique radio Allie wore a smile like she had a tale to tell And when I saw Keturah it was almost like I fell Right into an open sky With just a kerosene lamp to see things by Like I could throw on a pair of old blue jeans And never ask just what tomorrow means I was a hitchhiker on a moonlit street She was a meadow at 10,000 feet Though she might kill me if I let her in A pickup truck came rolling, Kyri said it was their ride Olivia jumped into the back with Keturah right beside That just left two of us lingering, circled by the pines So I whispered, pretty Allie, won't you tell me one more time She said, tomorrow is a seasick child It's a tomato vine strung in the wild It's a footstep on an overgrown trail The stars seen from a hilltop jail It's a carousel up on the moon It's the world streaking past your basement room It's a broken compass and a broken bone The whispers you hear when you're alone And you might kill it if you let it in

It's the wind, makes a mess of your old newspaper dress It's the rain late in the day, throws your storybooks away Were it not for things like these, we could be okay It's the sky rushing in til it meets the boardwalk bar It's the sound of wheels turning from the 47th car Were it not for things like these, I wouldn't stray so far So El Prado woman, open up your mind Those three stones that sing from the other side It's the judge that holds me back, it's the river that's on my mind It's the sight of the horizon dripping like a watermelon rind But for Hercules and the Oarsman, we would be just fine I've got a bird that whistles, I've got a bird that sings He speaks of distant countries, yeah he knows a thousand things But not which creek in Austin still bears the ring So El Prado woman, we should take it slow Let the three stones take you where the music wants you to go

Kelly don't cry it'll be alright The moon is shining oh so bright tonight on the San Agustin Plains I know it's lonesome on that hill One day soon together we'll intone our summertime refrains The Magdalena sunset will offer you this dance The water in the sequia will sweeten the expanse As we're glowing on the way into town As the Magdalena sun is coming down The Magdalena sunset will offer you this dance I knew that I loved you from the first Montana glance From your almond ashen evening smile Come through my window, Kelly, and stay a while