my nose is runny
and my head is achin
my liver is swellin
and my spine is breakin
im full of gas
and my belly hurts
my hernia is having
a watermelon growth spurt
feels like i been drinkin
liquid rust
from my mouth to my butt
runs a dynamite crust
im losing the tendons
in my legs and arms
they say the snap in my chest
was a false alarm


chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid


you can go to mars
but you cant come back
throw a line in the river
give it some slack
of course you feel shitty
youre 85 years old
get something to sit in
take a valium and a lexipro
step out of your life
into another sphere
now that you
got nothin left here
you expect to lay your burdon down
and trouble will be light
but the clouds are gettin heavy
and dark is the night


chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid


im sick to death in living
in the big city
the roads are full of holes
and the pizza is shitty
it takes too long for anyone
to get anywhere
and there is nothing worth
the time it takes to get there
when i leave my house
i want to be where i am going
dont wanna drive half an hour
for a drink and a boe-ing
or two hours at best
to get a blood test

chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid


i never used to worry about
the market's phony stock
my only self concern
was the action on my block
what time the bars would open
if i had money for a drink
who could keep their mouths shut
and who was bound to fink
i used to cross the border
just by wearing different hats
these days im at the mercy
of pocket-picking bureaucrats
in a country that dont even have
a government that functions
id like to be the one
who dishes out exteme unctions

chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid


getting pelted with the split guts
of carnality
garrotted by the steel trap
of the king's morality
Andrew Vachss has died
but now still is his time
let us take up his sword
save the kids from sex crime
Life isnt worth
A syphletic sore
when kids are chained in the cave
of the minotaur
abused like trained dogs
who do tricks for a bone
then thrown back into the cave
because they stink up their home

chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid

rich folks got no cause
to rob a bank
all the money in there
is theirs anyway
since people with no money
still got to eat
the cops assume
they will rob the man in the street
and before he does the crime
the judge will make him do the time
nobody gets a pass
because the poor are the criminal class

chalk it up
chalk it up to what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid

when i was five years old
and lived in the projects
i was chased and assaulted
by kids of many colors
i never had a one on one
with a kid of a different skin
it was always a gang making circles on me
gettin in my face with a mean-ass grin
by the time i hit my teenage years
i was standing side by side
with the kids i used to think were my enemies
the kids who made me run and hde
now dont go callin anyone a racist
just because they be black or white
you tinsult the memory of the martyrs
who fell in the good fight
weve made a lot of progress
over the last 50 years
and we dont hypocritical media
spreading lies of ignorance and fear
we still got a long hard row to hoe
in our struggle for human rights
and when you say we're moving backwards
you murder martin twice

chalk it up
chalk it up o what?
you bloody well know what
chalk it up to covid