Running Through / Chinese Poem Song Warren Zevon (Ft. Michael Wolff)

O I today
Sad as Chu Yuan
Stumbled to the store
In broiling Florida October
Morning heat cursing
For my wine, sweating
Like rain, & came to my chair
Weak & trembling
Wondering if I'm crazy at last
- O Chu Yuan! No!
No suicide! Wine please wine!
What shall we all do
All knowing we're dying
Without wine to guide us
To winking at death
& life too --
My heart belongs
To Chinese poets
& their scrolls
We can't just die
--Men need wine
& poetry
At least
O Mao, poet Mao
Not Boss Mao
Here in America
Wine is laughed at
& poetry a joke
--Death's a grim reminder
To everybody already dead
Crashing in cars all around here-
Here men & women dryly scowl
At poets' sad attempts
To make our lot
Lesser-
I, a poet, suffer
Even for bugs
I find upsidedown
Dying in the grass-
So I drink wine
Alone-
I shudder to think
How dead
The astronauts
Are
Going to a dead
Moon
Of no wine
All our best men
Are laughed at
In this nightmare land
But the newspapers preen
In virtue-Throughout
The world the left & right
The east & west, are both vicious-
The happy old winebibber is gone-
I want him to reappear-
For Modern China preens
In virtue too
For no better reason
Than America-
Nobody has respect for the cat
Asleep, and I am hopelessly
Inadequate in this poem
-Nobody has respect
For the self centered
Irresponsible wine invalid
-Everybody wants to be strapped
In a hopeless space suit
Where they can't move
-I urge you, China
Go back
To Li Po &
Tao Yuan Ming
What am I talking about?
I don't know
I'm sick today-
I didn't sleep all night
Walked stumbling in the field
To get wine, now I'm drinking it
I feel better and worse-
I have something to say to Mao
& the poets of China
That won't come out-
It's all about how America
Ignored poetry & wine
& so does China
& I'm a fool
Without a river & a boat
& a flower suit-
Without a wineshop at dawn
-Without self respect-
-
-Without the truth-
But I'm a better man
Than all of you-
That's what I
Wanted to say