| Yesterday, I was working in my yard when I saw a possum
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| Swinging in the foothills and he was all beat up and hobbling
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| I got a closer look and his foot was mangled
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| I was woken up earlier by what I thought was the cat tangled
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| But it was him who got it bad from the cat that night
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| Slowly down the hill when he slipped under the fence
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| I brought myself up to check him out; |
| he found a nook under the air conditioner
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| I pointed him out to Caroline, she crouched down and he was shaking and full of
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| fear
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| And when she stood up, I asked, «Baby, why you crying?»
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| She said, «Because he’s cute and he’s down there and he’s dying»
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| I went up to my room and I got a call from Justin
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| He was in San Francisco and Godflesh was playing
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| Caroline drove me halfway there where I met Tony
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| And we drove to the city and we parked out in front of the DNA
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| Justin and us, we had some laughs and we took photographs backstage
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| And our guts were protruding and all of them and we just kept laughing and
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| laughing
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| and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing
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| Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and
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| laughing
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| Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and
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| laughing
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| Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and
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| laughing
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| And when Godflesh took the stage, Tony and I, we stood there floored
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| Drum machines hammered and feedback blazed
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| For a moment, everybody grew silent
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| While Justin tuned his guitar; |
| like a church, it got so quiet
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| Just for a minute, and then they all soared together
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| Like a car off a cliff, we crashed and burned over and over and again and again
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| They threw hard vicious guttural B-flats that shook their opponent
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| Like a tough Roberto «Hands of Stone"Durán in the seventh round
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| Davey Moore June 16, 1983
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| Godflesh ran that line like an early Mark «Gator» Rogowski
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| Justin lunged at the mic like a hungry great white
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| He was on fire, giving it everything he had and killing it that night!
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| Tearing out his prey and it came to a screeching halt
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| A relentless and beautiful voice, a 70 minute assault
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| And then he bowed down and he set his seven string electric guitar down
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| And screeched to holy hell and they disappeared and off went the crowd
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| Then we had pizza and I came back to my apartment in the city
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| Until 4AM, I watched movies and my ears were ringing
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| And I called Caroline out at the house
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| We talked about the concert, about the possum down in the nook
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| And the ocean air came through my window
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| And the sound of foghorns, and then when I woke
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| Godflesh was down in LA
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| Tony had an open house that day
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| And I looked out at Sausalito
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| And Caroline was on her way back from Lake Tahoe
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| I got a call from Paolo Sorrentino
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| I’d be off to Switzerland in a week or so
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| Caroline came home that night and we had dinner and watched HBO
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| And I’m grateful for her love and for my friends
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| And to have seen the possum walk its last walk among the ivy
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| I want to grow old and to walk the last walk
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| Knowing that I, too, gave it everything I got
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| But again it’s all roadblocks and all obstacles I fought
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| For to live another day is much better than to not
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| And I’d like to die with music in my ears
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| The piano of Maurice Ravel or Godflesh’s guttural growls from hell
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| The sound that evokes good memories of being young and able to get around
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| And I’d like Caroline beside me
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| That old possum lost the fight
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| His sad, black eyes; |
| what a thing to see on a glowing Easter Sunday
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| But that rodent was loved and he’s still thought of
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| Church bells rang that day
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| I remember hearing them in the afternoon just as we left
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| He had to have heard them too |