Oh, baby, maybe it’s 1974 Or 2002, 2016 It’s everything in between Even still Heaven on earth in a few different ways The dune grass grows high 1995 The lake rises toward the corroding shore Year after year, worn thin 2 AM Come touch my skin, it’s just me Hours Walks to the Great Lake pits Midday heat Cabanossi on the beach Children with goggles Searching for curnoids Frizzy glass for children's treasures Child luck Pure joy Eternity and friends Big sticks Hands of smaller boys Think This land, my land Endless This grass, my grass Restless Eternal delicacy Unbridled imagination This hill, my hill My post My station Welcome to vacation The storm rolls in with thick wet air Thunder electric moves hectic Up the hill and through the gate The whole world pauses trepidly And we all think As dawn cracks into daybreak As the bridge games fold in night’s wake As the candy passed out gets eaten As the youngest children, reluctant, begin dreaming As clumsy lovers start their kissing As the world knows not what it’s missing As the mothers give their blessings As the boys get into trouble The thunder rumbles The train horn cuts through the night Like butter knife Like the lighthouse Where you and I Just two ships passing in the night Lightning cracks again Electric This is pure Michigan Bonfires at night Our joie de vivre Our lust for life Little stars in jammed jars Loud men with hot cigars The Big Dipper dips to its dawn You and I Wine-drunk on the shore Blue jeans Sneakers filled with sand Speak, poetry, philosophy The song that never ends And, and If I died now, I’d die happy Years go by Days all melt together This must be the endless summer BMX bikes Long orange train tracks Kids smoking candy cigarettes Sneaking into the old hotel Spooked ecstatic Wills elastic Board games Boring movies Rain falls hard and loud The living room overbrimming With kids stealing money in Monopoly Oh, baby, baby There’s a storm a-brewin’ Humid air, heavy air Thunder rolls in Waves start churning White caps Hands clasped I won’t refuse Just ask Green grass Asphalt black roads That turn to dirt roads with potholes That we feel on bike rides Through evenings with the promise of Blue Moon ice cream From the Pumpernickel Inn Just down the street And these streets, tree-lined Wind from small town to small town Up the hill To buy fruit from the stand Jackson’s Fruit Stand The Promised Land Just before the ice cream store Where wood smiles And the wherewithal You think is This is pure Michigan Oh This is pure Michigan Evening falls with consequence Tomato soup Dill and rice Bobsh’s bread Dinner around two tables Bent to hug her for attention Cake tin Generational distress Coming to your head Scarred by sin Scarred Marked by imperfections Families fighting Praying Staying up late An old green van Drives drunk into the night A circle of prayer Guides it to the light Kiss me Come kiss me You mean the world to me The whole world You mean everything to me Come kiss me Summer’s heat Broken glass Playing the trash The classics on guitar Meteor showers Summer crushes The song that never ends I’ll just run down Take a piss out in the bushes Let’s go take a piss out in the bushes Pour your dreams out What’s the rush Fill me up I swear I'm tough I’ll be your mirror Made of light