Bakersfield

I won't go back to Bakersfield

My friend died there, I loved him too much

Incompetence, tubes and wires

Indifference, fools and liars

Aggravate, regulate, resuscitate

suffocated him

While Scully danced over the airwaves

Scully danced over the airwaves

I won't go back to Bakersfield

My friend died there, I loved him too much

Wrinkled young men are shuffling along like

dirty grey ghosts wearing fitted soiled sheets

on a wet mirage street

looking for green gangrenous feet

that will lead them to liquor stores

or unemployment offices

grunt work and whores

or unenjoyment offices

In the morning they gurgle out of

spoiled rancid visions and cabbage pods

They have one mission only

because their kind are lonely

cross the border, take us over, make us over

rake us over the coals

While Scully surfs over the heatwaves

Scully skips over the new graves

Crusty skinned phantoms

pocked-marked and drifting

like the shifting pallid sand here

beneath their tendrils

These down-payment dreamers

of small flat-roofed houses

and harsh vacant lots full of milkweed and dust

stinkbugs and rust

animal excrement

and murder evidence

They built an air conditioned mall there

against sand paper winds blowing out of the west

famous for their coffee and mudpie

flamingoes pink, and pinkeye,

Merle Haggard, corn dog batter, shoots and ladders

all in tatters now

While Scully hangs over the freeways

Scully's ignoring the new age

I won't go back to Bakersfield

My friend died there, I loved him too much

See the nomads wandering in the desert moonlight

the Chosen Ones moving like great ancient turtles

They're going in circles with their holy referrals

eating manna from Wendy's

and God is with them

but I won't be there

God is with them

but I won't be there

though it's the same as any other place,

there's too much smog around my face

and I won't cry there

no I won't die there

While Scully danced over the airwaves....