Banister · He's Laughing At Me · Joe

Joe drove an old rattling yellow station wagon
Joe swung by my bus stop mornings and I'd jump in
Joe could play acoustic guitar
"There was an Indian in the corner trying on my clothes"
Joe sang
Once when a hitchhiker threw an empty Marlboro box
from the car window Joe backed up on the bridge
and made the guy pick it up
"Pick it up" Joe said
Each time that station wagon made a turn all the empty beer cans
clattered
"It's got personality" Joe said
"Wooden ships on the water very pretty" Joe sang
Joe sported a sheep skin wine pouch
filled with warm Sangria
"Your friend with the purse is here" my father would say
in his Brooklyn accent when Joe knocked on the door
Joe had long hair
And that kick Joe was on - taking a puppy with us
everywhere we went
"To pick up bitches" Joe said
"L-O-L-A Lola" Joe sang
Joe started Ecology Action of Hollywood in 1971
Joe tried to get the community to recycle
but they wouldn't listen
So he hitch hiked to New Orleans and pulled
a knife on Jeremy for trying to fuck Janice
"I hear your black man comin round" Joe sang
Joe could stay awake all weekend
I fell asleep standing up in the lumberyard
Joe voted for McGovern
I slept with Sissy in his room filled
with Bob's Barricades
those blinking yellow lights
we stole off the side of the road
One night Joe and I picked up two girls from Barry University
and bought a bag of pot
A cop pulled us over because Joe
was driving down Hollywood Boulevard with no lights
Joe did a lot of talking
Still the girls were only late getting back to the dorm
"You can tell everybody this is your song" Joe sang
Joe's steady girl was Janice and Joe's other steady girl was Donna
Donna was a singer from Ohio who spoke with an English accent
We never knew why
"Suzanne takes you down to a place by the river" Donna sang
She drove a white Volkswagen bug
Joe had a favorite question he'd ask if you disagreed with him
"Who are you for me or Nixon?"
We never said Nixon
"Lets go to wanna-wanna land" Joe said
We picked up hitchhikers on the way
Minnie Mouse and Olive Oil
Sissy and I ran naked through the orange grove
while everyone looked for firewood
Full moon and the orange trees went on forever
It smelled like the Garden of Eden only with the Jefferson Airplane
providing the music
"Remember what the door mouse said" Joe sang
I got all C's on my report card and
lost my virginity in the back of Joe's station wagon
at the Highway 10 Drive-In across from the airport
We went to see four Clint Eastwood movies with six bottles of Apple wine
By August Sissy rented an apartment all the way over in Hallandale with
Jeanette and Donna
"Are you gonna marry Sissy Are you gonna give her your ring?"
Joe asked sarcastically drunk
"So goodnight you moonlight ladies" Joe sang laughing
in the blinking yellow lights
that summer

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