Due to an unforeseen tanking of my old employer, I was recently laid off. Or that’s what appears to be the case. It’s not the point and unearthing the mystery is no longer my focus or interest. Clearly, I would rather concentrate on a stick.
My son and I found a piece of driftwood recently and I thought it would be a good idea to explore it as fully and creatively as possible. So I turned it into a piece of folk art and a song. That’s what happens when you give a dork too many idle hours to burn. Maybe I should work on an interpretive dance piece and a short experimental film with subtitles.
Here’s the stick, before and after.
Below are the song lyrics with the demo attached at the bottom. It was recorded in the bathroom with my iPhone perched on the laundry hamper, with a nary a production value in sight. I suggest finding a clip of Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” as a bookend and palate cleanser.
***
Mr. Wood
It started from a living tree
Beside a creek that feeds the sea
The wind and rain and tides and time
Teamed up to shape this stick of mine
We found it in the park that day
Where my son and I had gone to play
Along the path out in the grass
The little stick picked up at last
Mr. Wood, would it be OK with you if we took you home?
Why stick around out on the ground?
You don’t have to be alone
The longer I looked at the shape
there was something strange beneath the grain
A mouth agape a vacant eye
A design distinctly serpentine
Nothing is immune to change
What is here today will be rearranged
But with a little paint and a little time
The little stick came back to life
Mr. Wood, how does it feel to end up as an eel in our home?
No more sleeping out on the cold damp ground
and you’ll never have to be alone.
Lunaphyte 