Barstool Blues

[J Hillenburg]

Barstool Blues




You discovered me when I still believed

that my fate was to be a confusing minister of doom.

Finding myself less than intact, you sought to relieve

yourself from responsibilities, your heart remained a secret room.

You can find me here in a place of hesitations

where I play every game I am guaranteed to lose.

I sing of my love, with every rhyme I honor my relations,

and try to make some beauty from my barstool blues.


I hear new days coming, see a resolution of vision

satisfying all those who could never seem to see.

I stride forth free of meter, or rhymed decision,

blessing each and every ghost no matter who they claim to be.

So many pray for information I cannot provide, cannot reveal,

but they press me for knowledge, they tighten the screws.

Now I know my music, but seem unable to feel

any relation to a man who a man who lived with barstool blues.


Here, this drink is yours, I believe that I’ll chase

her windy figure disappearing through the cloud-capped plains.

I had followed her to towers, and quickly lost face

when I knelt to her every whim until nothing else remained.

Hold on to me now, I think I see a world returning

that will stop everything without providing any clue.

I have been devoted to fractured loves, and unreasonable yearnings

for yet one more glimpse of my barstool blues.