RODE HARD & PUT UP WET by Jeff Callaway

RODE HARD AND PUT UP WET
by Jeff Callaway

i've been rode hard
and put up wet a many a night
by dirty gin martinis
by fine moonshine
by the crucifix neon signs
of the bible belt of East Texas
where the liquor is always thicker
in one of those wet counties
and it always seems to find me quicker
over on the other side of the tracks
but back to what i was saying
i've been rode hard and put up wet
a many a night...

i've seen the likes of mystics
madmen
six naked men on bikes
in downtown San Francisco
i've seen the likes of speedfreak succubus angels
creeping like snakes inside my beer bottles
listening to Radiohead, reggae
redneck romantics
who had also been rode hard and put up wet
i've written poems which i've put away
until now
and poems i put to you
today...

i've seen the rain
from a train
from a Greyhound window
from a plane
i've seen the night inked in a blanket of fog
and i've sat and admired the moon from a hollow log
i've rolled my bones and joints
through cellar doors
through the Celis Brewery
through the celestial stars over California beaches
i love to eat the sweetest little peaches
i've read at Big Sur
i've loved English teachers
i love the sea
i love this poem that rages in me
i've combed the seashores
i've slept on floors
i've been locked behind bars and i've been free
i've been in a horrible mad raging sea
i've slept under the trees
i've watched evil TV's
and i've seen
the sunrise the sunset
and all of these wonderful people i've met
who have also been
rode hard and put wet...

i've been drunk and just went to bed
i've been underfed
i've had sex drenched in sweat and i've bled
i've thought for sure that i was dead
i've thought for sure the sun would not rise again
and i've made friends and i've made love
i've cried and prayed to the lord up above
i've felt and held in the beds of my lovers
endless nights of soft flesh
wrapped in covers
under Texas skies
beside cheerleader's thighs
in smoky rooms
the scent of northern lights
and i've made love on through the night
and into the day
but what i really wanted to say
was i've been rode hard and put up wet
a many a night...