bad tom waits song imitation napowrimo surprise

xvii/xxx: WARS AND WELLS

Handsome as an ax
Through a history of ice.
Scribble your condolences;
I wrote your number down on mine.

I lent a drag of Lucky Strike
To the son of Jesus Christ.
Marigolds and piccolos
Been bothering me all night.

Everyone's so friendly here:
It's a beggar's hand's wet dream.
But I think I lost my opera specs
When somebody's parrot sneezed.

Muddy, muddy ship
Won't you bring me home my son?
I've fever dreams of wars and wells,
But I have not my little one.

I slept with my landlord
When he came to fix the fridge.
So he wouldn't find the crucifix
Out in the hawthorn hedge.

He stole and sold my sailor's boots
And I tracked him back to Maine.
We made up in the snowy pines,
But it ruined his good name.

Now I'm fixing sushi at
A bar in the Midwest.
No one even knows I'm here:
I grow my beard and make my bed.

Muddy, muddy ship
Won't you bring me home my son?
I've fever dreams of wars and wells,
But I have not my little one.

Frankie came to visit once,
That half besotted queen.
He wept upon my deerskin rug
And lapped up all my Irish cream.

I pawned him at the edge of town
For a blanket and a root beer float.
I sold his coat to Benny's kid
Who struts around like a baby doe.

But Frankie dear my only friend,
I miss the fear of your charade.
Home is how the cabbie man
Can point to where you're bleeding, babe.

Muddy, muddy ship
Won't you bring me home my son?
I've fever dreams of wars and wells,
But I have not my little one.

Brothers, won't you storm the gates
Of this lonely Kansas bar?
No one even knows my name,
But they know enough to talk.

***

Those waiting for dedicated poems, they are coming. Fear not. I have been singing this song thing in a Tom Waits voice at my workplace. Imagine the melody as any Tom Waits ballad ever. It should fit. Liberation!