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Saturday, April 13, 2024

Poem/Lyric of the Day | Don Van Vliet [Captain Beefheart] - Man With The Woman Head (1973)

The Captain


'Man with the Woman Head' - Don Van Vliet 1973. 


The man with the woman head

Polynesian wallpaper made the face stand out,

a mixture of Oriental and early vaudeville jazz poofter,

forming a hard, beetle-like triangular chin much like a praying mantis.

Smoky razor-cut, low on the ear neck profile.

The face the color of a nicotine-stained hand.

Dark circles collected under the wrinkled, folded eyes,

map-like from too much turquoise eyepaint.

He showed his old tongue through ill-fitting wooden teeth,

stained from too much opium, chipped from the years.

The feet, brown wrinkles above straw loafers.

A piece of coconut in a pink seashell caught the tongue

and knotted into thin white strings.

Charcoal grey Eisenhower jacket zipped and tucked into a lotus green ascot.

A coil of ashes collected on the white-on-yellow daks.

Four slender bones with rings and nails

endured the weight of a hard fast black rubber cigarette holder.

I could just make out Ace as he carried the tray and mouthed,

“You cheap son of a bitch”

as a straw fell out of a Coke, cartwheeled into the gutter.

So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood,

So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood,

So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood.

1973


Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

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