Running Through Chinese Poem Song Lyrics & Chords By Warren Zevon

O I today
Sad as Chu Yuan
Stumbled to the store
In broiling Florida October
Morning heat cursing
For my wine, sweating
Like rain, & came to my chair
Weak & trembling
Wondering if I'm crazy at last
- O Chu Yuan! No!
No suicide! Wine please wine!
What shall we all do
All knowing we're dying
Without wine to guide us
To winking at death
& life too --
My heart belongs
To Chinese poets
& their scrolls
We cant just die
--Men need wine
& poetry
at least
O Mao, poet Mao,
Not Boss Mao,
Here in America
Wine is laughed at
& poetry a joke
--Death's a grim reminder
to everybody already dead
crashing in cars all around here-
Here men & women dryly scowl
At poets' sad attempts
To make our lot
Lesser-
I, a poet, suffer
Even for bugs
I find upsidedown
Dying in the grass-
So I drink wine
Alone-
I shudder to think
How dead
The astronauts
Are
Going to a dead
Moon
Of no wine
All our best men
Are laughed at
In this nightmare land
But the newspapers preen
In virtue-Throughout
The world the left & right,
The east & west, are both vicious-
The happy old winebibber is gone-
I want him to reappear-
For Modern China preens
In virtue too
For no better reason
Than America-
Nobody has respect for the cat
Asleep, and I am hopelessly
Inadequate in this poem
-Nobody has respect
for the self centered
irresponsible wine invalid
-Everybody wants to be strapped
in a hopeless space suit
where they cant move
-I urge you, China,
go back
to Li Po &
Tao Yuan Ming
What am I talking about?
I don't know,
I'm sick today-
I didn't sleep all night,
Walked stumbling in the field
To get wine, now I'm drinking it,
I feel better and worse-
I have something to say to Mao
& the poets of China
that wont come out-
It's all about how America
Ignored poetry & wine,
& so does China,
& I'm a fool
without a river & a boat
& a flower suit-
without a wineshop at dawn
-Without self respect-
-
-Without the truth-
but I'm a better man
than all of you-
that's what I
wanted to say