Tom Waits: Thousand Bing Bangs

TW: She drove a big ol' Lincoln with suicide doors and a sewing machine
in the back
KN: Thousand bing bangs near the end. Nothing's ever what it was
TW: And a light bulb that looked like an alligator egg was mounted up
front on the hood
KN: Had myself a kind of brainstorm. Took a table spoon of buzz
TW: And she had a tattoo gun that she'd made herself from a cassette
motor and a guitar string
KN: X-ray eyes can see right through me. Naked thought, put on your
clothes
TW: And she always had leaves in her hair
KN: You hear that funny laughing? Just the caw of ancient crows
TW: And she cut two holes in the back of her dress, cause she had these
scapular wings
KN: Somewhere near the raveled edges, by the pool of Think-a-Bit
TW: And they were covered with feathers and electrical tape, and when
she got good and drunk she would sing
KN: Once again the notion hits me: Half is quite a bit of wit
TW: About Elkhart, Indiana, where the wind is tall and folks mind their
own business
KN: Power up that upper story. Ten percent is all you use
TW: And she had a hundred old baseballs that she'd taken from kids, and
she collected bones of all kinds
KN: Take a flight of simple fancy. You're the one who has to choose
TW: And she lived in a trailer under the bridge, and she made her own
whiskey and gave cigarettes to kids
KN: Okay. All right for you. Look into the tiger's eye
TW: And she'd been struck by lightning seven or eight times, and she
hated the mention of rain
KN: See if you can see the desert. Pour a drink, my throat is dry
TW: And she made up her own language and she wore rubber boots. She
could fix anything with string
KN: Poetry ain't gonna catch me. Climb up this high plateau
TW: And her lips were like cherries, and she was stronger than any man,
and she smelled like nutmeg and piss
KN: Finish up what you were thinking, just a day or so ago
TW: And she put mud on a bee sting I got at the crick, and she gave me
my very first kiss
KN: Illustrate for visionaries: Go buy a doodle pad. Basically