Skip Spence

Skip Spence, hobo boy, homeless

   in the wake of Moby Grape,

       got outta jail, rode a Harley south

            and made an album in a heartbeat

                 (or a week, makes you weep).

Ironic your masterpiece LP called Oar

    left you up the creek

      (without proverbial)’

         and every instrument

             you played brought you further

                from the place,

                  place where you could have been...

and not astray. 

Alex Spence, used an axe,

     attacked his bandmates,

          New York bad night

            hotel horrors. With a witch

               that turned his mind

                   on to darker things

                       and never got better,

                          never ever.

Do you think, maybe,

we could be friends,

    he asked obliquely-

       his song -

          our loss.