THIS BUD OSBORN POEM IS ALSO THE SONG LYRICS FOR THE FIRST TRACK ON THE MUSIC CD, HUNDRED BLOCK ROCK (GET TO THE POINT RECORDS, 1999).

here I am
amazingly alive
tried to kill myself twice
by the time I was five
sometimes it's hard to take one more breath
inside this north american
culture of death

big big trouble
from the time I was born
lots of people get stripped
right to the bone
say nobody's gonna
touch me anymore
if I'm gonna live
gonna be a cutthroat whore
can't touch my heart
can't touch my soul
yah I know all about
this north american
culture of horror

but here we are
amazingly alive
against long odds
left for dead
lazarus couldn't have been
more shocked than me
to have been brought back
from the dead

a judge said to me
I was of no use
no use at all to society
but I got news
news for him
a society of bullshit
bullshit and greed
ain't no damn use
ain't no use to me

this hotshot head shrink
at a locked-up nuthouse
told me I was so
totally hopeless
so far out
and so fucked up
nothing could ever
wake my life up
but I got news for him
today
I'm so amazingly alive
I'm dancin
dancin on my own grave

had knives at my throat
thrown from a car had my back broke
gun pointed at my heart
lay bleedin to death
in a dark city park
been o.d.ed so bad make a doctor mad
lookin at me said
you're still alive
how can that be?
said I don't know why I'm alive except I don't want to be
but I got news
for that doctor too
right now I'm so alive
feelin so free
doctor your science ain't nothin
behind this
mystery

so here we are amazingly alive
against long odds
and left for dead
inside a culture teachin ten thousand ways
ways to die
before we're dead
but here we are
amazingly alive

I used to hate it
hate
hate wakin up
say not another damn day shit make it all go away
woke up one day
wearin a straitjacket
locked in a padded cell
thought I was dead and buried
deep in hell
but today I wok up
sayin got me one more
one more day never thought I'd have before

so I'm dancin
first thing
this brand new morning
dancin first thing
to otis redding
dancin with a woman
in my arms
naked in sunshine
naked in the breeze
these arms of mine
wrapped around her
lord have mercy
her arms around me

I used to wake up
so low and mean
so down and out
wake up most days now
I say shout
shout with my heart
and shout with my eyes
shout with my balls
and shout with my feet
shout with my fingers
and shout with my soul
shout for life
more abundantly
shout for all
hard-pressed messed-with human beings
shout my last breath
shout fuck this north american culture of death

had to stop runnin
face my pain
stop killin myself
face my pain
my pain was lightning
comin down like rain
but facin me
only way I found
to start gettin free
gettin free of
north america
inside of me
gettin free of this death culture
drivin me

so here I am
here we are
amazingly alive
against long odds
left for dead
north america
tellin lies
in our head
make you feel like shit
better off dead

so most days now
I say shout
shout for joy
shout for love
shout for you
should for us
shout down this system
puts our souls in prison

say shout for life
shout with our last breath
shout fuck this north american culture of death

shout here we are
amazingly alive
against long odds
left for dead
shoutin this death culture
dancin this death culture
out of our heads

amazingly alive