Instead of keeping a diary like a serious writer, I used to write songs.  Kayo generally approved of the comments I made on his behalf to reporters, but what he approved of most was my telling them “No comment.”  

Note to Robbie Peele

You asked me about Welfare Fraud
All I saw was very poor
victims of the drug war
no comment 

Ask me about Diane
‘s daughter or the mayor’s plan
On behalf of Hallinan:
no comment 

Ask me about runways
runninway deeper into the bay
what would David Brower say?
No comment no comment no comment

911

Willie Brown took the American flag
Turned it into a shopping bag
Come on baby let’s go downtown
City Lights, a drink at Specs
Have some Chinese food or Mex
And spread a few dollars around

Gray Davis told the National Guard
Stand on the bridge and look real hard
At every SUV Frisco bound
Might be nothing you can do
But the camo’d sight of you
Will spread a few dollars around

Terrorists try to spread gloom
Patriots go out and consume

Rudy went to ground zero,
turned into a national hero
Only yesterday he was a clown
Talks the talk, walks the walk,
Come on to New Yawk New Yawk
And spread a few dollars around

George Bush is shrewd and bold
Don’t talk down to an 8-year old
About the evildoers underground
Take a pen, write a card
To a pen pal in Kandahar
Spread a few dollars around

Congress votes billions more
Whatever it takes gotta win the war
And keep the economy sound
Pay by card, pay by check
It’s all made in China so what the heck
Let’s spread a few dollars around

Prophets can propagate fear
Profits give us reasons to cheer

Willie Brown took the American flag
Turned it into a shopping bag
Come on baby let’s go downtown
Buy a bike, buy a yacht
Bring your card for medical pot
Spread a few dollars around
and around and around and around…

No Comment 2

No comment on if they’re together
Can’t say if he’s into leather
your persistent, I’m consistent
no comment

No comment concerning personnel
the budget? Too soon to tell
Terms of the deal remain concealed
No comment

journalists are digging in for leads
The pitcher’s no comment has three speeds

No comment on the Act-Up faction
no comment on the fucked-up action
to matier and ross on behalf of the boss
no comment

No comment on if there was a threat
to Kimberly or to the vet
From Pelican Bay I can earnestly say
no comment

Rob Selna, Rob Roth, Bob Melrose
I can handle any question they might pose

No comment while they’re still at large
can’t say what the DA will charge
That wild scene in Department 19?
No comment

Haul of Justice

There’s a big gray building Eight-fifty it’s called
In the name of justice, that’s where people get hauled

Thirty judges in their courtrooms, two floors for the cops
Plus the sheriff, the DA, the morgue, and the jail on top.

They say “good guys” and “bad guys,” white hats and black
Walk into any courtroom, any morning, who’s sitting in back?

Eight hundred and fifty that’s how many tears
The average person’s gonna cry when they walk in here

At Café Roma the defenders and the DAs dance
It’s a dispo disco, they know the steps, nothing’s left to chance

Eight-fifty days away from my wife
Eight-fifty days away from my life

(The Hall of Justice was at 850 Bryant St. Dispo = disposition, the terms by which a case was settled.)

 

Every Gradation of Gray

Undercover cops working the Haight
nod and look quickly away
I’m window shopping in a mist of dismay 
And everything is every gradation of gray

I’m a vintage man in a vintage store 
I’m ready and willing to pay
For a brown Borsalino seven and an eighth 
But everything is gray

The telephone lines are dripping like pines 
The waves are throwing off spray
The city’s cold fist is clenched in the bay 
And everything is gray

Even the music they sell on CDs 
And the clubs so loud and gay
And the lillies and tulips the florists display
Every blossom is gray

A fast shallow creek slides down the street 
Where Lyon lies down on Clay
Goodbye San Francisco I’m leaving today 
When everything is every gradation of gray.