I AM PIPELINE

The pleasure’s mine,

To greet you hail from high, boreal land

Where live elk, lynx and Athabasca man—

And old King Midas hides his head in sand.

I AM PIPELINE

The pleasure’s mine.

I AM PIPELINE

See me shine:

A solid, silver-plated lightning bolt;

A long-mane, open-country coursing colt;

The eyes of man-making youth in revolt,

I AM PIPELINE

See me shine.

I AM PIPELINE

Earth is mine.

I drink the darkest, deepest, devilish blood;

I move the tarry, turbid, treacly mud;

Ancient oil-converted grass I chew as cud.

I AM PIPELINE

Earth is mine.

I AM PIPELINE

Take your time,

If dare you wrest it from my steely grasp;

I own the future because I drain the past;

My body long will my short soul outlast.

I AM PIPELINE

Take your time.

I AM PIPELINE

It’s a crime

To leave a single penny in the ground;

To get by on less when there’s more around;

To restrain yourself when not strictly bound.

I AM PIPELINE

It’s a crime.

I AM PIPELINE

God’s own spine.

I’m profit, power, principality.

I fly heaven.  Hell gets its heat from me.

I rule the land beyond what sight can see.

I AM PIPELINE

God’s own spine.

I AM PIPELINE

Today’s shrine.

What comes down tomorrow’s not my concern.

I’ll suck unctuous praise till I lose my turn.

Then I’ll rust away, dry-rotten and spurned.

I AM PIPELINE

Today’s shrine.