31 Comments
User's avatar
Barbara Humphrey's avatar

How beautiful. I had a love late in life. We both came to each other scarred from the past and we used what we had to take on the world. He died and I am left to grieve, to cry, to find a way to take up the fight. I hope a musician puts these lyrics to music.

Expand full comment
Jim Prues's avatar

Like all of us in this corrupt culture - wounded, confused and with little hope. May light come to our broke-ass culture and a new day dawn...

Expand full comment
sherry spetre's avatar

I am a musician Caitlin. I just received a band new semi-hollow body Fender Telecaster guitar as an early birthday gift. If I can do this lyric justice, I'd be happy to give it a go.Peace and Love

Expand full comment
Signme Uplease's avatar

Wowzer! Do you realize how truly awesome this is??!! Both the image and words. I desperately hope somebody takes you up on your suggestion to put it to music.

Expand full comment
JCStudResDoc94's avatar

truly beautiful. -JC

Expand full comment
John Bernard's avatar

It's as lovely as it's funny - I hope it gets set to music and is wildly successful - deserves to be.

Expand full comment
bigfatpop's avatar

Seriously, beautiful. I have a weird mental block with poems vs lyrics. If you had said it was a poem, you'd lost me before reading. Again, beautiful.

Expand full comment
Josh Scandlen's avatar

Me too. Poems? Not me.

Lyrics? Definitely me.

Makes no sense of course

Expand full comment
David Ryan's avatar

AMEN 🙏 🙏 🙏

Expand full comment
Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

This sounds post-apocalytic - violence as way of life, and even constructed as love. It works because we all recognize, in spite of the hype to the contrary, that we live in an pre- apocalypse world, everything is geared to it, accepting of it. Instead of a society of cooperating equals we live and work alongside competitors, like jackals fighting over the remains of a carcass the elites or strongman element have had the better part of. The end result of that system is chaos and barbarism. The poem captures that ethos perfectly.

Expand full comment
Marta Solomon's avatar

Will forward to the Kerrville Folkmusic Festival coming up in May Memorial Wknd - they will WANT some copyrights and on THIS case, I want you to seize the rights too! Thanks.

Expand full comment
Susan Mercurio's avatar

Caitlin never copyrights her work. She shares it with the world.

Expand full comment
Josh Scandlen's avatar

Love to hear John Hiatt put this to music. John Prine too (Rip)

Expand full comment
Josh Scandlen's avatar

Holy crap! Where did these lyrics come from? There is no way this isn’t from above.

And to think many people have robbed themselves from actually hearing the Supernatural Being, God.

Expand full comment
Josh Scandlen's avatar

Holy crap! Where did these lyrics come from? There is no way this isn’t from above.

And to think many people have robbed themselves from actually hearing the Supernatural Being, God.

Expand full comment
Corneilius's avatar

HI Caitlin,

A friend sent me your lyrics.

Wrote and sang it this way.

https://soundcloud.com/coreluminous/lao-sue-lyrics-by-caitlin-johnstone?

Expand full comment
rob's avatar

wow, the running dialogue in my head of the last 5 years, turned to prose in song form - beautiful. The title is the cherry on top, perfect.

Expand full comment
Pauline P Schneider's avatar

I love this!

Expand full comment