Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

RYAN ADAMS is known for his prolific nature, which in the last ten years has resulted in various international hit albums with his band The Cardinals, including Cardinology, Heartbreaker, Easy Tiger, and Gold (which includes the popular hit songs "When the Stars Go Blue" and "New York, New York"). Ryan has also produced Willie Nelson's Songbird album and contributed to records by Toots and the Maytals, Beth Orton, the Wallflowers, Counting Crows, and Cowboy Junkies. Additionally, he has appeared on CMT's Crossroads with Elton John. He is the author of the poetry collections Infinity Blues and Hello Sunshine.

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HELLOSUNSHINE

Akashic Books

Contents

Florida.............................................11Fruit-Rotting.......................................17Dope Camera.........................................22Bags................................................26Feverpitch..........................................29Numbers.............................................34Ok, Wow.............................................37I Am Standing on This Beach.........................39Smoking and Bug.....................................51Hover...............................................54Plus Dreams.........................................57Our Hearts, Okay....................................59Papercut-Sunrays....................................61No Mask.............................................63Fixtures Rot........................................65Ironing.............................................69Goodbye, New York City..............................70New Gods............................................75Back to Us..........................................77Windows.............................................78Full Tilt...........................................80Sparklers...........................................83Night Blooms Sweet..................................88Nonsmoking Dream....................................90Snowflakes, Curtains, and All.......................91Now I Sing My Life..................................93Go I................................................95Future/Past.........................................101FutureFucked........................................102What a Bad Idea.....................................103Me and Joan of Arc..................................105A Colorful Ending...................................109Flight Pattern......................................116Poets Smoke.........................................117The Bible Sold Lots, Didn't It?.....................121Repeat..............................................124Our Dreams Went South...............................126Help................................................130White Diamond.......................................132San Pedro Park Blues................................138Saturday............................................143Super Good/Keep Looking.............................146Smiling Like I Was New..............................149Whale Ships.........................................152Drift...............................................159Moon................................................161Good Things Too.....................................163Artificial Lights...................................165Why Not?............................................167Yes.................................................169Before That ........................................171California Forever..................................175Hellosunshine.......................................177Hi,.................................................180You're Sleeping Now, Yes?...........................182Bright as Stars.....................................184Like This, Us.......................................186Lucky...............................................189

Chapter One

florida lay there before us swollen this driver and me rolling into a sure ghetto neon jacksonville ghetto to get a car taxi was rattling smoke shot up with seats ripped we rolled into the lot and streetlamp-outlined men standing up in a row braced each on a corner body language loud saying listen they had it firearms street pharmaceuticals and when our eyes met palms blurred smokeburns electrical fires sky ripping those whitecotton clouds up in some deep-ass blue the too-deep sea never-going-to-see-land-again deep sky lost-at-sea deep sky blur just over there that i could see total anger moans calm rage lamps without shades drywall tears a history of night hours and in that moment some clenched fists they broke my bones like a light falling off a night table and like the rats we all are florida florida spat me out but i kept my breath slow a little girl at the bottom of the stairs scowled surrounded by night shade shadow wall bricks hidden in a mossy stale funk in a row on the second floor landing in the cement block apartment rise some half-dressed bodies lit up christmas trees these men were streetlamp damp sweating hard guns near in the nightpools she stared through me like i was meat she held a plastic uzi in a room staring like they were eating through my skin and without a nod without a tip we slid very quietly into the butterscotch grand prix the driver and me under the moons screaming inside maybe inside the rooms with television blurs circling us and circling it that car all armor-alled up and smelling like grease and like bad stuff or like something like forget it we got in all of a sudden he stopped asking me about the money which was scary he knew i knew he knew i had that money and in your mind you go bloody feet barely alive screaming for your neighborhood life out of that place but she called and he answered and something pulled him triggered his heart click guiding him smiling to the freeway no taxi his nephew's car butterscotch grand prix and off the highway in a fast food parking lot the driver pulled me in hands over my shrugging sides delivered me like a wish as i forked over a little more than bargained forgot about landing in the wrong city that airport dry rotting forgot about meeting her father her father so decent his grill smoking forgot about the mosquito bites pine halls those castle walls of wood forgot about myself and i was just happy to be home i was happy to remember who i really was and you know i see that sky still it reminds me of a dishrag rolled with heavy dew and palmettos exploding oranges that florida sky emitting total life and total death and me on the fresh steps to dropping all the bags arms out receiving my destiny and hope in several phases of doubts colored somehow with love

Fruit-Rotting

once in coins subwayesque we paid all the way uptown back in the skeleton-eye like, "hey hey hey gotta keep up now" somebody would shout sweating beautiful on the shitty rushing chinatown streets glistening bodies yellow mash sunrocked those days ... but now we are old and in us drugs rot like we are dirty like our insides are paying for our sins and not us our insides like a cross fruit-rotting sun-diving we are eagles now beautiful and we we feast on what we like lucky ones so so lucky so lucky imagine if one of us, um, found out one of our best friends had died overdose-cop-call on an empty bed or worse all of us lied more some of us got free on the dust falling out of the bags meant for a sick sunday or one of us betrayed the animals let loose in the disco metal farm we are lucky count-your-wishes-and-stars lucky now we are old and going for more we are dirty like our...