©1999, Scott Ainslie

I’m gonna blow off the top of this mountain
And fill up the valley below.
Before we get done, the dust will block out the sun
And we’ll peel back the layers of coal. Continue Reading

©1997, Scott Ainslie. All rights
reserved.

I found you burying your face, like a boy who cries:
Ragdoll legs and broken arms, one shoe off and one shoe on.
Rain trickles inside the collar: Yellow slicker, 3:00 a.m.
Silent, skewed and thickening—-I touch your shadow with my hand. Continue Reading

©1997, Scott Ainslie.
All rights reserved.

We picked you up at your house.
Bound your wrists, taped your mouth.
Used our hands and our clubs.
You weren’t human to us.

We drove home and kissed our wives;
Sang our children lullabies
Joked with our parents on the phone.
When we went to our cars, we went alone.

Continue Reading

©2000, Scott Ainslie

I thought I felt a little cool breeze come through.
What shall we do? Don’t it feel cold in here to you?
Turn up the heat, warm up your feet.
Turn on the light. Nothing seems right. Continue Reading

lyrics by Scott
Ainslie ©2003,
music by Al Pettaway ©2001

I will not fall.
I will never fall again.
I will stand on the bridge rail
And jump in the wind. Continue Reading

©2004, Scott Ainslie

Uncommon life: uncommon love.
Uncommon life: uncommon love.

Can we believe – in a foreign land
Where we’ll dance again and again and again:
Eye to eye, hand to hand;
We touch this flame. Continue Reading

© 1995, Scott Ainslie

A family working in the sun.
Food must be grown for everyone.
So green—-new life has begun.
Rice Grows Again In Vietnam. Continue Reading

Scott Ainslie ©2001

If I could back us up to the top of the ferris wheel;
If we could take the corners fast and never hear the tires squeal;
If I could have a kiss or two that I didn’t have to steal;
We could take a chance and try this over again. Continue Reading

©1999, Scott Ainslie

I went out to my garden looking for a rose.
You know there are so many thorns out where the roses grow.
While looking, I was bloodied. My feet and hands grew sore.
I was searching for a special rose that I had known before. Continue Reading

©2004 Scott Ainslie

I’m just 36, I’ve got 4 little ones;
I’ve been workin’ here 17 years.
Settin’ rivets and welding and working the cranes;
17 years, goin’ straight down the drain;
building a future that never came. Continue Reading