Hello Abraham Lincoln,

You President of America,
you held the country together,
with your hands!

You were so tall, and your black hat was so tall,
and your body and your hat put together were so tall,
and everybody, even Robert E. Lee,
that rascally rebel,
was constrained to confess your tallness.

And now you’re a ghost.

And I’m alive and living in 2009,
and these buildings around me
these gigantic steel structures, they’re around me,
and I am subject to them,
and there’s farms, too, and that’s nice,
but there are no log cabins anymore,
like the one that you used to live in,
at least none that I can see,
and there are laws I don’t understand,
and they’re all around me,
and I am subject to them,
and people I don’t understand,

(Your wife was crazy, wasn’t she?
You and I should talk sometime.)

and they’re all around me, these people,
and I am subject to them,
I suppose they’re people,
but they don’t stop to see me,
and they move
and their faces change. I can’t
keep track of them,
But why would I want to keep track of them?

To make money, that’s why.
To get that benefits package
I’ve been hearing about.

So sometimes I ride my bike around
for no reason when I know I should
be making money somehow.

And Abraham Lincoln can I go where you are?
And maybe I can wear your hat?