Warren Zevon - Running Through / Chinese Poem Song lyrics

O I today sad as Chu Yuan
Stumbled to the store
In broiling Florida October
Morning heat cursing for my wine, sweating
Like rain, & came to my chair
Weak & trembling
Wondering if I'm crazy at last
- O Chu Yuan! No!
No suicide! Wine please wine!
What shall we all do all knowing we're dying
Without wine to guide us to winking at death
& life too - my heart belongs
To Chinese poets & their scrolls
We can't just die -Men need wine
& poetry at least
O Mao, poet Mao not Boss Mao
Here in America wine is laughed at
& poetry a joke -Death's a grim reminder
To everybody already dead
Crashing in cars all around here-
Here men & women dryly scowl
At poets' sad attempts to make our lot
Lesser- i, a poet, suffer
Even for bugs i find upsidedown
Dying in the grass- so I drink wine
Alone- i shudder to think
How dead the astronauts
Are going to a dead
Moon of no wine
All our best men are laughed at
In this nightmare land
But the newspapers preen
In virtue Throughout
The world the left & right
The east & west, are both vicious-
The happy old winebibber is gone-
I want him to reappear-
For Modern China preens in virtue too
For no better reason than America-
Nobody has respect for the cat
Asleep, and I am hopelessly
Inadequate in this poem -Nobody has respect
For the self centered
Irresponsible wine invalid
-Everybody wants to be strapped
In a hopeless space suit
Where they can't move -I urge you, China
Go back to Li Po &
Tao Yuan Ming what am I talking about?
I don't know i'm sick today-
I didn't sleep all night
Walked stumbling in the field
To get wine, now I'm drinking it
I feel better and worse-
I have something to say to Mao
& the poets of China that won't come out-
It's all about how America
Ignored poetry & wine & so does China
& I'm a fool without a river & a boat
& a flower suit- without a wineshop at dawn
Without self respect- -
Without the truth- but I'm a better man
Than all of you- that's what I
Wanted to say