A weekend hymn is playing,
this is what I hear it saying,

Sounds of music, people swaying,
people coming, people staying,

Get a drink cuz' I'm buying,
have a ball, I ain't lying,
don't be alone at home & crying,
instead of feeling like you're dying,
people at the door are vying,
for a little spot I'm spying,

Grab a coat
& clear a throat,
  baby let's go hit a note,
wouldn't wanna miss the boat,
I tell you in special quote,
...this is what I wrote,

I hear it play,
a fiddle say,

Find,
that beat,

That beat,

That beat, that beat, that beat,

Just like a heart

it beats, & beats & beats

it beats, & beats

A pounding in my chest

repeats, repeats,

That beat,

repeats,

that beat,

that beat,

that beat, that beat, that beat,

that beat,

it beats,

& beats & beats & beats

repeats, repeats,

so come in off the streets,

repeats,  
  re-beats,

beat, beat, beat, beat, beat,

& beat again,
repeat,

I play it in a song ,
as  you hit repeat,
& you move along,
as music it re- beats,

Move across the floor,
& quickly move your feet,
come along my darlin',
get up off a seat,

So clap along with me
in one-two
harmony,

Tap along with me
be happy as can be,

Clap a little
tap a little
rap a little
see,

Then tap your feet,

Then you find a  beat,

repeat, repeat,

I'm tellin' you a treat
  it's feelin' really neat,

I feel again a beat,
re-beat, re-beat
re-beat,

Come with me my sweet,

Rap a knuckle on a tree,
pick a banjo, slap a knee,
count it now, one two, three,

Swing your darlin'
'round the room,
dip her back
just like a groom,
put in her hair,
a lovely bloom
it reeks of fun,
a strong perfume,

Prominade & dosey doe
tip her back & dip her low,
walk the floor now,
to & fro,
keep your lady right in toe,

Twirl your baby 'round & round
then bring her back,

Right back around her,
then bring her back
to where you found her,

Twist & shout let's move about,
time for you to let it out,
lifting up a silly pout
we'll do again, again,
no doubt,

Weekend's here so have some fun,
relief from feet been on the run,
work for most well it is done,

This is really quite a sight
we dance around a drunken fight,
it gave us just a tiny fright,

So,
just dance a dance with me tonight ,
baby hope you're feelin' right
I have right here just one invite,

Glad you came with me in spite,
'cuz tomorrow we will write.



Cherie Nolan © 2016

What I say is that
I don't need friends because I'm
An introvert girl

And that's mostly true
But in all honesty, I'd
Like some companions

The full truth is that
I don't need friends who will joke
About mental health

I don't need friends who
Use "******" and "******" as
As ******* nicknames

I don't need friends who
Create drama and then say
That they hate it all

I don't need friends who
Will lie to me, and then go
Gossip about me

I don't need a circle
Of friends that gets so complex
It becomes a web

And to be honest
I've been, in the past, guilty
Of all of these things

But I don't need to
Deal with these things all the time
In a group of friends

I just want friends who
I can simultaneously
Be dumb and smart with

Friends whom I can be
Existential with, and yet
Prank other kids with

Friends whom I don't feel
The constant need to hide or
Be perfect around

Unfortunately
Those kinds of friends seem to be
In short supply here

So far I have three
And I only really see
Them three times a month

Call me a homebody
Say I'm antisocial, but
That's just how I feel

It's noon in a postcard town
Pedestrians gather on tidy city squares
All I can do is stare
I've nothing to offer save for a song
A tough performance before a bitter throng
Most people need nothing but a beat
Like this monotonous street
Where heartless people haphazardly meet
Walking head down , focused on their feet
They've no time for meaningful lyrics
It's a sad time for music among these urban cynics* ..

green on copper wrinkles
red rust on my steel facade
grease on my pan
ants all over my pantry
dust on my Lincoln
stains on my Levi's
pain in my back
wrinkles on my suit
ketchup on my bow tie
ten houses on the street vacant
taxes going up
everyone I know unemployed
and searching
I think somethings wrong
just commentating
no answers no solutions
but I hope
someone does

feel over form
function over style
cause before appeal
in the best scenarios the two would be combined
but I am not Shakespeare
Nor Norman Vincent Peale
in citing individuals
by researchable credentials
I cite in particular
******
no other words necessary
as history shows clearly we try
as a people as a humanity to believe
we try so hard we stop questioning
that to me
is dangerously
reckless

She marched forward
In her feline gait
Four ears laid back
Wings slightly unfurling
Tail curling and relaxing like a wave
As she shone beneath the moonlight and cameras
Dark skin and white curls making her seem like a star in her own right
Like those reflected in her sterling pupils

And, before the crowd
Of militaresi and the police
She raised her head to the skies
And sung in the manner
That a wolf howls
Or a jay chirps:
Without cessation
Letting her spirit out
Moving as the song dictated
Not giving a **** that she
(Given that she lyricized for two hours)
Looked like a madwoman
As she sung
About love and heartbreak
About loyalty and betrayal
About friends and enemies
Nature and nurture
Justice and crime
Monsters and men

She sung with no era
No race
No species
No planet
She sung as a person
Dangerously close to the edge
The same place she had been all of her life

And when she stopped
The universe was dead silent
With awe and confusion
As she slipped into the sea
Of a slave revolt

arranged all in rows
tamed
well life is not like that
it comes with dissonances
and travails
and the blessed part is,
surprisingly,
is the best things are always
bittersweet.
I can rhyme,
I can sing,
I know cadence and hymnals and
all the various structures
you wanna stuff life into
it don't work that way,
if you do say pose a prose or poem
or problem in one way
there are ten million at least
gonna not see it.
life is not a box all
geometric symmetrically
straight lined  x equals y
nor are lives
life stinks a lot
I guess
what I am proposing
is why make it seem
like anything
but what it is
a struggle
U struggle I struggle
to make sense of  it all and it's too big
too vast
too complicated
I  like flowers
Buttercups among my favorites
but sometimes I hate them too
because i like dandelions
and the man is trying to grow only
flowers

I'm watching the red lights of an airplane
One of its passengers notice the glow
of a tiny brick house with a man at the window , his thoughts
are training , his creativity sailing , his passion for
midnight poetry waning , his demons complaining
The volume of thought fading
It's really no different from all the other homes
All the other Jills and Johns , the would-be vagabonds
The starving music minstrels , we're just tag-alongs ,
trying to decipher right from wrong , standing in
the corporate soup line for our bowl to be filled
Mouths agape like baby birds , a spool of film repeating
act one of a movie , some nerd gets the girl , the milkmaid
becomes queen , a Hollywood hunk saves the world
Fly on jet airliner , may your occupants find life's pearl
Clarity in the daily whirl , the worm in the bottom of the Tequila bottle
Send them safely to their families full throttle* ...