Gaffer: Favorites

Jan 2017 Gaffer

THE RETURN OF DUM MAARO DUM( for Driftwood )

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Donall Dempsey

THE RETURN OF DUM MAARO DUM( for Driftwood )

THE RETURN OF DUM MAARO DUM
( for Driftwood )

She dances
upon her tippy toes

upon my toes
whirling 'bout the room

to DUM MAARO DUM
she my little Bollywood queen.

"Again...again....again!" she squeals
mad with childish delight.

Asha sings to us
and we...dance!

Sunlight throws itself
at our feet.

We dance upon it.

Summer gasps
holds its breath.

There is nothing but
the music....and us!

She is all
of three

screaming: "Bollywood me...Bollywood me!"

"This...won't....get the dinner done!"
screams Mum above the fun.

The record screechs
and scratches ...ouch...off!

I cut cuecumbers
into tiny tiny pieces.

Tilly washes spinach and lettuce.

But when Mum
goes to answer the phone

it's her best chum
she will be hours

we sneak Asha
back into the kitchen.

The return of. . .

"Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram!"

The great R.D(Rahul Dev)Burman lovingly known as Pancham. This is his song from the film Hare Rama Hare Krishna( 1971 ) sung by his wife Asha Bhosle along with Usha Iyer and chorus. We had no idea what we were singing! We just loved the sounds and music! The hit for us was the joy and delight it brought to our little English kitchen ....making the salad exciting! Pancham and Ashe loved cooking and would have cooking competitions between them. Oh those evergreen Hindi songs!
"Piya tu ab to aa jaa, hey hey hey hey!"( wot great crazy panting and the cry of "Monica darling!") was another great favourite as was Nahin Nahin Abhi and Sun Sun Didi Didi. Then there was one in which a drummer scatted his tik takka tick to her and another with I LIKE YOU kept breaking in in English only to change to I LOVE YOU by the end! And her high pitched voice contrasted with a deep gravelly growly male voice was just so much fun! It's only with the Internet that I can see what we were singing and get translations! Oh our world was so....innocent back then as Hindi and its swirl of music hath us enthralled.

Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram
Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram

Take another hit

Take another hit*, all your worries will disappear
From morning to night sing, “Hare Krishna Hare Ram!”*

What has the world given us?
What have we taken from the world?
Why should we worry about anyone?
What has anyone done for us?

Take another hit, all your worries will disappear
From morning to night sing, “Hare Krishna Hare Ram!”

Whether we want to live or die
We won’t be afraid of anyone
The world won’t be able to stop us
For we will do what we want

Jan 2017 Gaffer

notes from a young god

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Lucky Queue

notes from a young god

b.

Once the sage gaze of starlight fades,

the twinkle and flash of cosmological mineral death,

descending in a tumble through the atmosphere,

puncturing each layer like a pebble through cobwebs,

we wake to a frightening new wonder.

We rise to the growling of the center and the sun.

prompted astrology part two
11.15.16

Jan 2017 Gaffer

to him or to her

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Trevor Stark

to him or to her

a letter fell upon my step
one which I did not question
but then again its persistence kept
and now I felt aggression

if you were to read whatever it may be
that lies on this letter in the misty dew
perceive the sensation of ecstasy
when you read the words 'i love you'

Jan 2017 Gaffer

My first day in school

Jan 2017 Gaffer

bones

My first day in school

Somebody bundled
it into a clock
and slung it up high on a wall,

with numbers
like bars between us,
where there had been nothing before;

before,
my days had come open,
open and endless like sky,

but boxed on the wall
there looked no room for all
of the rest of my lifetime and I.

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Closure

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Sirenes

Closure

There's a tension headache
Pressuring my brain
It feels alot like the pain
One feels after having cried for too long.
It feels like the pain we feel
After having realised
That we don't always feel better
After the tears have flown.
just cry, you'll feel better after
But with you it never worked out that way.

The pain stayed and you left.
More times than I can count.
So I wrote you a letter
Just so you'd know
That things are different this time around.
I won't leave in anger
And I won't argue this time.
I'm not leaving because of something you said.
I know you've been trying.
I'm leaving because the pain isn't healing.
You are not healing me
Just letting the wounds fester
As if you spat in to them.

So this time
I'm packing up
Everything I ever felt for you
Only to toss my luggage
In to the stream
As I cross that bridge.

Now I know
Where all those odd lost objects come from.
Maybe like the bags that contain my love for you,
All the lost shoes and shirts
Are just containers for something
That cannot be dressed up in words.
I can hear the plunge as I keep walking.
Now when I reach the other side,
I'm setting that bridge on fire.
Burn *****, burn

I hail my train and forget that there ever was a John.

Sometimes we don't know how much something hurts, until we let it go.

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Only Snow Will Do

Jan 2017 Gaffer

L B

Only Snow Will Do

If that night could remember
it would call him back
to our Chinese restaurant
to fried rice and steaming tea
to our winter refuge of tile and cushions
60s retro black and white
Chrome legs of lacquered tables
with its mural of
our Great Wall

...winding, distant, wonder

If the snow hadn't muffled all
but our voices
we would not be—

so alone

Only I
felt his arm take its chance
around my shoulder
Guiding warmth
as good excuse as any
to touch

Two miles on foot
An arc in time
In lace of white
to hide— what might....

Below my window
“Good Night”
not enough
for troubadour
singing, pleading, stumbling...

(I worry about his long way home)

...and hardly notice...

How gently Time joins Snow
as if they cannot bare
instead, conspire
Decide the crystals
Send the flakes to sift over him

This loss needs snow
to blur his face
to fade from view....

This— tender let-down from the sky
As only snow can do...

Cover with beauty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o6zMPLcXZ8

Lowell, Massachusetts, January, 1970... Love was lost in the storm of war politics, *****, drugs, and grief. His brother was a priest and chaplain, killed in Vietnam.

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Post-it

Jan 2017 Gaffer

Sirenes

Post-it

"So how did it go"

"Oh fine. Just have to go down and explain a few things"

"Yeah... I heard. That was a little awkward."

"Well yeah but all in all it went pretty well"

"Okay. Explain."

"Well he understood that I just couldn't help myself"

"You mean that you just helped yourself to it"

"Or that. Either way, he said it was fine... you know after he recovered from the panic attack"

"You're telling me, he wasn't upset that you left lipstick on his white shirt"

"Yeah...or...the part where I ran in to him in the hallway and sniffed his neck in the first place..."

"Yeah it wasn't seeing that that upset me either, it was when you wouldn't let go and he just kept saying that was married"

"Everyone could use a compliment"

"Let me get this straight. If a girl does it to a guy it's a compliment and not ****** assault"

"Well us women we just get away with more"

"I hope you get away when his wife shows up with a rolling pin"

"Well if she's going to show up then I hope that he only told her about the part where I sniffed his neck"

"Was there another part to that?"

"...well... I may have tracked down his car and glued a few post-its on it"

"Few?"

"Hmh... I didn't count them."

"And what had you written on the post-its"

"Just hearts..."

"You're going to have to sound more convincing"

"And some ***** phrases"

"Don't go in to specifics... Anything else to declare"

"My undying love..."

"Really? On a post-it?"

"Well to be fair, I did just sniff his neck..."

"You kept it pretty tame then"

"Well he didn't let me anyway. Plus his wife kept calling"

"You're insane"

"I have a good heart"

"Yeah, there are drawings of it glued all over his car..."

It's challenging to have an animated imagination, it's more challenging to not laugh out loud at your own thoughts in a crowded bus.