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Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
A cautionary vestage.
My daughter loves to read. Thanks.

She is nine and speaks to me in long,clear
Streams of logic.  Why.

She is me for good or bad.thanks.
When she was four and standing in my conversation
I jokingly said "you don't count".

She looked up to my waist and said "one ,two, three,four see Daddy, I do count.
My baby is nine and we joke about that all the time.
She is . Very much so. Thanks.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
I cant write tonite  cause my head is out on leave. This is sooooo not like me.
But guess what this is a launch pad for me.Numbles I call it. My ***** it place where lazy minded magic happens. unfocused to absurdity. Oozy woozy just say what you wanna say. My mother hates that part of me but at my age what will change. No harm ,no foul.

My mother is eighty nine and still molding me. Man if she only knew the holes I have crawled in and out of Like the March Hare always running late. A day late and a dollar short.  *******. Back in the day. Pre crack but just barely. Saw the beginnings of the demise of dignity. kneeling down in dark alleys and between parked cars in blazing sun. Was not about to try that one. My nose was  an Oreck. That was fly enough for me.

Bright lites big city going through my head. I don't care cause you don't care.
I built myself a edge by hanging round Poco Locos, mind you round not with. Playing Russian roulette mad ******* mad dogs. Clowning With hard heads with nothing to lose. Those guys taught me not to blink by osmosis.

I didn't think I was tough just committed. Riding that diesel till the wheels came off.
Something behind my eyes I think or maybe something missing from them . More than a few Ride or die types just didn't trust what they saw. Man was I stupid.

To this day I cant say what it is . Pound for pound big guys would turn around. The exquisite buzz of hard liquor came trundling out of my mouth in seething cold poetry and they became less than nothing in the moment. Spontaneous malevolence. It was gonna happen for good or ill. Cats would look at me and do Chinese algebra. I could hear the abacus click. Maybe I wasn't worth the hassle. Maybe.

Dude I am five foot six never topped 200 lbs.
Dad never showed. I still love him. I look in the glass and he looks right back at me.
Only heard he was an oddity. Guess I garner it honestly.

Lucky in cards. Unlucky in love. I cant play cards it never interested me.
Love on the other hand. Nothing but sevens. I would not insult myself by claiming to have game. I think women liked my honesty. Honestly .If I cant say it without looking up and to the left then it aint worth the air. Besides I would rather you get your cookies off first and last. Just save me a nibble or two.

Mine eyes have seen the gory .
Wrong place. wrong time.Like moth to flame.
Oratory and pure abandon have kept me upright.
Lotta dumb luck too. Lots.

A small number of women are standing still where I left them.stricken in amber.
In my youthful irreverence . In my minds eye a tear.In my minds eye.
What would have been. I was to blame. Of that I have no doubt.

See. this is where the Numbles crumbles.
I scoop from the bottom and bring up the dregs.
Pretty soon the tale sprouts legs.
See Ya.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
What is the thing in us who love to pluck the strings of our imaginations
and try to create resonance with the words that float to the page. To create something from the
nothingness .
We paint our pictures in tortured hues or opaque clutters of expression. At times the palate will surprise even we who mix and stir and strive to find a unique shade or texture. We trawl and dredge and send up pretty balloons  in hopes they will return with answers. Well I do

I am odd in that regard. I think all who strive to express , to be heard, to hear to see to grasp and
be ambushed by sudden revaluation. To make sense of it all. to look deep within and waft on the wind at once are kin.

What is it for you?
To wash away pain.
To turn your face to the pelting rain and feel the value of your existence.

What is it for you?
To say the things your mouth cannot express, untie your fettered tongue.
Do you dream in color.
Does  your poets voice speak to you in hushed tranquil tones
or rumble and stutter or whisper softly from dank and dusty places.

What is it for You.
A way out of your suppression if not expression.
The rubbing of a soothing salve over the aches and pains endured.
The betrayal acknowledged. The Key finding purchase in the  rusted lock. The key falling from your hands in the pitch dark once again as you wake up and find yet another door to open.

What is it for you. For me it is validation that my mind is unique as the neurons fire and
speak a language spoken not by many. We are seekers. You and I.
I do not fit the profile. I am rough and hard  my facade has bonded with my skin. But look within. I am bookish and brutal.Loving and glacial. Witty but slow. Volatile but pensive . A walking talking conundrum. I do it just to **** withum.

Why do you love poetry.
What leaks out of you mind.
What goes in.
What is it ?


.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
Do you go to service. why?
Maybe someone drags you in for your salvation or some such.

What do you believe. I have long released that process as a constant.
Like anything else on this plane. somebody gotta lose for someone else to gain.
Yes that is a bit wooden.
A bit cynical.

Do you feel the spirit as you enter.
What does that feel like and do you agree with all you hear and see.

What do you believe.Is the person up there speaking to you?
Do you take it all in.Or are you sight seeing. I do.
The backs of peoples heads are like monoliths.

Their faces are like masks. Not all but most.
Doubting Thomas in the pews.

The casket sits on display. It beckons and forbids.
The slow procession to absolution.
The occupant sleeps peacefully.
A shell.
Heaven or Hell.

The solemn drone. The Joyous noise.
The shrill and sweaty face of Fire and brimstone.
The call and response.
The well oiled ,stiff proceedings.
what do you believe.

Maybe you draw the lottery on Saturday
The Lord is our Sheppard. We shall not want.
Blasphemy you say.
No I am a believer.

I believe that we are.
For now and a wisp forever after.
A daunting prospect. But who knows. Faith.

The pews have been the uprising and the downfalling of many
Freedom or indoctrination
Left to our own devices. Hell's door agape.
a fertile mind, weak and troubled will gently lite on the word
then draw sustenance
for good
For ill.

The gates that lead to destruction are wide
and broad is the way.
The pews are narrow and finite.You will find me there
from time to time.  

.
I am a lapsed Roman Catholic. All I know is there is greater.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
He is my strength and my foundation.
I have seen evil. Never fear
A man of peace must make a stand.
I am the anointed one.My armor is my truth
My shield is my faith.

What is my sword but my will .
My will is my carriage
My will is my sword.
He is my strength and my foundation.
I have seen evil. Never fear.

Dark clouds they gather round me.
The storms whips violently.
A man of peace must stand.
I have seen evil. Never fear.

My time grows short among you.
My tether taught with strain
The whirlwind lifts me hither.
And washes me with rain


Rejoice in my deliverance
His gift I pass along.
He is your strong foundation.
Fear not. In peace be strong.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
He said I'll love you till I die
She told him you'll forget in time

But as the years went slowly by.
She still preyed upon his mind.

He kept her picture on his wall.
Went half crazy,now and then.

But he still loved her through it all.
Hoping that she'd come back again.

He kept some letters by his bed.
Dated 1962. He had underlined in red.
Every single I LOVE YOU.

I went to see him just today.
Oh but I didn't see no tears.

All dressed up to go away.
First time I'd seen him smile in years.

He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door.
And soon they'l carry him away. He stopped loving her today.

You know,she came to see him one last time.
Aw and we all wondered if she would.
And it kept running through my mind ."This time he's over her for good".

He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door.
And soon they'l carry him away.

He stopped loving her today.
The saddest love lost song I ever heard. By George Jones. A Country Icon.
Geno Cattouse Oct 2012
The ghost of Bill Kettchel still sits glumly on the bluff
Not but a few paces from where he  was fell
He has risen majestic at night from the well.

Still screaming out loud, Hey give em hell boys, give em hell

Dropped in head a foremost by the heel of his boot
Give em hell goes the echo, by god give em all  hell

The fields glistened  brightly with crimson and gore
The fighting was grisly like none seen before.
All stacked up  like cord-wood a good  ten foot high, they smote grey and  smote blue
by  the hip and by the thigh.

Give em hell boys by god, came the echoing cry.

Now musket ball splatter, now cannon grape rain.
March through the death gauntlet and line up again.
As the dying lie crying Under shade tree spread wide.


I'm a Yankee doodle dandy. Yankee doodle do or die.
A real live nephew of my uncle Sam born on the fourth of July.
Look away ,look away look away.

Dumped in head a  foremost  by foot and by heel. My self, Andy, Caleb  
Rest daily in the well. By day we lie peacefull, at night we rebell.
Especially those nights when the moon is aglow
We rise to the mouth and we holler and shout.

Give em hell boys  by god, just send them all straight to hell.
Dont know where this one came from.  I think it was a feeling I got from watching a episode of The Civil War the day before. It just jumped out of my head to the keyboard.
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