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I fathom ghosts in dark bars.
Tortured flickers in old neon,
whose tribulations,
frozen in the heyday,
of their soda pop,
jukebox glory,
are lost,
in the clutter of human extemporanea.

Figurative vestiges,
from an era of nuclear optimism,
that have been reduced,
to dime store novelty.

As cloaked and unrealized,
as the distillation,
of alcoholic dreams,
alchemical vespers,
paying wistful homage.

A tribute,
from inside this rat-**** procession,
of technologically greed,
which has wrought the shelving,
of blue collar heroism,
the extinction of the unsung.

It is in this,
that the neon finds its muse,
and labors on.
And the numbing of aspiration continues,
Prescribed on tap,
for those who seek to thwart,
the stampede of the fittest.

And at that junction,
where they are forced to yield
to imminent refugeeism,
They find one another,
misspoken and assumed,
momentarily relieved to cohabitate,

Where the beer is cold,
and the juke box is still,
A welcomed friend.

And the good times,
just roll,
and roll,
and roll.
If you ask him he will talk for hours--
how at fourteen he hammered signs, fingers
raw with cold, and later painted bowers
in ladies' boudoirs; how he played checkers
for two weeks in jail, and lived on dark bread;
how he fled the border to a country
which disappeared wars ago; unfriended
crossed a continent while this century
began. He seldom speaks of painting now.
Young men have time and theories; old men work.
He has painted countless portraits. Sallow
nameless faces, made glistening in oil, smirk
above anonymous mantelpieces.
The turpentine has a familiar smell,
but his hand trembles with odd, new palsies.
Perched on the maulstick, it nears the easel.

He has come to like his resignation.
In his sketch books, ink-dark cossacks hear
the snorts of horses in the crunch of snow.
His pen alone recalls that years ago,
one horseman set his teeth and aimed his spear
which, poised, seemed pointed straight to pierce the sun.
 Nov 2014 Jonathan Firmin
Mick
human
 Nov 2014 Jonathan Firmin
Mick
I am human.
I am one strip of skin stitched together holding active organs in line,
I am 206 bones.
I am one brain.
I am one overly active heart.
I am one lung and 2 ovaries.
I am the same as you.
but how dare you compare me to you.
I am independent thoughts,
I am autonomous actions
I am a story.
I am history and future.
I am human.
Hey man listen, it’s not at all what you think
There’s so much more you can do and be
The question for you is, why is it that you’ve stopped?
A climber can never quit so close to the peak

An invisible journey, a growth towards the sky
Like a tree in the field, as the sun passes by
Taking each opportunity, to achieve some growth
A relentless being is the tree, who never cries nor hopes

We are merely seeds, in the whole scheme of things
To self actualize is the prize in this divine disguise
For divinity is, the sight through the dark and cloudy
look around, is what you see a beautiful reality?
2: City life is still strong, clubs reek with the boom chee boom chee boom, beats of a forgotten culture. The suburbs are quite now, families of four tucked into their beds, their Streets are post-apocalyptically barren. Snails drape the sidewalks because they believe they're protected under the shadows of night. A few cars on the freeway, search for somewhere to return.
3: In the city, drunken bodies drag themselves to find the nearest form of shelter, throwing shouts of gin and tonic to anyone who would let them be heard. A teenage girl sneaks back into her white house with a picket fence, hopping to God her parents don't wake up. Truck drivers route their way, trying to make it through the night.
4: The world seems to be resting. the distant hum of a car and faint sound of crickets are the only things in the air, but neither of them can be found. Four is my favorite hour. Walking the streets it is only you, it makes the world seem, in a way, that it is especially yours. Reality seems to be frozen, until that one car comes to breaks the trance. A world free from others cannot last.
5: The commuters shuffle into their cars to make their way to a sustainable future. The eyes of the world flicker open, still containing a haze of sleep. The world that was simply yours begins to gain occupants, slowly the sun rises lifting sleep from it followers. We have regained consciousness, the world seems less special. Until the next night my friend, until the next night.
Heron, Heron come my way
I hope that you won’t fly away
My dear sweet bird who’s home is mine
Lets sit right here and pass the time
I’ll tell you of this place I knew
A mystic place where dew drops grew
Alluring sun sets everyday
Where winter winds could laugh and play
Heron, I know you know this too
For this is where the currents blew
You from your flock and out to me
So this is where we ought to be
I miss the trees that used to sway
While flowers grew to greet the day
Heron, please, I beg you, stay

I miss the trees that used to sway
And little raindrops brushed away
And little raindrops brushed away
work in progress
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