'73 ... '74
oh, 16 or so,
a news headline
in that conservative
of newspapers
The Daily Telegraph
engaged me,
'Hippy Camp in the Himalayas
Broken up by the Police'
or as close
as I recall,

& from that
moment on
my ambition
was clear,
my future
set,

Dad might
have preferred
college or
a decent job,
but heck
no ..
a hippy camp
in the Himalayas,

& as soon as
school was over
off I went
on the
Magic Bus
to find
a home.

I'm a little funny looking
I must confess,
all chunky boxy & truck-like
with 2 big old horns
that look quite deadly
but really we just
use them for show mostly,
oh & digging around
in termite hills,

I do hear though
that you humans
really cherish them
for folk cures &
help with your
***** & such,
you know
important
scientific stuff,

but then again
we can make a fearsome
fearsome charge
at a land-rover
full of folks
all with their
cameras & such,

at least we used to
till we became
fucken extinct!

Bad ...
bad like Vasquez from Aliens
all strut & ******
balancing on her
heavy Latina hip
a friggin' phenomenal
machine-gun thing,
& then sharing the grenade
with that **** of a lieutenant
& blowing themselves
& the alien
sky
absolutely
high.

Bad ...
bad like the little officer
in Master & Commander,
only about 12
at most,
along the way
loses an arm
& at the end
rallies the men
as they board
the French vessel
all shouts & "at 'em men, 'at em"
with his one arm
aloft,
his fancy hat,
just fitting.

Bad ...
bad like Chaka Khan,
Neil Young rockin'
All Along the Watchtower
backed by
Booket T,
bad like Ali, Jimi,
Patti & James.

Bad ...
bad like the Irish guy
in Dead Men's Shoes
who gas-mask wearing
& so merciless
runs them down
one by one
whilst chatting gently
with his younger brother
who we realize
near the end
is actually
already dead
& he's avenging
for his brother,
with his brother,
in his heart.

Bad ...
bad like Bela,
***** Riot,
& the Isley's
playing
Machine gun
live
in 1973.

Bad like panthers,
tigers,
leopards & pumas.

Bad ...

Mama's on her iPhone
checking out
'Worst Places to Live in America'
heck
I guess anywhere's
better
than here.

The youngster's all a tiz
& teary because
his new bracelet making
thingy is actually
a real drag
to work with,

& me,
I'm all a glaze-eyed
looking at my bank account
& its negative
$35,

oh,
& did I mention
there's now a hole
in my boot
to match
my socks,

ha!

Matthew about
oh ... 2 or so,
side by side
banging away
with our hammers,
mine standard,
his a small
plastic thing,
from a
Bob The Builder kit.

I miss the head,
cuss a little,
a minute later,
I hear him
muttering
as he works
& I stop
to listen,

"****, ****, **** .."
is the whispered
sound,
oh he's learning
what workmen
do.

"The realization
                                not the knowledge,

for this wasn't verbal or abstract,

         but the DIRECT, TOTAL AWARENESS, from the inside,

so to say, of LOVE as the primary & fundamental cosmic

          FACT.

I was this fact;

or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that

this fact occupied the place where I HAD BEEN."


Aldous Huxley, English writer, died 1963.
A quote respectfully, deeply so, arranged on the page by Martin B.

Dappled             smooth

marble stones
                             falling,

onto a heap of feathers
              
                              slowly.

A train of bones.

Sharks ...

                             swift & deadly.