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 Sep 2023 neth jones
Rob Rutledge
Under a sullen, unloving sky,
Caught off guard by the searching rain,
She flees to shieldlike canopies.
A pilgrim on the path of shadow
Ever tethered to the flame.
Enslaved to the way of fire
Sycophant of the eternal blaze.
Condemned to spend the end of days
Wandering wastelands of the Sun,
Forever exiled from the shade.

In the darkness she would remain,
If only she would have her way.
Cocooned in shells of memory
Fogs of war,
Ill explained.
Though the forest chatter
Never quite sounds the same,
The pitter patter
Pauses,
Secrets encoded in the rain.
Her frail wings lay broken
Breath comes barely when spoken,
Offspring away upon the wind.
Though they took no time to notice
The darkness roars forth and shows us

We have our own fires to attend.
and so
he cracked him in the head
with the pool cue,
now,
it's your  game,
he said to the man

and walked out of the bar
song birds were singing
and  he delighted
in dark shadows overtaking empty streets
in the distance
a dog did howl,
found that fascinating
the barking of a dog distant and growling

he bought a lottery ticket
got the numbers from
the obituary page
of the asbury park press
never checked the numbers
never wanted
too

on longs peak
he made it to broadway
when the hail came down
and the ledge
was coated with ice
and the view
down to chasm lake
was obscure
it tickled a lonely spot
in his imagination
and the ledge was where
he always wanted to be
he had figured it all out
the in s and out
of never giving a ****
the cards we are dealt
at birth
are marked


one day i saw his
picture
on the obituary page


and he had the BIGGEST smile
I really truly don't know    
why
some things under the    
sun and sky  
attract and catch my    
fancy  
Quite queerly they    
happen to be  
hot melting smelting    
solids  
that melt into exquisite    
liquids.  
Take for instance heated    
liquid gold  
molten glass or molten    
brass  
and to watch magma    
'neath the earth's fold  
Ooh, I love just about any    
melting mass.  
 
With similar bizarre    
ecstasy and fascination  
I like to watch 
onscreen molten lava  
Gliding in serpentine    
turns, oblivious of my    
admiration  
Ah, I just love all that    
golden molten mass . 

Liquidised metal, liquid fire
I just never ever tire
 
Sometimes I even have    
such an eccentric craving  
to watch just any solid    
beauty melting smelting  
that I satisfy this craving    
by simply imagining  
the honey to be some    
liquid fire gold glowing    
in a crystal clear jar and    
liken it to  
metallic gold syrup in    
the furnace burning  
As if it were stagnant    
mini-lava  
right before me churning !  
 
As for other mesmeric    
things  
that I find real eye-  
catching  
are those which    
everybody else finds    
ravishing.  
And they are in all shine,
in heavenly mould and cast,  
magical celestial stardust  
or glittery terrestrial gold    
dust  
or dazzling diamond dust,
in mankind's metallic    
materialistic lust.!  

Btw I am allergic to earthly  
dust!:)
nothing is any good
you know
unless you
share it
so Tom has brought back the bar:

the Elvis impersonator
who almost
played las vegas,
the hair dresser
come future race
car driver,
a sufi
and a seer.

the seer
tells me she hit a cat
the cat was still alive
so she ran it over
again and again,
"and that's when god
talked to me."

"was that before or after
you ran over the cat
the second time?"
i asked.

"She talks to me every day,"
the angry divorced seer
tells me.

is god talking, now?

now, elvis
joins in,
"what if camus and nietche
met. what would they think
about the cat?"

"nah, who cares,"
the race car driver-
hair dresser,
says, snorts another line,
"what if they
started
a rock
and roll
band."

the Sufi wonders,
"who would play
what?"

"nietche on drums!" tom interjects
with a smile.

"yes,
and camus,
a gibson semi hollow."

"vocals???"

"god!" exclaims the seer.

"right on," i say, everyone smiles
and the seer is looking better and better
after every beer.

sometimes the dead
travel the road
to nowhere
with a smile


and i've got to get
up at 7a.m.
i'm a college
educated
toy store clerk

it's closing time at the circus
sometimes
the hangman isn't
hanging
and the night
jumps from the wall
and whispers,
"cut the deck."

"chance," I asked,
"danger and risk?"

"COLD DESIRE..."

she had it tattooed
on her ***

"COLD DESIRE"

we shared a quart of beer.
the dust of time in her greying hair.
she had a wooden leg
and a glass eye
a blue bottomless eye

and she had that, smile
like razor blades and dice
and
sometimes
the hangman
isn't hanging

thundering clouds
and no rain
she looked me in the eye
her good eye
(maybe not
it was a dark tomb
and the night
was blue
or maybe her good eye was blue???)
anyway
she kick me with her wooden leg
I hit her with a right
hand and her
glass eye flew
rolled along
the floor
towards a mouse
hole

a hole in one!

and i
yelled,
ROLL OVER

COLD DESIRE
.
 Jan 2023 neth jones
jude rigor
i lay down
at your feet
and roll
over
like a
cowed
dog

anything you
want to take
from me is
already gone

when it hurts
it stings all
over

and i cry
because
i wish it
could start
hurting again

i can’t tell when
i’m being kicked
down

i can’t tell
anyone
how i feel

there is no magic
in waiting

there is no magic
in leaving

i sit at the door
in hopes that
someone will
walk through
and save
me.
 Dec 2022 neth jones
Mike Adam
Drunk as a Hummingberd
Beak-deep in Hibiscus

Imbibing your aroma through
Every pore and Feathered follicle
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