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David W Clare Jan 2015
Shadows dance on subway walls
Through crowded bars and pachinko halls
I came equipped for fun and play
You dont have to tip but boy you pay

The night runs deep when you miss the train
After this trip you're never the same
I fell into forbidden zones
Ancient temples turned into internet shops dial for *** to her cellular telephone

Step to the beat invent your own way
If you can't dance you've got two left feet
What's the difference let your hair down its time to play and dance the...

Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no
Don't dance the...
Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no

Down the street there's a ceremony on
It's a cinch when the pink lights on till dawn
Get to grips with a ancient kind of street dance
Kissing cherry lips or grape or mango
Do every dance but NOT the Tokyo Tango

Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no
Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no

Zakuza dance

Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no
Tokyo Tokyo Tango oh no no no


D. Clare

written in Tokyo
"Tokyo Tango" available at...
Apple iTunes
David John Clare
electrifyingly and smilingly,
I walk through the red mornings
that bring the rainy afternoons

with the smell of onions, lime
and fresh cilantro on my
malodorous breath
that will tell you so:

there are three things
we do exceptionally well:

a) the ****** expressions
we make have become an
almost artificiality, a dour,
featureless, sun-drenched
look that has pockmarked
and disfigured upon our faces.

b) living has become such a dynasty
for boredom that we find television
and fake reality to be satiated
and thrillful.

c) death before burial has become
so fashionable that we wear it like
he latest trend in the upcoming
fall catalog.

but there is nothing there,
decades are annihilated by dreams
and sleep is the cheapest form of
entertainment we have.

knowledge and wisdom
perforated through a
trepanned skull
needn’t be obtained by
an educational system

but through self-taught
and self-introspection

success is merely luck…
being at the right place,
at the right time,
knowing the right people

and we strive to be there

but devastatingly,
the small space gets
besieged
invaded
capsized
by subtleties
of distractions
and irritations

that what we have
either,
inside of us
or
in front of us
becomes insatiable

and the flimsiness of anxiety
begins to lionize and ascend
into higher sopranos

what’s good won’t last
what’s bad always felt so good
and what was said to be good
that was actually bad
was never forgivable

questions are unanswerable
books are unreadable
resources are unusable
happiness is unobtainable
love is irretrievable
and animosity comes so often
like a teenage boy’s *******

as the raindrops pelt the rooftops
like pachinko machines
as the grey hair sprouts like begonias
of spiraling hypnotism
as the pagodas burn in
sacred libations.

if this poem has reached you
it is because you are seeking
better writing than your own.
Qualyxian Quest Aug 2020
Playing pachinko
Talkin' bout the Midnight Rambler
O God, make me a gambler!
I remember playing Pachinko
at a small place in Noshiro
not planning to win
just passing the time.

Could have been...

A long time ago goes so soon and was I really there in a bamboo room drinking Saki, making merry or was it a dream that I dreamt?

woke up to a Geisha by
the name of Felicia
under the apple blossom,
which is
Japanese primrose tha' knows

and then I knew I had dreamt it
Qualyxian Quest Mar 2023
Red Pine's Road to Heaven
I'm readin' about the Ch'in
Maybe Hunan vegetable
Arrival might begin

Ancient humanity
In all our transient glory
I showed her my true love
Are we gonna be a story?

Bought a pachinko machine
110 big bucks
Carrboro, North Carolina
True blue taco trucks

Boonsboro, Maryland
McClellan on the March
St. Louis University
My father near the Arch

              Jesuits!
Qualyxian Quest Mar 2023
The brutality of Asia
The grace of Asia
See the Dragon
I'm an egg

If I breach the chrysalis
Might be local motion
Thank you kindly, James
Put with a bowl to beg

Aquinas was a mendicant
I worked in Seattle
Refugees from Ethiopia
Ferry boat twilight lust

Vegetables with won ton broth
Cut off from the Red Dust
I wonder truly if she trusts
Pachinko machine for us

                  Nosotros!
Walter Alter Aug 2023
An intriguing little crime scene
we have here eh Inspector Marsupial
a freeway overpass ******'s
cardboard box and mattress
and a paperclip necklace
juxtaposed on a dissecting table
at some point of logical confluences
a losing strategy has to be examined
even if squeamishly concluding
that we are here to be punished for being here
Marsupial searched his pachinko readout
acting on the assumption that
in at least one setting perhaps this one
he could juggle us a grand total
even if the light was sub visible
which you don't see every day
bottom line blame enough to go around
manipulators of fear with a plan
is there anything in us that is inviolate
he was a master of pedestrian insights
with a repertoire of a priori assumptions
packaged for the pop psych tabloids
his mouth flapping like a puppet on a string
the official Government spokesman
for the natural state of man
comrades these are troubled times
but not like before
during the really troubled times
so relax it’s an alchemist's contraption
made from bed springs and alarm clocks
proletarian gyro-chemistry in action
every atom wanting to go its own way
the problem with categories is that
some manage to obliterate the others
the fruit festooned banana daiquiri
had apparently reached his thalamus
clean your spoon son that's government chow
and so began the long loud logomania
you have before you now
my rabbi assures me this is therapeutic
inductive in deductive out
forehead wrinkles along for the ride
knowing what is out of place
dawn and the bust of Aristotle
juxtaposed upon a cactus throne
shoot me I said juxtaposed again
it's no longer a festival of consensus
last I checked slapstick is still dead
I'm pretty sure everything
can be described by numbers
there are enough of them for the job
wheel chairs killed the fashion show

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Qualyxian Quest Mar 2023
The Republican Party circles the drain
Que selah. Selah.
Mr. Markson quite correct
Can't say he didn't warn ya

Rain all day today
Hath the rain a father?
Probably'll rain all night
3 prayers for 2 daughters

Bought a pachinko machine
Let the good times roll!
My childhood in Taiwan
Japan: good for the soul.

               Arigato!
Qualyxian Quest  Mar 2023
1 4 U
Qualyxian Quest Mar 2023
History is written by the victors
But even the losers get lucky sometimes
The winners get the Nukes
The losers get the Rhymes

Was in Japan for a wedding
Amazement. Bullet trains.
Loud pachinko machines
Silence, like Prout's Neck, Maine

Taught a little Winslow Homer
Plus Edgar Allen Poe
The Shinkansen is a wonder
Tokyo to Kyoto

Life not what we wish
Most fantasies don't come true
The symbol of the Fish
Virginia the Traitor Crew

         John Brown: 1 4 U!

— The End —