THE COSMIC-AFTERLIFE TENPIN BOWLING TOURNAMENT, PLAYED ON MY IPHONE BOWLING GAME



ROUND 1




GIANT KILLERS                  119     171      123           413            0 WINS 3 LOSSES      O POINTS GAME AND SERIES    TOTAL OF 0 PTS
COSMOS KINGS                 136     185      147           468            3  WINS O LOSSES    6 PTS GAME 3 POINTS SERIES TOTAL OF 9 PTS



ROUGH RATS                      113     151      154           418             2  WINS 1 LOSS         4 PTS GAME 3 PTS SERIES  TOTAL OF 7 PTS
OLD STYLE REBELS           138     134      142           414            1 WIN 2 LOSSES        2 PTS GAME 0 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 2 PTS




COWBOYS                           142      125     186           453             1 WIN 2 LOSSES        2 PTS GAME 3 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 5 PTS
RED DEVILS                         168      168       89           425             2 WINS 1 LOSS          4 PTS GAME 0 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 4 PTS





PURPLE ALIENS                  131      122     156           409             1 WIN 2 LOSSES         2 PTS GAME 0 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 2 PTS
ATHENA & CRONUS             144      140     131          415             2 WINS 1 LOSS           4 PTS GAME 3 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 7 PTS




ALBERT  WALDRON              120      130     175          425            2 WINS 1 LOSS              4 PTS GAME 3 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 7 PTS
RELIGIOUS MUMMIES           110      135     129          374            1 WIN 2 LOSSES           2 PTS GAME 0 PTS SERIES TOTAL OF 2 PTS






LADDER AFTER ROUND 1



                                                   RP   GW SW GL SL    FOR   AGA       PTS



COSMOS KINGS                        1       3      1    0    0     468     413          9
ALBERT WALDRON                   1       2       1   1    0     425     374          7
ROUGH RATS                             1      2       1   1    0     418      414         7
ATHENA & CRONUS                   1      2       1   1    0     415      409         7
COWBOYS                                   1     1       1    2   0      453      425        5
RED DEVILS                                 1     2       0    1   1      425      453        4
OLD STYLE REBELS                   1      1       0    2   1     414       418       2
PURPLE ALIENS                          1      1       0    2   1     409       415       2
RELIGIOUS MUMMIES                 1      1      0    2    1     374      425       2
GIANT KILLERS                             1      0     0    3     1     413      468      0

Part 1: (The traveler speaking)

"I follow the winding, the way beyond the farthest places
between trees knotted menacing with darkened faces
under mossy roots that twist and trip with a mischievous cackle
over heights and falls that beckon death's clanking shackle
and if you fall in, lose your precious breath
to tree limbs tangled scratching at vulnerable flesh.

A green roof above and green floor below
but my eyes look ahead, to where the silver meadows did grow
Remorse remembers all that passed before the eye
burnt of fire forgotten and ash was strewn across the sky
and now only memory does remain
of silver meadows and the golden rain.

This land is dampened with the morning dew
that daren't melt but for the light of moon
where mossy things are stowed in sunken places
and beautiful wonders lay behind rock faces,
I know the way, but do not lightly follow
As sunset brings forth demons beyond tomorrow.

I wish to find her: the lady silk
Her hands weaving threads of fates who twist and separate
her threads she brought from those older places past
Where nascent fauns with youthful voices fastly gleam and chatter
and deftly danced to delights in the silver meadows
When all was false and truth was shaded
all liars happily in reflections reflected
pale faces feinted in humorous deception
and all charismatic affectations were familiar expression.
singing songs of passing pleasures in strange dialect
All was serene was silver mirrors reflecting
save the flow of golden liquid cool and still
which seeped from sky to hill and then chalice filled.

I walk to see the lady
who has one eye black and one eye white
and carries a silver knife which- in moonlight flashes bright.
I will wearily watch for it's flashing tomorrow night,
for she doesn't know it, but I was also born of moon's pale light."

Part 2: (The lady singing)

"The meadow shifted softly that fateful night
in breezes blowing warmly and songs of ephemeral delight
melodies swell and shift like the swirling blades of grass
Grass not green but silver shining, all moonlight reflecting

Gods with silver hair and silver eyes danced in shifty iridescence
Voices sang clear and wandered wistfully through misty hills and hollowed places
Oh they delicately weave the lines of notes around my ear
under over between and in, I wish I could hear those notes again
but alas their time is passed-- the daytime took the nightly hymn

There are few who remember things as I have done, but waning pasts are of worth to none.
Oh the night was never meant to end
and it is left the earth but for what I have kept for mine, things broken never truly mend.
These silver threads for weaving time and fate together again
a mournful burden, but I cannot abandon them
for the tapestry of time is my from the gods of ancient past
As long as my fingers can touch the strings, my mind will see
what I have preserved in memory

the tapestry, though, will live before I die
All fates will cease to meet as edges cut
and gods will from sky return
to chase away sun in blue and silver flashing eye

And so I hurry to finish this task over which I mourn
so in silver laurel, I will be adorned."

Tinderbox pt.1—Magic
At first,
I caught its eye
In the rolling smoke of fire
I ****** my hands
To pull it out
And speak with lighted words,
In light of brilliance,
A vital warmth,
But in the end just ashes.
And then,
The curve of silk waters
Which rushed upon and through the rocks
Wrote to me
A rich and liquid poetry
Not in bursts but subtle waves
I cupped my hands to catch its words,
But even then,
I could only hold so much
And only for so long.
               Tinderbox pt. 2—the Artist
Entranced in the world
Here and beneath the moment,
In the spaces and each letter
I saw the fire, the waves of silk
Each play in their environs,
I’d grieve
At their perfection,
Running my eyes over their hilly peaks
And dreaming mine had been there.
My worlds were ugly, incomplete
Extinguished at very moment
That the two would meet
The tinderbox was fire to my hands,
My cup was rife with holes
And there, I’d thought the artist dead
Or never even alive.
In my sleep I’d hear a voice
Like Milton, Coleridge, or Shelley
A babble arresting and forcing pity
From its infantile lucidity...
I knew this thing, but killed it.
Perhaps even now, I believe in magic
Though, to pluck rain from a furied storm
Or converse with tiny sparks
That become
Something of brilliance and solemn silk
That groves were wrought from tiny seeds
Long after mere chaos
That, from it, comes a universe
and white paper is all it needs.
What awoke me was not
That there was art
But that the words had tried to say something,
Something the heart could not speak
Nor the mind would dare to reason;
It was not as much the words that made it up
But the worlds in between them.