De time is nebber dreary if de darkey nebber groans;
De ladies nebber weary wid de rattle of de bones:
Den come again Susanna by de gaslight ob de moon;
We'll tum de old Piano when de banjo's out ob tune.

Chorus:

Ring, ring de banjo! I like dat good old song,
Come again my true lub, Oh! wha you been so long?

Marion Gaslight

kicked in with malfunction hair.
Spliced.
Sociopathic residue drip to the commuter of the world.
Spliced.
How do you love your warmth.
Plunder.
All and well now.
We'll just wait it out in our arms.



Garrett jOhNsOn

In the middle of the night
as the breeze soothes the mind.
A lonely owl steps out to the light,
leaving his nest behind.
The moon shines
and the wind blows.
A nightingale hymns
while the gaslight glows.

Nocturnal creative artists at work.
The night fuels their quirk.
Then a sudden cacophony disturbs the air.
A noise no one can bare.
From a distance it can be heard.
It whistles, but it is not a bird.

It slows as it reaches its destination.
Breaking through the peace with its whistle.
The train stops as it reaches the station.

In the gas light district
We can walk along
Shadows dance eloquent
To a flickering song
Of a memory to be
As we continue to talk
Crisp Airy feelings
Awaken a dawn
This heart on my sleeve
You say a corsage
Looks better on you
We Agree
With a smile and a nod.

There, amongst the northern skies,
Tears driven by ghostly squalls to
Fall on the blackened, bleak rooftops
Of this northern town, forgotten.
Left to a grey Victorian rot
Decaying factory ceilings collapsing on,
Litter strewn floors, newspapers decompose
With triumphs from yester year
Industrial dust stained brickwork
Grimy reminder, of the grim past
Haunted dim gaslight probing the fog
Days, nights only separated by murky light
A ghostly silence, hangs like a grimy fog
Cloaking lost sounds of dull beating on metal,
Boots tramping over cobbled stones,
The sounds of clocking on, clocking off, no more

I have spent the last nine months looking for myself
Because the previous three years I only years I only ever looked to you
We bonded over our broken souls
Exposed scars no one else would understand
And you never questioned when the childhood trauma came knocking on my door
You told me about your manic bipolar mother
I told you about my schizophrenic father
And we built our relationship off false hopes of one day creating the family we never had
For someone who has lived the same life as I,
I thought you would be more careful with your words
But every compliment you gave me was just implanted for future manipulation
Looking back, I wanted to believe that you meant it when you said you loved me, that you thought we would grow old together, that our “children” would have two loving parents and everything they’d ever need.
But as I look back, everything you did was to get me to only see my future in you
To only have opinions that coincide with yours
I didn’t even know that self-affirmation was an option
Because you became the puppet master of my existence
It wasn’t until life slapped me in the face that my eyes finally opened and I could see you for the first time
I told you that I was three weeks late and reality seeped into both of our bones
You told me you weren’t ready to be a father
That you’d never want to have my children
That I was ruining your life
One pregnancy scare, asking you to put your words into action, and you walk away.
I didn’t know who I was without you
But I promised myself that I would never let you back into my life.
My new years resolution was to discover myself
And how to be happy on my own
I traveled the world
I journeyed to twelve different countries
And as I saw inherent beauty in everything around me, my problems became so small
When I was overseas you asked me how I was
You offered an apology and said you wanted to see me
The only thing that kept me from you was the five thousand miles between us
But the distance allowed me to say no, something I had never done before
I’m not sure if I’d have the strength to do it again, but I found a piece of myself, and that’s improvement.

One day I felt that sleep would do me good, and that one day just never stopped.
Falling without feeling,
without thinking,
even knowing.
This steadiness sees nothing end.
A constant,
a stagnant,
there's no such thing as propulsion;
no say or do of any kind.
Just this bleak, empty void, that fogs up my mind.
Begingings must come for an end.
I'd stay there, just not here.
Next time I might know when.
You stood across, the corner's gaslight.
Watching, baiting, biding your time waiting,
tell me what you mean by those words.
But I can't ask.
I forget, I'm asleep.
That night is so long ago.
I'd wish it back here, replay the scene, in the doorway.
Change my words,
just this once.
One last time.
Instead, I'm asleep.
Stare into the white.
Stretch to see,
understand what you mean,
there is no possibility.

I have heard stories
of gas lights and
cobble streets

their glare glowing,
amber dreams,
holding tight,
screaming

as we slip into a
stupor, rattling
windows

the hunted and the
haunted, stumbling
across these *****
stones

shoes creek, old
and broken,
and no one.
No one.

No one

hopes for the rays
of an orange sun,
the smell of
Spring rain

or victory