You could see the scars
where coloured ink sank deep,
making patterns in his flesh;
deeper than a love
which prompted the first cut,
one drunken night on shore leave
in some long forgotten port;
when Stacy was his girl,
decorated with a rose.


Then a panther leapt to mind,
embedding its image into the skin
of his back;
a dark shadow to protect him
from danger of surprise attack.
But its blind eyes
never saw the knife,
when he lost his life
in a bar room brawl.


The world had gradually
coloured him in,
etching out a journey
from Far East to Babylon,
across all the oceans.
The devil sat at his shoulder
so he knew where to find him.
A dragon on his right arm,
snake and dagger on the left.
At night in fractured dreams, they’d fight,
breathing fire and spitting
reptilian venom.


It seemed a shame to bury him,
he really belonged in a gallery.
But the sea accepted
without any fuss,
the man whose imagination
was for all to see,
drawing attention to himself.

when just a little boy inured to ****** harm
   i stuck a bean inside my button nose
which caused parental fright and alarm
   which yielded putrid odor
   like black pearl jam stuck between toes

foul fumes a nauseating  offal stench
   detected by mere fluke
from mister good wrench
   pinpointed putrid source
   above where one would puke

necessitating face mask to approach
   decomposing nut size bean
   inducing outcome from
   those approaching awful odor to pass out

even the most practiced
   die macho men turned green
   in addition from special ops
   military forces confessed doubt

to accomplish mission in this challenge
   from an enemy unseen
thus pitting me in danger if
   slowly germinating seed sprouted full size

   planting roots into cerebral fertile gray matter
forcing motley crue to brood
   at this unusual impasse – no lies
   but truthfulness, which outcome

   could find me akin to a mad hatter
lest quick fix for someone
   with a knack with moody blue eyes
like those of I bet ye will never guess who

came to my rescue
and eminently rid me of
   near fatality this threat he slew
while clergy waited with family,

   whom held breath against noxious p u
worse smelling than buffalo chips
   or animal when poops goes moo
imbedded flak eliminated threat

   to this kid – a very reformed Jew
when with delicate application
   of tweezers across room bean flew
dunning torpedo like ricocheting
   off head of doctor George Andrew.