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Devil in details—
you said love me as I am
then handed a list.
this kids,
is how you do it

in the mid of the dark hours,
when two am is your new oldest friend
when sleep, your oldest old one,
left town on the midnight train,
taking your peace of mind

though she is far away
lost in dream-thoughts caught,
but only twelve inches close,
granting you an unasked permission,
you ok to stroke her hair,
undisturbing her, yet comforting yourself,
every voice in your temple'd altar praying,
one glorious chorus godly chant:

Oh Lord, what would I do without her?

and you stroke her hair and are saved.


2:51am

May 2014
I

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

     II

The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.

With the other masquerades
That time resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.

     III

You tossed a blanket from the bed,
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters,
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the bed’s edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.

     IV

His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
Feet reclined near water's edge,
the warmth of the Sun,
coolness of the breeze,
Hmm...a little yellow flower.

Standing all alone,
so small,
so proud,
so beautiful.

For a moment I'm reminded of you,
I shall pluck it for your enjoyment!
But wait- maybe instead,
I should leave it alone.

Yes, I'll leave it where it be,
so I can return each day,
and have a pleasant reminder of you.

Perhaps I'll write about it,
maybe in a letter,
and send it to you,
immortalizing its brilliance,
the little yellow flower.
We manage
as best
we can—
for us and others.

One day—
my hands
will stop reaching
to help others.

And I wonder—
which failing
will be at fault—
my body or
my heart.

If it is to be my heart
then let it be
both.
scarab beetles fly
spirals: plop, drop, round dance, lay
dung-***** bear new life

-cec
The weeds in our garden
Grew as fast as the pile
Of your unreplied letters
Such a sad race to behold...
REPOST. Written in sep/24.
It doesn’t sit right—
not anymore
the way three chairs
got up and left
without even
looking back—
it’s not right
when nothing is left.

I set a plate
anyway
push the salt closer—
just the right seasoning
for food
and wounds
left open—

It doesn’t sit right—
alone—
having leftovers
left and right
with a table
left standing—
It doesn’t sit right
when a table
can’t even talk back.
There's a little
boy that hides in
the dark corners of
my soul.
He doesn't want to
be hurt anymore.
I spent eight years
with Beth.
For the most part,
it was hell and
constant pain.
She made nightmares
look good.
I heard the
little boy cry
late into the
silky night,
while snails got
smashed on the streets
of Ventura.

When I drank, which was often,
the little boy seemed
at peace for awhile,
while swans were
murdered in Venice,
and I tasted the ashes
of Neruda.
Years flew by
like seagulls;
up
down
and darting.
The little boy
continued to
hide in the
dark corners of my soul.

He wanted to
come out and be loved.
He was thirsty for it,
but there wasn't
any around.
It was dry, like the
deserts in hell.
It's too late for
sorries here comes
the plow.

He began to see
the pattern of life.
Some monsters walk in the light.
Vulnerability equals pain.
The little boy got mean.
And now he carries
a knife.
Here is a link to my latest poetry reading on you tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSKnZMnMlTw

I read from both of my recently published books.
It's Just a Hop, Skip, and Jump to the Madhouse and Seedy Town Blues Collected Poems, both available on Amazon.com

www.thomaswcase.com
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