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"taverns" poems
The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away, The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers. Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May. There's one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot, One season ruined of your little store. May will be fine next year as like as not: But ay, but then we shall be twenty-four. We for a certainty are not the first Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed Whatever brute and blackguard made the world. It is in truth iniquity on high To cheat our sentenced souls of aught they crave, And mar the merriment as you and I Fare on our long fool's-errand to the grave. Iniquity it is; but pass the can. My lad, no pair of kings our mothers bore; Our only portion is the estate of man: We want the moon, but we shall get no more. If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours To-morrow it will hie on far behests; The flesh will grieve on other bones than ours Soon, and the soul will mourn in other ******* The troubles of our proud and angry dust Are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
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The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux
The sun glides into taverns and lights the tables where there is no city or country Only the walk and talk beside breaking hours Moths in steam Vistas of power plants you cannot clasp to your heart The streets and the fields will stretch your hands You want to taste gently outside the whip of sirens Like a deer
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Nov 25, 2011
Nov 25, 2011 at 9:22 AM UTC
Deer
All hail the Lizard King, whose esoteric words crawl like sirens over hungry rocks baring teeth to the hypnotized sailor steering his ship into the jagged maw. All hail the Lizard King, perched upon his Dionysian throne, ambrosial ecstasies fill his cup while jongleurs dance to psychedelic chansons. At his feet prey the nubile maidens of yore flower-eyed and pearly-teethed. His eyes, mighty azure pools of madness within which Byzantine kings were murdered-- blood darts through the mysterious waters into the hysterical white void. Alexander the Great sits poised like a statue where his libido crouches like a panther 'til the aural adonis leaps from his confines an amorous figure of tantalizing flesh and blood with supple lips pouting, naked muscles taut, mad eyes gleaming. All hail the Lizard King, from lush lips poetic decrees sing forth into the endless night penetrating taverns and bedrooms and radios and stadiums. The electric shaman leaps from his throne to cast his wicked incantation, a spark from his eyes shoots to the pyre where a lustful blue flame erupts from the bones of the prophets. HIs voice soothing, haunting, the sonic alchemist sings his siren song into the cataclysm where we are cast in abeyance-- We follow him, but is he only leading us deeper into the darkness, or does he truly see the light? The endless night. All hail the Lizard King.
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Dec 28, 2016
Dec 28, 2016 at 10:06 PM UTC
All Hail the Lizard King
In Rome on the Campo di Fiori Baskets of olives and lemons, Cobbles spattered with wine And the wreckage of flowers. Vendors cover the trestles With rose-pink fish; Armfuls of dark grapes Heaped on peach-down. On this same square They burned Giordano Bruno. Henchmen kindled the pyre Close-pressed by the mob. Before the flames had died The taverns were full again, Baskets of olives and lemons Again on the vendors' shoulders. I thought of the Campo dei Fiori In Warsaw by the sky-carousel One clear spring evening To the strains of a carnival tune. The bright melody drowned The salvos from the ghetto wall, And couples were flying High in the cloudless sky. At times wind from the burning Would driff dark kites along And riders on the carousel Caught petals in midair. That same hot wind Blew open the skirts of the girls And the crowds were laughing On that beautiful Warsaw Sunday. Someone will read as moral That the people of Rome or Warsaw Haggle, laugh, make love As they pass by martyrs' pyres. Someone else will read Of the passing of things human, Of the oblivion Born before the flames have died. But that day I thought only Of the loneliness of the dying, Of how, when Giordano Climbed to his burning There were no words In any human tongue To be left for mankind, Mankind who live on. Already they were back at their wine Or peddled their white starfish, Baskets of olives and lemons They had shouldered to the fair, And he already distanced As if centuries had passed While they paused just a moment For his flying in the fire. Those dying here, the lonely Forgotten by the world, Our tongue becomes for them The language of an ancient planet. Until, when all is legend And many years have passed, On a great Campo dci Fiori Rage will kindle at a poet's word.
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Campo di Fiori
In Rome on the Campo di Fiori Baskets of olives and lemons, Cobbles spattered with wine And the wreckage of flowers. Vendors cover the trestles With rose-pink fish; Armfuls of dark grapes Heaped on peach-down. On this same square They burned Giordano Bruno. Henchmen kindled the pyre Close-pressed by the mob. Before the flames had died The taverns were full again, Baskets of olives and lemons Again on the vendors' shoulders. I thought of the Campo dei Fiori In Warsaw by the sky-carousel One clear spring evening To the strains of a carnival tune. The bright melody drowned The salvos from the ghetto wall, And couples were flying High in the cloudless sky. At times wind from the burning Would driff dark kites along And riders on the carousel Caught petals in midair. That same hot wind Blew open the skirts of the girls And the crowds were laughing On that beautiful Warsaw Sunday. Someone will read as moral That the people of Rome or Warsaw Haggle, laugh, make love As they pass by martyrs' pyres. Someone else will read Of the passing of things human, Of the oblivion Born before the flames have died. But that day I thought only Of the loneliness of the dying, Of how, when Giordano Climbed to his burning There were no words In any human tongue To be left for mankind, Mankind who live on. Already they were back at their wine Or peddled their white starfish, Baskets of olives and lemons They had shouldered to the fair, And he already distanced As if centuries had passed While they paused just a moment For his flying in the fire. Those dying here, the lonely Forgotten by the world, Our tongue becomes for them The language of an ancient planet. Until, when all is legend And many years have passed, On a great Campo dci Fiori Rage will kindle at a poet's word.
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64
I have friends with whom I share, great poetry and verse. And friends I visit taverns with, to drink with and to curse. And friends with who I share a passion, for music and for art. And also those, just like me, kindred spirits of the heart. Some, I will call, when I am down, and weary from lifes' run. Some, I long to just gift a smile, before every day is done. Some, who seem to need my presence , to heal such a simple pain, Some whose smiles touch my soul, and shelter me from rain. Some who like the same wine as me, some coffee and some books. Some who care little of possessions, some who are all into looks. There are some with whom I share a movie, some I respect their great advice. There are some who are simply pure genius, and others; .... not quite so wise. From professions, they all do differ, no occupation is the same. Most of them have no mutual liking, but two...they share a name. No. Each friend, has naught the others', unique fortune, skills, or fame. But I endear each to their own, and treasure them all - the same.
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Mar 14, 2010
Mar 14, 2010 at 12:30 PM UTC
My Friends
Mountainous caverns And cavernous depths Plague and pillage taverns Bridle beleaguered breaths Forward the hour And hoist the scattered skies Time not to cower Behind blatant lies Prepare for the downfall As the mountain gives way Gruesome, thunderous brawl Is my death in this day If an avalanche is hell Then I am surely home Brokenly beaten and well: Where chaos freely roams Forget not our rise For we are not our sins But saints in the skies Banefully, ****** kin I am a vagabond in hell And a vagabond: I am free As heaven rings a final knell While the mountains collapse for me
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Aug 20, 2018
Aug 20, 2018 at 5:20 AM UTC
Heavenly Hell
My coat is black like the nights I have long forgotten. I left heaven for the taverns. I did my readings before daybreak when the moon was far aloft, but the nights got longer. I kept putting things off hoping I would discover a star I knew was there. Now I saw logs and leave the leaves where they fall.
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Jul 19, 2016
Jul 19, 2016 at 9:32 PM UTC
Wishing I'd got a PhD in Astronomy
I am a ***** of the very worst kind Not of *** and promiscuity A ***** of my own Creation You come up on my radar Latch Seek Destroy And you will never know Each and every one of my Dead lovers Never loved me back Tear them up Spit them out Abandoned Just like me But I hurt I feel emotion Like clods of dirt Inside my chest Rip it open Scream at each Small thing Wrong thing I want only this That I can never have Curses Plagues Dead Ex-lovers Stars in their eyes That look past my Efforts Hints Advances I am invisible Invincible Or so I like to think The invisible ***** You never saw me coming Till I cry these three tears Drop Drop Drop Two from the right One from the left Just like the rest So many to name That wouldn’t even know my Hurt Abandonment What have you done to me? Nothing It is I Only I Want so desperately To touch To be touched 3 little tears come from Within this cold hard Clenched fist Wetting my palm Trying to escape Flung at your calm Silent face. I want to be empty I want to not feel this Gift. Emotion. In the pit of my stomach Back of my throat Behind these eyes Sick And they fall One Two Three The time it takes to Break Die Latch Seek Destroy I am on a rampage To eat each man up Bone by bone Flesh and blood Thoughts and loves Till I spew it all back out To every person I meet I am a ***** of the very worst kind I’ve been everywhere Nowhere Inside everyone No One You cannot pay for me. I’m too cheap. You do not want me I am curse Brought on by Liars Abusers Molesters I am the product of A past Mistakes And I want you to Make me better But I become Worse Liken me please To those on the street Full of disease Because I am worth Nothing Of your time Energy Nothing And I expect Nothing more Than this Agonizingly Painful You Are just like Everyone else That I never wanted you To be So much more than Dead Ex-lovers Death from their lips In long streams of wire Attached at my wrists Ankles Binding me Cutting deep Blood Red Stains like my shirt Cutting me Scarring me Until I feel so much Nothing And uncountable tears Flood cities Destroy taverns Come knocking Breaking free Again And again And again And you are The same As those Starry-eyed, wire binding Dead Ex-Lovers So much alive Reminding me of every Failure Each scar on my wrist In the form of a name And now you join the rest In this shallow unmarked grave You are alone With them And I will Consume this hurt Like a breakfast Of nails and tacks Each bite will puncture The last remaining composure Till I am nothing once again Radar Radar Detecting Latch Seek Destroy All over again The very worst kind
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Aug 13, 2011
Aug 13, 2011 at 6:58 PM UTC
*****
I am a ***** of the very worst kind Not of *** and promiscuity A ***** of my own Creation You come up on my radar Latch Seek Destroy And you will never know Each and every one of my Dead lovers Never loved me back Tear them up Spit them out Abandoned Just like me But I hurt I feel emotion Like clods of dirt Inside my chest Rip it open Scream at each Small thing Wrong thing I want only this That I can never have Curses Plagues Dead Ex-lovers Stars in their eyes That look past my Efforts Hints Advances I am invisible Invincible Or so I like to think The invisible ***** You never saw me coming Till I cry these three tears Drop Drop Drop Two from the right One from the left Just like the rest So many to name That wouldn’t even know my Hurt Abandonment What have you done to me? Nothing It is I Only I Want so desperately To touch To be touched 3 little tears come from Within this cold hard Clenched fist Wetting my palm Trying to escape Flung at your calm Silent face. I want to be empty I want to not feel this Gift. Emotion. In the pit of my stomach Back of my throat Behind these eyes Sick And they fall One Two Three The time it takes to Break Die Latch Seek Destroy I am on a rampage To eat each man up Bone by bone Flesh and blood Thoughts and loves Till I spew it all back out To every person I meet I am a ***** of the very worst kind I’ve been everywhere Nowhere Inside everyone No One You cannot pay for me. I’m too cheap. You do not want me I am curse Brought on by Liars Abusers Molesters I am the product of A past Mistakes And I want you to Make me better But I become Worse Liken me please To those on the street Full of disease Because I am worth Nothing Of your time Energy Nothing And I expect Nothing more Than this Agonizingly Painful You Are just like Everyone else That I never wanted you To be So much more than Dead Ex-lovers Death from their lips In long streams of wire Attached at my wrists Ankles Binding me Cutting deep Blood Red Stains like my shirt Cutting me Scarring me Until I feel so much Nothing And uncountable tears Flood cities Destroy taverns Come knocking Breaking free Again And again And again And you are The same As those Starry-eyed, wire binding Dead Ex-Lovers So much alive Reminding me of every Failure Each scar on my wrist In the form of a name And now you join the rest In this shallow unmarked grave You are alone With them And I will Consume this hurt Like a breakfast Of nails and tacks Each bite will puncture The last remaining composure Till I am nothing once again Radar Radar Detecting Latch Seek Destroy All over again The very worst kind
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182
Here hang the wine-sotted troubadours of sadness and clouds, ~Having played serenas to paramours lipping at the cup of an evening bawd~ Like tethered donkeys now with their packsong of pastorela and alba, No more musical mensurations of the ****** Mary, Cantigas de Santa Maria, But slung over the railings of dawn-blotted taverns or courts of renown, Here hang the wine-sotted troubadours of sadness and clouds, Like drinking gourds, their stringed citherns dangle from their shoulders, Leaking the strummed honey-wine of sound like the retchings of the nearby sea.
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Jul 31, 2019
Jul 31, 2019 at 11:33 AM UTC
Here Hang the Wine-Sotted Troubadours
The fat lady came out first, tearing our roots and moistening drumskins. The fat lady who turns dying octopuses inside out. The fat lady, the moon's antagonist, was running through the streets and deserted buildings and leaving tiny skulls of pigeons in the corners and stirring up the furies of the last centuries' feasts and summinging the demon of bread through the sky's clean-swept hills and filtering a longing for light into subterranean tunnels. The graveyards, yes the graveyards and the sorrow of the kitchens buried in sand, and dead, pheasants and apples of another era, pushing it into our throat. There were murmurings from the jungle of ***** with the empty women, with hot wax children, with fermtented trees and tireless waiters who serve platters of salt beneath harps of saliva. There's no other way, my son, ***** There's no other way. It's not the ***** of hussars on the ******* of their ****** nor the ***** of cats that inadvertently swallowed frogs, but the dead who scratch with clay hands on flint gates where clouds and desserts decay. The fat lady came first with the crowds from the ships,s taverns, and parks. ***** was delicately shaking its drums among a few little girls of blood who were begging the moon for protection. Who could imagine my sadness? The look on my face was mine, but now isn't me, the naked look on my face, trembling for alcohol and launching incredible ships through the anemones of the piers. I protect myself with this look that flows from waves where no dawn would go. I, poet without arms, lost in the vomiting multitude, with no effusive horse to shear the thick moss from my temples. The fat lady went first and the crowds kept looking for pharmacies where the bitter tropics could be found. Only when a flag went up and the first dogs arrived did the entire city rush to the railings of the boardwalk.
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Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude
The fat lady came out first, tearing our roots and moistening drumskins. The fat lady who turns dying octopuses inside out. The fat lady, the moon's antagonist, was running through the streets and deserted buildings and leaving tiny skulls of pigeons in the corners and stirring up the furies of the last centuries' feasts and summinging the demon of bread through the sky's clean-swept hills and filtering a longing for light into subterranean tunnels. The graveyards, yes the graveyards and the sorrow of the kitchens buried in sand, and dead, pheasants and apples of another era, pushing it into our throat. There were murmurings from the jungle of ***** with the empty women, with hot wax children, with fermtented trees and tireless waiters who serve platters of salt beneath harps of saliva. There's no other way, my son, ***** There's no other way. It's not the ***** of hussars on the ******* of their ****** nor the ***** of cats that inadvertently swallowed frogs, but the dead who scratch with clay hands on flint gates where clouds and desserts decay. The fat lady came first with the crowds from the ships,s taverns, and parks. ***** was delicately shaking its drums among a few little girls of blood who were begging the moon for protection. Who could imagine my sadness? The look on my face was mine, but now isn't me, the naked look on my face, trembling for alcohol and launching incredible ships through the anemones of the piers. I protect myself with this look that flows from waves where no dawn would go. I, poet without arms, lost in the vomiting multitude, with no effusive horse to shear the thick moss from my temples. The fat lady went first and the crowds kept looking for pharmacies where the bitter tropics could be found. Only when a flag went up and the first dogs arrived did the entire city rush to the railings of the boardwalk.
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44
WAGON WHEEL GAP is a place I never saw And Red Horse Gulch and the chutes of ******* Creek. Red-shirted miners picking in the sluices, Gamblers with red neckties in the night streets, The fly-by-night towns of Bull Frog and Skiddoo, The night-cool limestone white of Death Valley, The straight drop of eight hundred feet From a shelf road in the Hasiampa Valley: Men and places they are I never saw. I have seen three White Horse taverns, One in Illinois, one in Pennsylvania, One in a timber-hid road of Wisconsin. I bought cheese and crackers Between sun showers in a place called White Pigeon Nestling with a blacksmith shop, a post-office, And a berry-crate factory, where four roads cross. On the Pecatonica River near Freeport I have seen boys run barefoot in the leaves Throwing clubs at the walnut trees In the yellow-and-gold of autumn, And there was a brown mash dry on the inside of their hands. On the Cedar Fork Creek of Knox County I know how the fingers of late October Loosen the hazel nuts. I know the brown eyes of half-open hulls. I know boys named Lindquist, Swanson, Hildebrand. I remember their cries when the nuts were ripe. And some are in machine shops; some are in the navy; And some are not on payrolls anywhere. Their mothers are through waiting for them to come home.
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Localities
What is a moth if not a butterfly who's traded in her grace and colour for pitter-patter sighs Inked nights To sift shy in shadows And forever thirst for light Soft Laughs in Dim lit taverns Almost winked out flames She's the tattered mistress of stars forgotten partaker Of a lesser praise
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Jun 9, 2020
Jun 9, 2020 at 8:26 PM UTC
Oh Woman Of Moth
 alarm clock set for early morning wails and peels without fair warning rub my eyes in an effort to see surprised to wake up in the state of VT what is this, where did it go whats a po’ boy doing far from buff’lo where be the park, the lake and da’ strip where are the people with the stiff upper lip why leave the breeze, the squalls, the kimmelweck the taverns where gran’pa drank anisette that sycamore growin’ on Franklin street the angst that consumed a community beat the grimy grey skies to summers impossibly what happened to lead me to the state of VT? {not right to accuse others of conceit why play handball with self deceit? far better to accept the things that be and apply my emotions, stoically} for one place is much like the other careers are for greenbacks, that’s why the bother of numbers and lawyers, of panels of priests up north, out west, down south and back east I am dissolved in a prelude that leads to eternity with so many points available, might as well be VT
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Feb 24, 2013
Feb 24, 2013 at 10:02 AM UTC
Lake Erie Blues
I've lost count of the taverns Where my face has  kissed the floor at least twenty down in Texas Arizona, fourteen more twenty three in California In Wyoming, seventeen You can see there's lots of places I've been drunk But, haven't seen Kissed sixteen floors down in Nevada Twelve in Idaho Four over  in Hawaii and  in New Mexico It's not that I'm a fighter It isn't that I'm mean I'm just a drinker with a problem In the places that I've been It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate I kissed six in Massachuesetts Eleven more in Washington Twice, I ended on a table So, I just count them as one New Jersey I kissed plenty I lost count up in New York Up there the floors are softer Some floors are filled with cork Florida, I kissed the beach Seven times, at least I think One time doesn't count though I kissed the beach and didn't drink Lousianna, kissed a lot there There's a lot of floors to kiss I hit every bar down on Canal Street There wasn't one I didn't miss In South Dakota, can't remember Not too many bars around But, I did get in trouble once And yes....I kissed the ground Virginia, and Ohio Up in Minnesota too In Michigan, oh man oh man I kissed near twenty two In Illinois I kissed nineteen In Georgia, I kissed nine I found six teeth where I last fell And only two of them were mine there is not one location Where my face and floors have kissed I'm an alcoholic travel guide And I keep running into fists It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate
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Jun 27, 2014
Jun 27, 2014 at 7:35 AM UTC
Kissing The Floor
I've lost count of the taverns Where my face has  kissed the floor at least twenty down in Texas Arizona, fourteen more twenty three in California In Wyoming, seventeen You can see there's lots of places I've been drunk But, haven't seen Kissed sixteen floors down in Nevada Twelve in Idaho Four over  in Hawaii and  in New Mexico It's not that I'm a fighter It isn't that I'm mean I'm just a drinker with a problem In the places that I've been It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate I kissed six in Massachuesetts Eleven more in Washington Twice, I ended on a table So, I just count them as one New Jersey I kissed plenty I lost count up in New York Up there the floors are softer Some floors are filled with cork Florida, I kissed the beach Seven times, at least I think One time doesn't count though I kissed the beach and didn't drink Lousianna, kissed a lot there There's a lot of floors to kiss I hit every bar down on Canal Street There wasn't one I didn't miss In South Dakota, can't remember Not too many bars around But, I did get in trouble once And yes....I kissed the ground Virginia, and Ohio Up in Minnesota too In Michigan, oh man oh man I kissed near twenty two In Illinois I kissed nineteen In Georgia, I kissed nine I found six teeth where I last fell And only two of them were mine there is not one location Where my face and floors have kissed I'm an alcoholic travel guide And I keep running into fists It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate
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64
From across the hall, I watched her double over Coleridge, sympathizing as she looked up to the thin curtain filtering the street-light universe past the pane held in hot glue. The click-heels, car barks, ceaseless L-Train turnstiles, tipsy choirs in cracked-door taverns, hinges, keys on carabiners, bus hydraulics, the wall clock, and her fingers caressing the page. She loved a soft wind carrying birdsong through screen doors and dowel chimes. She used to leave her shoes lace-tangled by the key rack until she saw glass pollen sparkling in a caged tulip blossom. She raised the book and sullenly whispered the last stanza of Frost at Midnight into the spine, wondering how anyone could live away from impressionist-dandelion forests, children's plastic toys in the front yard, and church bells at every hour. I wondered the same thing.
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May 11, 2015
May 11, 2015 at 4:01 PM UTC
Homesick
we are the insects trapped inside homemade fly traps glued on at the roof of the mouth underbelly, I run around looking for trouble trailer park princess, bar-fights in every space between my teeth I'm a child of a child I beat my paper wings against the shamelessness Dance like the cigarette breaks are forever Swisher blunts for the forget-me-not flowers inside backseats of cars, cabs, stolen automobiles Revenge, locked jaw police officers like the fathers that never let you hold a gun so you become one Taste blood, tongues, beauty in chaos loose lips, stolen drugstore mascara and no more bruised knees Boys like soft but you're the ******* Armageddon, knuckle-ring gods and all so the men want to be kings and you grow up a feral cat sleeping in twin sized beds with a mouthful of curse words Lord of the flies, lot lizards and truck-stop races gritty bathroom graffiti is the cathedral but prayers never stop Taverns with your name and the angels that spit The television static never ends here, cicadas   Doors with mosquitoes held hostage, home for supper wasted by dessert Down in the dirt, grimy bathtub I unearth all the things I couldn't drink away; all the motel fantasies, cum-stained skirts and the neon lights waiting for the swarm
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Aug 1, 2015
Aug 1, 2015 at 5:36 AM UTC
Beelzebub
Gliding through the fresh snowflakes of my mind; feeling warm and sociable in the taverns of my contented heart I embrace this winter's day as a benevolent gift chosen from Your inexhaustable chest of treasures.
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Jul 5, 2010
Jul 5, 2010 at 7:38 AM UTC
Gliding
I'm looking for an answer As I move from town to town I leave a trail of empty bottles For the voices I must drown Nothing in each bottle Not an answer in the glass But, I'm still looking for an answer To a question life has asked Bottle after bottle In each tavern and each bar I travel round by greyhound I long sold off my car I leave a trail of empties And of cigarettes and dope Looking for an answer Looking for some hope I'm sure it was a question And I know I heard it clear I think I was on my seventh bourbon Or maybe my ninth beer I can not quite remember Where I heard the voices first Were they asking me a question Or responding to my thirst I'm looking for the answer To a question, that I think Was asked to me by voices That I heard once in a drink The voices are much louder now They will not quiet down I have to find the answer I just have to find the town Nowhere in my memory bank Is there space for one more voice I have to find the answer Or I have to make a choice Do I keep on looking for The answer in the glass How do I turn the voices off And put them in the past I know a million taverns Like some folks know the stars They look up to find their answers I just keep looking for the bars I leave trail of bottles And I look in every glass 'cause somewhere there's an answer To a question I was asked I can not quite remember Where I heard the voices first Were they asking me a question Or responding to my thirst I'm looking for the answer To a question, that I think Was asked to me by voices That I heard once in a drink
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Apr 12, 2014
Apr 12, 2014 at 10:52 PM UTC
The answer to a question
I'm looking for an answer As I move from town to town I leave a trail of empty bottles For the voices I must drown Nothing in each bottle Not an answer in the glass But, I'm still looking for an answer To a question life has asked Bottle after bottle In each tavern and each bar I travel round by greyhound I long sold off my car I leave a trail of empties And of cigarettes and dope Looking for an answer Looking for some hope I'm sure it was a question And I know I heard it clear I think I was on my seventh bourbon Or maybe my ninth beer I can not quite remember Where I heard the voices first Were they asking me a question Or responding to my thirst I'm looking for the answer To a question, that I think Was asked to me by voices That I heard once in a drink The voices are much louder now They will not quiet down I have to find the answer I just have to find the town Nowhere in my memory bank Is there space for one more voice I have to find the answer Or I have to make a choice Do I keep on looking for The answer in the glass How do I turn the voices off And put them in the past I know a million taverns Like some folks know the stars They look up to find their answers I just keep looking for the bars I leave trail of bottles And I look in every glass 'cause somewhere there's an answer To a question I was asked I can not quite remember Where I heard the voices first Were they asking me a question Or responding to my thirst I'm looking for the answer To a question, that I think Was asked to me by voices That I heard once in a drink
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56
I reflect with a projection, when hearing melodies of rhythm or stronger lower basses like guttural voice chords, especially in the dark or being on a waiting room of a car ride, whenever I want it or not / an endless dance or some semi-tangible image that twirls into hot red rose petals even though there’s no dress to whizz, feet strong like Carmen Amaya’s had no mercy for Iberian taverns’ dance floors of flamenco / watching that spectacle always from discarded collage views / of that accounting and how no voice is needed to direct the melody a vector, only let it be sung-thrung through the heat rising and orchestra listened to completely, sharp motions in the eyes of the crowd or those who had ever considered pondering on me like a philosophy... Maybe such styles and asphyxiations of rapid ragged jerkings of too sharp notes in the air cutting the atmosphere like a blunt knife have got to me a long time ago, stay ever more as visions to moves audacious, and have been chosen beforehand my vessel without its decision to be turned into something greater in the collaboration with my own other dishes to fit Passion. Then - then - I always imagine - then in all that how any certain entity would be looking at that, taking it in from the outside and what that painting of me partly will be made as in their sculpted no flesh eyes. / Thank you Ladies, Gentlemen, Whoever Further for attending /
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Nov 8, 2020
Nov 8, 2020 at 11:36 AM UTC
Morenorosa
My brother was twelve years older so I knew him not so well, But heard of him in the taverns, Getting drunk, and raising hell, My mother said, ‘Keep away from him,’ And I did, for many years, But blood is blood, and a brother should Help out, though it ends in tears. He’d done a spot of embezzling, He’d picked the pockets of Earls, You never left him to tend a horse And he wasn’t safe with girls, But he was my brother Toby, And I was his brother Tim, I’d often find him beneath my bed When he said, ‘Don’t let them in!’ By ‘them’ he had meant the Runners Who were active in the Bow, And some of the old Thief-Takers With their ruffians in tow, They roamed the streets with their cudgels And would lie, just out of sight, Beyond the doors of the Taverns, when They turned them adrift at night. The streets were mean, and were far from clean Where my brother used to roam, Despite the pleas of our mother, who Would beg him to come back home, But father remained unbending, said His eldest son was a swine, ‘His endless scrapes, a Jackanapes! He is no son of mine!’ I heard he’d taken a horse and fled From a stables in the Strand, ‘There’s little that anyone now can do, When they catch him, he’ll be hanged!’ My mother, crying a flood of tears As my father cursed and swore, ‘I’ll call the Runners, or I’ll be ****** If you let him through my door!’ So Toby galloped to Hounslow Heath Along the Great West Road, Teamed up with the brute Tom Wilmot, Lay low in his abode, They’d venture out on a moonlit night To wait for the latest Stage, But Tom was never the gentleman, Or known to contain his rage. They stopped the coach on a lonely night ‘Your money or your life!’ Dragged out a country gentleman, His maid, and his homely wife, He wanted the ring on the lady’s hand But her finger held it tight, So he sawed the finger off as well With a sharp, serrated knife. ‘It was terrible,’ Toby told me As they loaded him onto the cart, ‘The screams and the blood, unholy,’ As the horse was about to depart, They hung him high on the Tyburn Tree Next to the Wilmot pig, Not undeserved, but I cried and cursed As he danced the Tyburn jig. David Lewis Paget
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Jan 21, 2014
Jan 21, 2014 at 10:02 AM UTC
The Tyburn Jig
My brother was twelve years older so I knew him not so well, But heard of him in the taverns, Getting drunk, and raising hell, My mother said, ‘Keep away from him,’ And I did, for many years, But blood is blood, and a brother should Help out, though it ends in tears. He’d done a spot of embezzling, He’d picked the pockets of Earls, You never left him to tend a horse And he wasn’t safe with girls, But he was my brother Toby, And I was his brother Tim, I’d often find him beneath my bed When he said, ‘Don’t let them in!’ By ‘them’ he had meant the Runners Who were active in the Bow, And some of the old Thief-Takers With their ruffians in tow, They roamed the streets with their cudgels And would lie, just out of sight, Beyond the doors of the Taverns, when They turned them adrift at night. The streets were mean, and were far from clean Where my brother used to roam, Despite the pleas of our mother, who Would beg him to come back home, But father remained unbending, said His eldest son was a swine, ‘His endless scrapes, a Jackanapes! He is no son of mine!’ I heard he’d taken a horse and fled From a stables in the Strand, ‘There’s little that anyone now can do, When they catch him, he’ll be hanged!’ My mother, crying a flood of tears As my father cursed and swore, ‘I’ll call the Runners, or I’ll be ****** If you let him through my door!’ So Toby galloped to Hounslow Heath Along the Great West Road, Teamed up with the brute Tom Wilmot, Lay low in his abode, They’d venture out on a moonlit night To wait for the latest Stage, But Tom was never the gentleman, Or known to contain his rage. They stopped the coach on a lonely night ‘Your money or your life!’ Dragged out a country gentleman, His maid, and his homely wife, He wanted the ring on the lady’s hand But her finger held it tight, So he sawed the finger off as well With a sharp, serrated knife. ‘It was terrible,’ Toby told me As they loaded him onto the cart, ‘The screams and the blood, unholy,’ As the horse was about to depart, They hung him high on the Tyburn Tree Next to the Wilmot pig, Not undeserved, but I cried and cursed As he danced the Tyburn jig. David Lewis Paget
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"To the victor goes the spoils" This everyone knows. However, not all spoils are created equally. Wealth--especially material--is wondrous. Territory--especially far-off-- is tempting. Power--especially political--is promising. Influence--especially cultural--is intoxicating. Not one, however, can compare To the greatest spoil of all. The greatest spoil of all Is neither tangible nor immediate. The greatest spoil of all Is the ablity to control history. The ability to control history Is not to be scoffed. It is but the victor's voice we hear As accepted history. The loser's voice is silenced, Heard at most as a murmur. The victor's voice is a trumpet, Sounding loud and clear. The loser's voice is a wooden flute, Unheard except by its fellows. The victor's song is one of rejoicing Echoing in the cathedrals and palace-halls. The loser's song is one of mourning Heard in the taverns and shanty-towns. We hear what the victor Sees fit that we hear. His crimes never see the light of day, While the sins of the loser are displayed at e'ery chance. Think for a moment, The next time you hear a victor's speech. And remember that he is in control Of the greatest spoil of all.
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Nov 4, 2013
Nov 4, 2013 at 6:55 PM UTC
The Greatest Spoil of All
He couldn't not take off the backward cap that hides his tousled hair as he pulls back the high-backed stool he'll perch himself on next to this unfamiliar beauty. He couldn't not accept the bourbon shot, a pert bartender offers to keep his pint company and lend him extra courage. He couldn't not exchange an inquiring smile then a glib remark about the heat and the sudden appeal of dank taverns. He could watch her small gestures for hours and never lose interest. The way alabaster fingers tease auburn hair, they pull at his longing for a moment they'll land to still his right hand nervously tapping so useless against the emptied glass. He couldn't guess where it all might lead, but he couldn't not take the chance it might, somewhere. Her accent sounds French, and it is Bastille Day. Anything's possible, n'est-ce pas?
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Jul 28, 2010
Jul 28, 2010 at 4:40 PM UTC
Making positive use of a double-negative on Bastille Day
There are no ****** Rottweilers tethered to steel poles outside basement taverns. No emaciated men picking **** mites on their faces or women staring blankly into the fog of their day. Not a bad smell, a dead bird on a lawn, an old person wearing a sweater too tight or a poor kid with a cleft palate; not in Euphoria.
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Sep 1, 2016
Sep 1, 2016 at 6:28 AM UTC
Euphoria, A Small American Town
How innocently and wholly she fell for me-    It's a shame we won't have that again.    What good are the taverns and church bells  When love is the doula of rain? I'd rather be drowned in red water    Than have these bad dreams chisel stone in my mind  I felt the deep call of my meat to the slaughter-  The marvelous, numbing, sweet nothing, sublime.   My finest carbuncle I offered, she smiled,    Uncomprehending intangible worth;   It's red like the robin's fine coat in the morning    On the unfortunate day of my birth.   How innocently and wholly she fell for me-    It's a shame she won't have that again.  What use for the taverns and church yards  When love is the doula of rain?
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Apr 23, 2013
Apr 23, 2013 at 12:32 AM UTC
Taverns and Churchbells