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"vaudeville" poems
nobody loses all the time i had an uncle named Sol who was a born failure and nearly everybody said he should have gone into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable of all to use a highfalootin phrase luxuries that is or to wit farming and be it needlessly added my Uncle Sol’s farm failed because the chickens ate the vegetables so my Uncle Sol had a chicken farm till the skunks ate the chickens when my Uncle Sol had a skunk farm but the skunks caught cold and died and so my Uncle Sol imitated the skunks in a subtle manner or by drowning himself in the watertank but somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor Victrola and records while he lived presented to him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and i remember we all cried like the Missouri when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because somebody pressed a button (and down went my Uncle Sol and started a worm farm)
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132k
Nobody Loses All The Time
By A Foreigner I like Americans. They are so unlike Canadians. They do not take their policemen seriously. They come to Montreal to drink. Not to criticize. They claim they won the war. But they know at heart that they didn't. They have such respect for Englishmen. They like to live abroad. They do not brag about how they take baths. But they take them. Their teeth are so good. And they wear B.V.D.'s all the year round. I wish they didn't brag about it. They have the second best navy in the world. But they never mention it. They would like to have Henry Ford for president. But they will not elect him. They saw through Bill Bryan. They have gotten tired of Billy Sunday. Their men have such funny hair cuts. They are hard to **** in on Europe. They have been there once. They produced Barney Google, Mutt and Jeff. And Jiggs. They do not hang lady murderers. They put them in vaudeville. They read the Saturday Evening Post And believe in Santa Claus. When they make money They make a lot of money. They are fine people.
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6.3k
I Like Americans
Gypsy Rose Lee. Is that you or me? Does that make you Baby June? The favourite and best No concern for the rest You sing and you dance in the tune. Or just like Gypsy You learn how to strip tease The glamour and glitz of the night. But who's mama Rose? And how could I know? She pushes and leads to a fight. But Gypsy is magic And a rare art form And June is so dainty Doesn't know when she's born She's the centre of attention She's the first one who speaks And Gypsy is left there Still being Louise. Chow mein and lambs Travel the land A show on vaudeville stage. Let me entertain you Let me have a try too Honey, were you not entertained?
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Jun 21, 2015
Jun 21, 2015 at 5:17 PM UTC
Gypsy Rose Lee.
We knew limited evil. We base-valued desirable evil. We unharness a nice, obedient, satan-tail. She was fresh. A raw, vile, unwashed beast. A love-lorn evil bear. She ate you so loud -Idle Wrath —————————————————————————————————— Would you believe, I can’t lie? She was a runner. I was a bleeder. She ran fast. She was a love I’ll never know. She was a debutante. she was vaudeville. I don’t believe I’m losing it. -Wild Heart
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Oct 8, 2011
Oct 8, 2011 at 3:07 PM UTC
Sincere Afterthought (Anagram #5)
Good morning rooster How do you do? It’s the crack of dawn You cock-a-doodle-do You sit on your perch pride fully and woo Standing mighty and bold you call your brood for food Sleek and graceful you do the cockerel waltz Strutting vaudeville statuesque Crowing to proclaim your territory You stand protecting your roost ***** and brave Watching for predators coming your way The alpha male Your earlobes and crown are blood red like a bird of paradise Your steel beak as strong as a saw Your feather mane chestnut drapes over your back Your breast fuchsia and emerald quill Your silken tail an extended fan You run free reign on my ranch A thousand chickens roost in my barn You rearrange my garden while pecking for nourishment Eating up all the insects and brown recluses in my yard In dust you and your flock bathe You even watch over the hens eggs Your calls distinct and powerful When you are still and content sweet singing rings You are friendly to humans And can even be domesticated Stay here Roo We will protect you
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Oct 8, 2010
Oct 8, 2010 at 7:10 AM UTC
Cockerel Waltz
The club is small and dark and hazy like the veiled comedy of minstrel performers. Those dingy lights do little for the atmosphere— dangling hemp from clouds of cigarette smoke. This hole is filled with the classy of day and the sassy of night—a real “blue material” kinda crowd. Harry, the manager, after calling quarter and five, booked some awful oleo acts just minutes before “places!” —The crowd sits on their hands ‘til they’re numb and lame like the fish they watch flop on the boards. Two acts down followed by some soot-covered clown’s lazzo about who’s who and what’s what. Give me a break! The crowd wants fresh fish to fry— Girlies in pearlies with spun out legs that tower the torsos they’re pinned to. Give them that New York Style Cheese-cakewalk Variety Act! The listless listeners of this K.A. circuit let out a snake-like hiss, en masse. (The only show stoppers are off the billing, stage left at some other club!) The manager thinks fast like a quick change act— Harry snatches a prop from the nearest kook— In a long brown bathrobe, with a broad brown cane. He hushed the crowd of loud, jeering jerks, in one swift swoop of his leg-breaking, knockout **** called The Vaudeville Hook.
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Jun 23, 2012
Jun 23, 2012 at 8:10 PM UTC
The Vaudeville Hook
these faces on the wall that have no eyes, the young children with blood escaping from their hands as they pick up a mound of the Earth and throw at genuflected roses. these battered men in parks searching for light and my woman is no longer with me. it’s all vaudeville: this obnoxious working of continuance, these redundant flutings, these unprecedented fluctuations. opening the yellow gates to death as the automobile churns the last of its exhausted snarl. we are children peering through glass cases as death laughs at his hopeless clientele, sad, desolate progenies in working-classes, in parks, in factories, somewhere along Mendiola, or just treading the waist-high hellish froths of Dapitan, there’s always death in the nooks of the quiet and from where birds stir in sidereal circles, death with his hands resting on the cage, chases us back to our homes. death the changing of the gatekeeper. death the telling machine. death the dentist. death my next door neighbor. death, this boorish broken-winged Maya twitching in front of my dog’s shadow shot out of the Sun’s shameful recoil. death, my loud and loutish muse, death the truant, death, the copious fog somewhere in Kennon Rd. death, in my hands through darkness and light, death through troves of enigma, death through undisputed clearings, death the long line of red beads in EDSA, death the gates of Plaridel, it’s the moon following you, trailing your measure, i hold my woman’s used shirt, pick up her photographs and there’s no tender movement left but the still-seeking lion prowling the jungles of my heart, seared by lovelorn undoing. through the bottom of the sky and the unchanging roof-beam, the weathervane ceases to a sojourn and the wind is trapped in a place where we cannot utter any word between the gnashing of our teeth – through the wasted years, through the sleeping in and out of homes filled with beatings, to cathedrals swollen with tribulations, and to the vineyards wrung out of wine, my lover, walking through fire, sound silence.
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Jan 2, 2016
Jan 2, 2016 at 9:20 PM UTC
Anthem
these faces on the wall that have no eyes, the young children with blood escaping from their hands as they pick up a mound of the Earth and throw at genuflected roses. these battered men in parks searching for light and my woman is no longer with me. it’s all vaudeville: this obnoxious working of continuance, these redundant flutings, these unprecedented fluctuations. opening the yellow gates to death as the automobile churns the last of its exhausted snarl. we are children peering through glass cases as death laughs at his hopeless clientele, sad, desolate progenies in working-classes, in parks, in factories, somewhere along Mendiola, or just treading the waist-high hellish froths of Dapitan, there’s always death in the nooks of the quiet and from where birds stir in sidereal circles, death with his hands resting on the cage, chases us back to our homes. death the changing of the gatekeeper. death the telling machine. death the dentist. death my next door neighbor. death, this boorish broken-winged Maya twitching in front of my dog’s shadow shot out of the Sun’s shameful recoil. death, my loud and loutish muse, death the truant, death, the copious fog somewhere in Kennon Rd. death, in my hands through darkness and light, death through troves of enigma, death through undisputed clearings, death the long line of red beads in EDSA, death the gates of Plaridel, it’s the moon following you, trailing your measure, i hold my woman’s used shirt, pick up her photographs and there’s no tender movement left but the still-seeking lion prowling the jungles of my heart, seared by lovelorn undoing. through the bottom of the sky and the unchanging roof-beam, the weathervane ceases to a sojourn and the wind is trapped in a place where we cannot utter any word between the gnashing of our teeth – through the wasted years, through the sleeping in and out of homes filled with beatings, to cathedrals swollen with tribulations, and to the vineyards wrung out of wine, my lover, walking through fire, sound silence.
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43
The last pose flickered, failed. The screen's dead white Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light Stabbing the eyes; and as I stumbled out The curtain rose. A fat girl with a pout And legs like hams, began to sing "His Mother". Gusts of bad air rose in a choking smother; Smoke, the wet steam of clothes, the stench of plush, Powder, cheap perfume, mingled in a rush. I stepped into the lobby -- and stood still Struck dumb by sudden beauty, body and will. Cleanness and rapture -- excellence made plain -- The storming, thrashing arrows of the rain! Pouring and dripping on the roofs and rods, Smelling of woods and hills and fresh-turned sods, Black on the sidewalks, gray in the far sky, Crashing on thirsty panes, on gutters dry, Hurrying the crowd to shelter, making fair The streets, the houses, and the heat-soaked air, -- Merciful, holy, charging, sweeping, flashing, It smote the soul with a most iron clashing! . . . Like dragons' eyes the street-lamps suddenly gleamed, Yellow and round and dim-low globes of flame. And, scarce-perceived, the clouds' tall banners streamed. Out of the petty wars, the daily shame, Beauty strove suddenly, and rose, and flowered. . . . I gripped my coat and plunged where awnings lowered. Made one with hissing blackness, caught, embraced, By splendor and by striving and swift haste -- Spring coming in with thunderings and strife -- I stamped the ground in the strong joy of life!
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1.8k
Rain After a Vaudeville Show
A thespian In a play A strong man But not strong today Leading girl gone away One act One scene One line to say His kōan "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Silence. Pretty girl Gamine thin Her Ribs Bent staves Round a coopers bin And at the clubs She picks up men Who leave her When they’ve Had their fill. And still It’s courtly love she seeks A treasure trove That is for keeps. Her kōan "The moon cannot be stolen." But maybe if she seduces it… It will be hers. She’s middle aged There’s not much left Her ******* aren’t firm She’s barrel shaped She watches soaps And talks with friends And fights the fear That if it ends... She hasn’t amounted to Much at all She could have been more If she just had the time Her kōan "What are you doing?" Nothing.
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Jan 17, 2010
Jan 17, 2010 at 1:06 PM UTC
Vaudeville
Zenia Argos is tired. Tired to her ventricles, but still curious. She might possibly have told the right person on a certain type of night in the right kind of bar that she defined herself by her curiosity. Now she felt that her strange mind and her odd ways probably overwhelmed her and had thereby come to define her. ~^~ Zenia not only felt undefined, she felt amorphous. Like a ghost in a black silk raincoat and black patent leather stiletto  heels, she stalked through airports and the gutters of various cities. She forgot to ask herself meaningful questions. She forgot to ask herself any questions at all. ~^~ One day in some unbelievably high-numbered floor of a high-rise hotel in a city whose name she had forgotten she woke up in a luxurious enough bed with a body on the other side of it, face turned away from her. Her brain tossed up only this inane phrase, which repelled and fascinated her at the same time. "Age has it's privileges" First thought after that was a silly image of an actual ledge, outside of a high rise building such as the one she found herself in at the moment. With a cartoon cat and a cartoon Zenia fighting to stay on the edge, and comically slipping, hilariously falling, and hanging on, in fast forward and then reverse, and she lay there with her eyes closed and watched the vaudeville show for as long as it took to run through it's loop several times. ~^~ Then she wondered why she was thinking in perfume ad cliches, especially ones from decades, perhaps many decades ago? This prompted her to jump, catlike, from prone, to alert, and holding her gun from beneath pillow, scanning the room. Nope. Not a perfume ad.
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Jun 18, 2018
Jun 18, 2018 at 8:04 PM UTC
Zenia Argos is
Zenia Argos is tired. Tired to her ventricles, but still curious. She might possibly have told the right person on a certain type of night in the right kind of bar that she defined herself by her curiosity. Now she felt that her strange mind and her odd ways probably overwhelmed her and had thereby come to define her. ~^~ Zenia not only felt undefined, she felt amorphous. Like a ghost in a black silk raincoat and black patent leather stiletto  heels, she stalked through airports and the gutters of various cities. She forgot to ask herself meaningful questions. She forgot to ask herself any questions at all. ~^~ One day in some unbelievably high-numbered floor of a high-rise hotel in a city whose name she had forgotten she woke up in a luxurious enough bed with a body on the other side of it, face turned away from her. Her brain tossed up only this inane phrase, which repelled and fascinated her at the same time. "Age has it's privileges" First thought after that was a silly image of an actual ledge, outside of a high rise building such as the one she found herself in at the moment. With a cartoon cat and a cartoon Zenia fighting to stay on the edge, and comically slipping, hilariously falling, and hanging on, in fast forward and then reverse, and she lay there with her eyes closed and watched the vaudeville show for as long as it took to run through it's loop several times. ~^~ Then she wondered why she was thinking in perfume ad cliches, especially ones from decades, perhaps many decades ago? This prompted her to jump, catlike, from prone, to alert, and holding her gun from beneath pillow, scanning the room. Nope. Not a perfume ad.
Continue reading...
13
The fog crept in on giant monster claws, Surely no itty-bitty feline foots, I pray: “Feets don’t fail me now,” A line that will live in infamy, Way back in a vaudeville when, A minstrel Chitlin Circuit then, Was an actor known as the "Laziest man in the world," A character designed to stick to a Collective white consciousness, Stick like Tar-Baby, that negative Image of African-American men-- I speak of The Brothers-- Who for over a century, have been Struggling to live down a pernicious, Most persistently demeaning, Hollywood trope. Tribute is due to the black actor born: Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Oh, Mr. Perry, & yes, you were the First black actor to receive Screen credit in a film. Well, I guess that puts you right up there, With Jackie Robinson & Sidney Poitier, Carver or Tubman, or any of those Countless northern abolitionists-- With no personal stake in slavery, Or emancipation, but fervent nonetheless-- Color-barrier breakers & Household saints a-coming & A-marching in, in that number . . . You paid a big price, Mr. Perry: The indignity & débauche, By abject surrender to the Boss Man, Tribute, recognition is due for Feats of humility & self-abasement, Entailing total superhuman surrender, Capitulation to the dismal, prevailing State of American race relations at the time. Stepin Fetchit: a name & a persona, Not just painfully racist, but Downright subversive.
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Jul 4, 2015
Jul 4, 2015 at 1:45 AM UTC
"Stepin Fetchit: Disambiguation"
ELSIE FLIMMERWON, you got a job now with a jazz outfit in vaudeville. The houses go wild when you finish the act shimmying a fast shimmy to The Livery Stable Blues. It is long ago, Elsie Flimmerwon, I saw your mother over a washtub in a grape arbor when your father came with the locomotor ataxia shuffle. It is long ago, Elsie, and now they spell your name with an electric sign. Then you were a little thing in checked gingham and your mother wiped your nose and said: You little fool, keep off the streets. Now you are a big girl at last and streetfuls of people read your name and a line of people shaped like a letter S stand at the box office hoping to see you shimmy.
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1.6k
Vaudeville Dancer
dark leaps when there is the frothing light beaming a sizable aureole on your face this evening and its palpable brigade. dark is having your inwoven dress free from swaying pressed against raucous facelessness of things rogue and renegade. and when i have you not, shining the light and its intone, wind felt like stabs or i in attendance of a crazed vaudeville— trapeze is the hinge of the void afloat, upstream, space-hovering; a display of love and not so much is shown of the vertigo trapped in a square, a face impinged in the seamlessness of this fabulation when you've gone quickly fading out; light is my remember, o, dark my forgetling.
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Nov 3, 2015
Nov 3, 2015 at 7:15 AM UTC
Two Poems (Davao Blurs): (2) Contrasts
Nobody Loses All The Time nobody loses all the time i had an uncle named Sol who was a born failure and nearly everybody said he should have gone into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable of all to use a highfalootin phrase luxuries that is or to wit farming and be it needlessly added my Uncle Sol’s farm failed because the chickens ate the vegetables so my Uncle Sol had a chicken farm till the skunks ate the chickens when my Uncle Sol had a skunk farm but the skunks caught cold and died and so my Uncle Sol imitated the skunks in a subtle manner or by drowning himself in the watertank but somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor Victrola and records while he lived presented to him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and i remember we all cried like the Missouri when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because somebody pressed a button (and down went my Uncle Sol and started a worm farm) —by ee cummings
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Jun 1, 2014
Jun 1, 2014 at 12:20 PM UTC
Untitled
The  Contra jour man hid his  grimace, watching the Punch and Judy show with vignettes of spectators in like denial, he  clenched his fists fearful of the spotlight yet he could not surrender pain Eventually he try to break the  rules and heal underneath. Yet his crucifix a new seaside town with a floodlit vaudeville presenting songs of  belied memories to which he can only  raise a mug of  out of season white burgundy apparently leading the dance  nowhere.
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Feb 3, 2014
Feb 3, 2014 at 2:58 PM UTC
Seaside runes.
Upon the table in their bowl in violent disarray of yellow sprays, green spikes of leaves, red pointed petals and curled heads of blue and white among the litter of the forks and crumbs and plates the flowers remain composed. Coolly their colloquy continues above the coffee and loud talk grown frail as vaudeville.
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1.5k
The Disputants
The fire rages throwing shadows across the trash. Pepsi, Coke, Malboro Cowboy Killers. Lightning strikes the midnight black pavement. Please Lord, keep us safe. Is this how the world ends? A puff of smoke tainted with a subtle hint of Budweiser. Oh, the humanity! The wound has grown too large. A bullet whispering through the air, landing in a young mans chest. The world ends surrounded in yellow caution tape. Police Line: Do Not Cross. Here the guardians sit on the worlds edge, looking over at the chaos, coated in yellow gold and thick black smog. Choking on past sins, the curtain falls on this vaudeville show. The world doesn't end in fire or ice, but both.
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Nov 19, 2013
Nov 19, 2013 at 2:29 PM UTC
Catastrophic
every morning at dawn arise old ghosts mouths a laceration of starched and well ironed sorrows tall with hard calloused thoughts they dispense in scattered winds red fiery dust as they move it pulverises a languid and tremulous sun creating evil urges white eyed they ****** and gulp like burst and juicy fruit their fill of emptied begging children causing competing and contrasting rumours of confrontation to avenge and humiliate to cause a devastation of glimpses through the red fiery dust paths don’t think if there is no hurry they will slip away no, the old ghosts multiply forcing a look upon that frightened daylight star with an evil eye of virtue that assumes to sanctify the foul rookeries where perch devils and evil jinns conjuring up a vaudeville of defrocked priests who weep over a holed and cast of shoe with withered fingers rattling rosaries as if to ward of some dreaded contagion and they lie there among the rain without the wet and know that it is they who are the contagion they so fearfully dread
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Sep 21, 2013
Sep 21, 2013 at 9:04 PM UTC
Religion and Priests
I perused through the catacombs gliding my fingers along your innumerate spines, picked you up where you blossomed in my palm and breathed archaic mysteries into my face. I felt myself trembling as I dared enter the hallowed corridors, opening doors and peeking inside in hopes to catch a semblance of your touch, your taste, your voice. A fingerprint, a coffee stain, clues and the origins of bricolage that left me breathless and teary-eyed as the weight of this sacred place bore itself entirely upon me. A part of your soul encased within each one of your treasures: I heard your stereo in a jazz history, heard you ponder within Dostoyevsky, saw your wry smile and charm within Fleming, and your humor within Vaudeville-- and as I perused onward, and the archetype bore itself naked in a holy privilege, I closed myself within that impalpable bubble and wept at the gates of Eden. As I removed my hands from your ribcage, and withdrew the breath from your nostrils, walking away with your words and fragments of your soul I soon realized-- You Are What You Read.
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Oct 13, 2016
Oct 13, 2016 at 12:40 AM UTC
Catacombs
Since 1876 the building had stood In the middle of town In a bad neighbourhood But, empty for decades And an eyesore to some She was no longer "The Lady" And her time had come The old man sat there staring As the charges were set To bring down "The Lady" he would not forget His first visit inside her In nineteen and ten He'd been inside her much more he figured since then Talking to no one, For no one was there He talked of her being He talked to the air "She started out as a theater" "Built by Colonel Tom Shaw" "To showcase an actress" "Known as Katie McGraw" "He built her a showcase" "To play many roles" "But, Katie...instead" "had other life goals" "It stayed as a theater" "Until Colonel Tom Died" "Others took over" "and failed as they tried" "To bring in top talent" "To play on the stage" "But by then, yes then...vaudeville" "Was now all the rage" New owners and concepts Vaudeville died To keep it afloat as a theatre Many had tried A store full of trinkets Of baubles and rings A department store future And the money it brings The next incarnation Was in retail not show And for twenty odd years They gave it a go "The Lady" adapted and was a great place to buy But, her past as a theater Well, it never would die New owners took over, A cabaret place Was the next incarnation She had a new face "The Lady" was re-done With tables for meals Great entertainers and she held wide appeal "I remember Bob Darin..." "Dean Martin and Jerry" "Came here in to town" "And they all made quite merry" "Great singers and shows" "Kept "The Lady" on point "But, tastes changed again" "a new King they'd annoint" "Elvis, came through here" "Played "The Lady", two shows" "But, rock and roll stars" "Don't come up where it snows" "The Lady" closed up became a hostel for a time To hide all her beauty Was truly a crime She's been a store and a warehouse And a place that made hats But for thirty odd years She's been home to some cats Derelict, vacant...no one comes round It's about time for "The Lady" To be knocked to the ground Some piegeons and vagrants The bats, cats and owls all leave in the morning When the cityscape howls The owner, not caring Signed off on her long ago It's been fifty odd years Since she housed her last show Her boards held up Jolson George Burns, ***** Brice And I said, she housed Elvis He played here twice But, now "The Lady" Sits and waits for the call Of the man in the crane With the old wrecking ball The old man, wiped his eyes And he turned from the scene "I would remember "Of how she had been" "A palace of talent" "A place one should be" "Now, she's only a relic" "But she's "The Lady" to me.
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Jun 16, 2013
Jun 16, 2013 at 8:23 PM UTC
Still A Lady
Since 1876 the building had stood In the middle of town In a bad neighbourhood But, empty for decades And an eyesore to some She was no longer "The Lady" And her time had come The old man sat there staring As the charges were set To bring down "The Lady" he would not forget His first visit inside her In nineteen and ten He'd been inside her much more he figured since then Talking to no one, For no one was there He talked of her being He talked to the air "She started out as a theater" "Built by Colonel Tom Shaw" "To showcase an actress" "Known as Katie McGraw" "He built her a showcase" "To play many roles" "But, Katie...instead" "had other life goals" "It stayed as a theater" "Until Colonel Tom Died" "Others took over" "and failed as they tried" "To bring in top talent" "To play on the stage" "But by then, yes then...vaudeville" "Was now all the rage" New owners and concepts Vaudeville died To keep it afloat as a theatre Many had tried A store full of trinkets Of baubles and rings A department store future And the money it brings The next incarnation Was in retail not show And for twenty odd years They gave it a go "The Lady" adapted and was a great place to buy But, her past as a theater Well, it never would die New owners took over, A cabaret place Was the next incarnation She had a new face "The Lady" was re-done With tables for meals Great entertainers and she held wide appeal "I remember Bob Darin..." "Dean Martin and Jerry" "Came here in to town" "And they all made quite merry" "Great singers and shows" "Kept "The Lady" on point "But, tastes changed again" "a new King they'd annoint" "Elvis, came through here" "Played "The Lady", two shows" "But, rock and roll stars" "Don't come up where it snows" "The Lady" closed up became a hostel for a time To hide all her beauty Was truly a crime She's been a store and a warehouse And a place that made hats But for thirty odd years She's been home to some cats Derelict, vacant...no one comes round It's about time for "The Lady" To be knocked to the ground Some piegeons and vagrants The bats, cats and owls all leave in the morning When the cityscape howls The owner, not caring Signed off on her long ago It's been fifty odd years Since she housed her last show Her boards held up Jolson George Burns, ***** Brice And I said, she housed Elvis He played here twice But, now "The Lady" Sits and waits for the call Of the man in the crane With the old wrecking ball The old man, wiped his eyes And he turned from the scene "I would remember "Of how she had been" "A palace of talent" "A place one should be" "Now, she's only a relic" "But she's "The Lady" to me.
Continue reading...
106
…the dream sequence plays like vaudeville in the peephole of a kinetoscope my drunken subconscious thoughts undulate in murky waters and slurin the visions of specters past infrastructures and pylons formed from childhood homes schools skate parks friend’s houssand churches faces familiar unfamiliar mold and mend in wicked contortions and diaphanous ambiguity what obfuscates me from the truths of my mind I stumble through the chambers haunted by childhood nightmares and tickled by ancient fantasies my arms                and legs                              are like                                           rubber                                          I                                  feel                   torpidity overcome and the words are like alphabet soup in the director’s commentary splashing around aimlessly mingling in the waves of broth what will be revealed in this phantasmagoric phenomena wax figures coming to life and panoramas dancing on the walls my body somewhere in time waits with pen and paper in hand eager to counter the façade with the utmost coherence just you wait til I wake up and reveal all your secrets oh wondrous mind…
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Feb 17, 2017
Feb 17, 2017 at 10:23 PM UTC
Ephemerealities
What has remained where memory was lost or stolen? Effacing years replaced what had been felt, the child adept at stealth and isolation becoming stranger than the life he left behind in absence, which was both gone and forgotten. An echo of a voice in an empty silo rings because he heard it answer him with words instead of bruises; the man and child grins. Remembering selectively, the man recalls the carcass of a red Case tractor thigh high in grass; and Viet Nam, a water buffalo dead in a paddy after the Viet Cong, like willful parents, spanked the area with small arms fire. Hell was neither here nor there but something stank. The mood rolled over as an odor will disperse in time, a transient effect of mind, but an abyss of remembrance haunts wherever ghosts have congregated, cleft from the wanton interval of thwarted wants.
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Feb 19, 2013
Feb 19, 2013 at 12:53 AM UTC
Vaudeville of Devils
hear    me now as i say   pilgrimed is the image   unloosen    yourself   into the wind   as i *****       for some   sense of      placeness in this  vaudeville       no more are  the birds that      sing and way past us  already seconds      in waning     is the same permeable blue tracking    up    our curved  spines and when      weakened     falling at      last as multiple     cities do - i see   a line       for  a stream uncollected,  as      rain      over     genuflected   hills      will.
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Mar 23, 2016
Mar 23, 2016 at 12:48 AM UTC
Fall
Give Martin Lutherking Jr, The cup of transfiguration, And he shall drink from The river of vaudeville And thoughtless transmigration, Listen children, Nature taught me to drink From the cup of tolerance, But how can Akwasidae Be enjoyed in praises? That is the drums and claps of Africa Beating and pleading violently In excess fear and tears, Now I know, that I will never know My enemies until I become one, Yes, I will never know My love ones until I enjoy the fruit of love, Oh no, the sacred calico Has grown weak and dim, And the hunter has brought A friendly mamba home, My child, do not question The nursing mother Why she is raining in pain, For the door of her anchor Is now shattered in the Valley of infinite darkness, And her child is off To serve the prelate ancestor, Behold, the naked Gods Have nestled their own, And have rewarded nature With the official dress Of the ritual raven, This quagmire is blood-curdling And emotionally unfathomable. © PRINCE NANA ANIN-AGYEI Email: [email protected]
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Apr 8, 2013
Apr 8, 2013 at 5:55 AM UTC
MOTHER’S TEARS
An old dull silver tray bought from the thrift store last polished never Sits between us, holding a half emptied handle of rye, two rock glasses Adjunct ice bucket and a handful of spansules all neatly lined up in a row Like candy for the taking Too late Existentially snuffed out 'Yes' I thought, there's a good start But existentialism is so boooooring dear, such a dry, ****** passe affair, pedantic really She groans out her words elongated like some big queen of England Sitting on her royal *** smoking from a long black cigarette holder I pull her towards me roughly slipping quickly into thick, thickening Newfound (land) accents "Listen here missy, you're no Audrey Hepburn" Brashly kissing bright blooming vermillion lips "And you're no John Kennedy" Playing dress up S&M; cosplay games de la haute societe Cruel broken bank account pauvrete down and out facade Tho this is neither Paris nor London Nor do we find any satisfaction in our destitution I am not a plongeur et vous, Vous etes rien qu'un petit ami du nuit "I'm not your ***** All part of the act Or so I'm told We've forgotten who we really are behind these vaudeville masks      The world less lucid, less clear, receding gently tho greatly          Day by lurid day
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Aug 13, 2014
Aug 13, 2014 at 9:44 PM UTC
Dull Silver