As I slip into the void,
of this endless black;
a moonless sea séance;
there's no way back,
for black is black,
flack is flack!
The blues I stack,
into my backpack.
Are old bent music notes
of bottleneck-drawn cries.
Sung in well-past midnight bars
lamenting what I've misspent
in twelve-bar lag dues.
The sea and sky know why,
I'm not coming back.
They never knew me.
They just sailed right through me.
Like a freight train moaning
on a tear-stained track—
sending me flying away, flying away.
Why? Can't I say?
Why? They washed we away!
There's no anchor here
to belay my stay,
to make me rue the day.
So I can't delay
for another day, no no longer!
So I slip my bottleneck slide
down the frets,
screaming a high-note cry;
squealing to a high-end bend,
into the empty void,
of my black-hole blues.
Black is black, flack is flack,
There's no coming back
from these old black-eyed,
black-hole blues.
No coming back
from these old black-eyed,
black-hole blues.
What if it’s only a nervous breakdown if you bottleneck and bury the emotions that are trying to come through you?
That’s what causes the breakdown.
The resistance to what is,
the stopping of the process before it has an opportunity to move toward realization and resolution. What if something beautiful is actually happening within you,
something that wants to heal and move into full authenticity?
What if this is not a nervous breakdown,
but a nervous break-through,
a profound emotional cleansing,
a dissolution of the false structures that have ruled your life,
a breaking through to a more authentic state of being?
15 minute city going down slow...
10,000 vehicles, everyone going
Live in the bottleneck, nowhere to go.
New coffee houses replace the old
Old coffee houses now closed
New owners can't speak English,
Old coffee, new coffee double the cost
Old sandwich, new sandwich
Ten times the price of rice, well,
Isn't that nice!
No public restrooms, pay as you go
If you have to pee, ask for the key
What am I doing here? Who am I?
Where do I go from here? Why do I care?
We've spent the whole world
Trying to kowtow and defer
To tyrants and idiots
Bureau socratics,
These giant rat bastards
Who hijacked our future.
What makes me think
I'll be able to
Get out of this life alive? ~psp
dr.(pi)
.
There is a piece I've longed to share,
which, up 'til now, I wouldn't dare,
where courage pushes fear aside
and shackles up my foolish pride...
To put to words, as much for me,
affection in simplicity,
and say those things I wished I could...
that chance may now be gone for good.
I near succumbed to COVID's wrath;
now, barricades deny clear path -
a bottleneck for oxygen.
So much to tell; where to begin?
A battle raged; a drawn-out war
that ended with a winning score:
I pulled ahead - a blessed reprieve;
the reaper's gone; yet, still, I grieve.
For scars remain; we coexist.
Not given up; I will persist,
but dreams? There was one 'mong the few:
to hold you close and sing for you...
A tune that melds our hearts together,
and keeps us warm through stormy weather,
a lullaby to ease all fear
and let you know how much I care.
But vocals won't cooperate;
on ev'ry nerve the raucous grates.
Those singing days are done, it seems;
some visions, sadly, dwell in dreams.
If fate insists that I must wait,
this voice will ring at Heaven's gate!
So, pardon, if I'm way off-tune;
at least, at last, Love will shine through!!
Jodie
5/23/25
Crime wave, crime pays
Crime goes on all day
But its not a crime to
feel the way i feel
Say the things I say
I stole your bike
cause had built in getaway
I stole your wife bewcause
She said she wasnt
into it anyways
I dont know why Im so
Worried about it.
God knows the world
Servbes me cold
So I sent your wife
riding your bike righ
Back into your life
Right back to you
that
Right here in the situation
Right here in the clench
Jammed up in the bottleneck
Right here in the strategic conversation
Youre complete dissertation
Your doctorites thesis
On masterbation
You otta check
Direct deposit your
Thoughts through
your hollow neck
If you check what I bought
You know
That its time that
Its time to inspect
Bushel Or Peck?
Miracle Man
11/23/2024
Life can be either a bushel or a peck,
too many days we're facing some bottleneck.
Because age is a soft drink that's lost its fizz,
our choices or others make it what it is.
We try to capture those feelings we once felt,
but “we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.”
Some days find our cup nearing empty, not full,
while recalling only days rough as steel wool.
Grains of sand, begin to stream in steady flow,
As the hour glass is flipped over.
One by one, they fall, through the bottleneck.
Each one a moment, a tick, tick, tock, soft and brief.
On top, the grains are gathered haphazardly in a pile.
At the slippery neck constriction they line up to queue.
like a flock of birds or a school of fish,
getting ready to be called to free-fall in formation,
through the slippery glass funnel into the abyss below.
There they pile-up forming a stock-pile of memories
shaped in an inverted funnel of regret begotten,
in a pile with sand grains tumbling down the sides.
At the top of the hour glass lied a collection of time unspent,
Below lies a pile of sand grain ticks, expended, some misspent.
Between them, lies the funnel of fate’s eternal hand,
Its fingers guiding the passage of time
as grains of sand flowing through the hourglass.
Grain by grain, moments fall,
all fragile and small.
time drifts endlessly
slipping away
sinking,
gone
as memories
pile up, collected
as they spill and tumble
down the face of the base
of the sand filled hourglass
bottleneck
gridlock
no go
five miles to the rest stops
tense grumbling
vultures are gathering
there are people out of their cars
screaming incoherently
like zombies
inside an in-car video game
avatars turn helplessly
in small jerky circles
Trembling hands succumb to the pain,
A mushy exhibition of veins seeping through.
Nerves pricking the insides of the brain,
Never known a condition like it to be true.
Probably a bottleneck to my work,
Worms tangling around in the vicinity,
Decay was the order and the perk,
To surrender the life dismal to the core,
Soul giving up the breath early,
Living that yearned for more.
Routine mocking need behind the bush,
A garden full of jasmines,
Caged inside, unable to push,
Strength unable to endure,
Tenacity leaking from the depths,
Bit by bit, piece by piece,
Agreed upon the fate,
Held back to be suppressed.
Lived just to have a gaze,
Of the chirp of the birds,
Of wings fluttering to take the leap,
Faith crushed by reality,
Nature that killed the weak,
Underneath the shell,
Kept me quiet the agony,
Failures of my own,
Gathering to see me fright.
Trembling hands succumbed in vain,
The mushy exhibition turned bloody.
Nerves rested, so did the brain,
Decay left the corpse muddy!
Quick to forget the Off-Duty Grant
That makes bosses not rant
Easily treating An Observer,
To a levity of A Grieving Server
All stops are boldly pulled out
Like irritable errors struck out,
All restrictions kicked aside
Or left to their time bide!
It’s a being who has glimpsed obligations
Vain Boss would never understand,
Their delayed handling with implications
He might at last not withstand.
One doesn’t tears check for a Great Symbol
While on Earth virtuous and humble;
He who had to part with a noble life,
Forthwith ending a worthy strife …
Liable to be admonished
And sometimes stiffly punished
For a daring of The Bottlenecks
That a good file wrecks
Is the Employee in bereaved time
Not bothered that office clocks also chime.
i o u
by Michael R. Burch
i might have said it
but i didn’t
u might have noticed
but u wouldn’t
we might have been us
but we couldn’t
u might respond
but probably shouldn’t
Keywords/Tags: Impasse, Defeat, Alienation, Divorce, Break Up, Breaking Up, Parting, Separation, Loss, Lost Love, Goodbye, Farewell, Absence, Leaving, Solitude, Deadlock, Logjam, Stalemate, Standstill, Halt, Dead End, Cul-de-sac, Bind, Bottleneck, Box, Corner, Mire, Pickle, Gridlock, Rubicon, Dunkirk, Alamo, Waterloo, Lost Cause, Downfall, Stumbling Block, Monkey Wrench
Announcement from Congress
By Franklin Price
4/1/2017
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye
We've come to you today
To announce a change in Washington
To begin the first of May
We the seated members
Of the Legislative here
Have agreed to work together
To make our actions very clear
Work with the current president
Try to get things done
We know we've been the bottleneck
We admit that we're the ones
Putting parties in the back seat
Here to reach cross the aisle
To make this country great again
To make you the people smile
If you like what we've announced here
Please join us in the pool
Be another U.S. Citizen
Another year an April Fool
You want a moment
To take a breath
I said I’d wait for you
But you up and left
I’m back to chasing shadows
Running from the light
Can’t stop the bleeding
It’s a product of oversight
If the pieces break
Can you force them back together
Is there soup for the soul
That’ll make my heart feel better
Bottleneck caught the promises
Straining the lies
Not much left to work with
Eventually I’ll come down from the highs
Can I get a hit
To get from night to day
The chains are pulling
Cause it’s so hard to stay away
You smile at a distance,
Honesty hidden behind your teeth,
Tongue poised to reminisce,
Of linen floors and bed-sheets,
I can't remember,
How your hand felt in mine,
Memory locked in December,
When our fingers intertwined,
A nostalgic misfortune,
Cheap stuffed bear excavated by golden cranes,
Entering our relationship's 7th edition,
A 90 degree kiss coupled by growing pains,
Following the path of our stiff walk home,
These nights alone are my whiskey,
And your cup of tea,
Perfectly content in my fluorescent dome,
While your opening the windows in your house among the trees,
Bottleneck ballads,
Your stained glass lips sting,
Muddy ink word salad,
Our awaited reunion we approach like zombies shambling,
It's just my gemini stigma,
Silver tongues and lead bodies,
A matrimonial enigma,
Her neglection and your idolatry,
My story with her written by the space-bar,
And ours stargazing in telescope cars,
An atmospheric distance,
My mile high sky,
Your callous correspondence,
My overbearing replies,
My reluctant departure,
Your earnest independence,
Our paper-thin affair,
So alone we wander motionless.
With the advancement of age
Man starts to think about marriage
The boy and the girl are nubile.
It's high time to change the living style
Through the union of husband and wife
Marriage brings stability in life.
Being the foundation stone of the family.
It is the source of progeny.
However, sociologists have divergent opinions.
To preserve freedom they propose free-union.
Tie a noose around your neck
You find yourself in the bottleneck
Who said marriages are made in heaven?
For it turns everything at sixes and sevens
Many affirm previously they were well
Now life has become a hell
So, if it's not a perfect mode of living
Is there any new method for our well being?
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