Behind a pane of vintage
glass he stands,
A silent wizard from a distant
land.
With golden turban and a
paisley vest,
He wakes to life at a coin's
request.
An iron token drops into the
slot,
And gears awaken what the
workshop wrought.
His painted eyes begin to roll
and gleam,
A sudden actor in a neon
dream.
The crystal ball lights up with
shifting fire,
Responding to the circuit
board's desire.
He nods his head and waves
a mechanical hand,
Dispensing secrets from the
desert sand.
"Zoltar Speaks!" his booming
voice declares,
To startled children at the
crowded fairs.
His motorized jaw clicks
open and goes slack,
Demanding that you never
look back.
A whirring motor drops a
paper slip,
Your future written on a
cardboard strip.
The music fades, the blinking
lights grow dim,
And quiet shadows settle
back on him.
He waits alone inside his
wooden box,
A trapped magician under
glass and locks.
When life is so down;
Crying is a replaced frown,
When hope seemed drown.
When life, at its best-
City, a replaced town's guest;
A place to invest.
When life is troubled,
Tears replaced sadness doubled...
Nigt partying bubbled.
When life is so good,
Joy replaced blissful childhood;
Fun... than adulthood.
When life is a bet,
Winning is a replaced debt,
Sequent stakes reset.
When life is a twist,
Call, a replaced beep missed;
Fair treatment persist...
When life is charmed,
Love replaced likeness unharmed;
Stay off been alarmed...
When life, grace lust's feast,
Heartbreak, a replaced deceit;
Learn through to retreat...
When life is unkind,
It is yours to be designed...
Do yours, never mind.
When life does exist,
Rise and fall shall coexist;
Choose one to resist.
When life is of fate,
Pray; fasting do not hate-
Grace turns its dictate.
Up your gears
Cheat your fears
Drown your doubts
And move up
Learn a trade
And how to trade
Be a master
In your game
Conceal your cards
Evade the darts
Be smart and wise
And score good
Daffodils were bobbing,
I never thought to ask why?
January was the coldest -
dreams don't care
and the yellow trumpets
were almost speaking
and I almost listening.
However, sex got through
this bucolic view,
the daffs turned
into a belly dancer
I once admired in Luxor.
Now I am being scolded
by a demi-god with goat horns
on his curly head. It's not happy
with my expansive outlook.
I need a fifth gear in a dream car,
a vehicle roomy enough
for both a bed of daffodils
and a rather plumb Egyptian lady.
The goat guy can take a hike.
Once moving,
In conjunction with another.
Moving gears relate,
One to the other.
Turning once,
Moves another.
As beasts eat,
Predation follows the score.
Turning on prey,
Discovered today.
Like our politics,
The moving beasts eat.
As gears,
The prey retreats.
Until the beast,
Has nothing left.
The gears have moved,
On to a new feat.
When mankind has been using gears, levers and pulleys,
For thousands of years,
To speed things up,
Or slow things down,
To make it possible to take heavier loads uphill,
And to go faster on straight roads.
Then came clocks to measure the passing of time.
And with many machines geared to the speed needed,
For their required tasks,
One would think that humankind would lead less stressful lives,
But no their brains remain unable to change down to a lower gear,
Unless they take their brain out into the country for a year or two.
Most however don't seem to have the heart for it,
Are always looking to arrive at their destination Dead on Time,
And one day they will,
Sooner than they needed to.
There are those who are haunted by the vastness of eternity, and those who choose to live and die in denial it hold’s a place for them. All the while the gears of time grind on with no concern of those who would curse or bow before them.
Look closely you will see my gears grinding,
they race like a bullet down the highway;
Ping pong against the walls inside my head,
my hyperactive mind’s always running;
It won’t slow down even on a good day,
the story behind my eyes is pure dread;
I never see that point of no return
flying past a sign that says ‘Stay Away’.
Push forward when I should let go instead,
hanging on too long I know I will burn
that thread.
Sam sung: "A Change Is Gonna Come."
So many since then. The politics of
pain and gain, all the smashed windows,
the struck dumb widows.
Mind-works unearthing the terminal.
The young riddled with old slugs
turn to the black hooded judge
imploring hands or clenched fists
revolving around forever sad eyes.
Inevitable change leaving town
to seek new ways
to anesthetize yesterday,
drag racing across tomorrow,
a classic Corvette mowing down
fentanyl induced death masks.
Cords drowning in a levee,
saccharine tunes battering brick walls
with a blind and brainless remorse.
The dead have walked away
disgusted with the dying light.
Change is a ‘coming and it looks like
a killer clown lurking in the front yard
of every sane asylum.
What know you about a rich wife’s fears?
How she feels when her man her wealth nears?
Watches her the scene and marked pain bears
Or ahead goes to shed obvious tears?
A Neighbor Eve I have who goat rears
And her Charlton pays back in arrears:
Smiles of understanding, soon great fears;
She could from him run with engaged gears!
Wife to her man her wealth endears,
From him withholding it heart spears…
Charlton she’s forced to mind her profit
And on the subject turn Prophet!
Gears turn my thoughts
Perhaps it's not that bad
But my mouth butchers the words
A strange alien language I speak
Those closest to me barely understand
A twisted poet, I am
Circumstances have led me to this
I cannot speak how I used to
My writing stayed the same
Never stir up be-stilled waters
By throwing stones, peace matters.
It’s no use dwelling on spent years
That might well up long dried tears,
Nor yet musing on morrow’s cheers,
Hold on to now, neutral gears.
In now’s vast bosom doth live life,
Nowhere else is life so rife.
Look, an infant on mother’s breast,
Look, he’s on time’s tallest crest.
______________________________
Reflections |31.12.2020| Couplets
Topic: past, today
Happiness burns,
Its a forest fire,
Accidents happen.
Something forgotten that glows,
Extra bright,
Too bright
Too silver
Too gold.
Or lacking skin there of by which the light gleams,
It burns in the blood,
In your chest,
Up your neck,
It just burns,
And then it catches fire,
And it rages.
The crackling of memories buried long beneath hopes,
They burn,
And the gears of the heart begin to grind,
And tumble,
The rust,
It casts a mask and scent over the lingering sadness.
But i regret these gears,
And I'll use a thousand tears to extinguish this fire,
All fires die,
All happiness dies,
Ideas.
Ideas live,
They're contagious,
They spread further than fires,
And consume more than mankind,
The idea....of happiness
Is consuming,
Unforgiving.
In life we go through many phases.
And our minds go to many places.
Some people stay right where they are.
And sadly, don't go very far.
It's when we get outside ourselves.
And climb down off those dusty shelves.
That we can find a whole new world.
And spend them nuts that we have squirreled.
It seems that in today's society.
You need not move to get variety.
We sit and click and never move.
And causes health to not improve.
Then one day comes an ultimatum.
And we heed the warning verbatim.
Blood pressure's high and so is glucose.
We don't ask why and we don't suppose.
The answers clear, it's time to shift.
Into high gear to slim midriff.
And when we start to feel a change.
Our whole live's start to rearrange.
So find a way that keeps you moving.
So you can continue improving.
And soon you'll start feeling much better.
When you become a daily sweater.
And as the weight begins to shed.
You'll sleep much better in your bed.
So don't just click, get up instead.
Before you wake and find you're dead.
Driving down the highway,
90 miles an hour,
trying to get back to you,
so I could give you flowers.
The truck she was purring like a kitten,
sweet sounding as she could be.
Sometimes seems she knew,
we were headed home you see.
What a wonderful truck she is,
never to give me grief,
always ready in a flash,
to my great relief.
Then all of a sudden she starts a knocking,
heard a rattling as well,
and all I could think was
" what the h***".
Then she starts slowing,
no matter how I pushed her.
Next was a big ole' BANG,
and she says whoa mister.
"You stripped my gears and left me shiftless"
Now you gonna pay,
so don't come back knocking,
for a roll in the hay.
You ain't gonna get it,
ain't coming back to you.
So keep on trucking,
in your truck so blue.
2008
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