Songs of City Blue

Song of City Blue

We ate and smoked the evening air
we sang the songs we knew so well
with flames of heart’s desire

the songs we thought
would never end …
when life had just begun.

Round and ‘round the room of souls
we danced with youthful abandon …

Little did we know
we didn’t know …

even less,
than what we knew …

When time has all
but reached the end,
we’ll gather on our city streets
to sing those songs again

the ones we know so well …

of flaming hearts
and love’s desire
from all our midnights past

we’ll dance the night away
just like we did
when Life was new

and time had just
begun …

Until the Next Time: The Kathy and Derek Chronological … The End

I turned and walked toward the open door of the Mustang while re-running a little video inside my brain of what happened during the last 10 or 15 minutes.

I saw Scooter Guy dazed and confused,  tangled up in the wreckage of his scooter wondering how in the world he went from jamming a yard sale sign into the ground to looking at the sky with a human face staring down at him.  

But most of the scenes in my video were of Kathy and Derek.

There’s Kathy half way out of the car window chiding me about the spelling of ‘Yeard’, making me aware of the penis, knowing that I’d take the bait, wondering what crazy shit would ensue. Her teeth her smile her eyes reflecting sunlight; the light of good humor, her body a metronome inside of some internal clock, bouncing up and down in time with the music that is always there but not always felt or heard or seen. Music that the world brings to us when somehow,  the rigors of every day life fall away and true life is exposed.

I saw Derek coming at me like a soft human tank growing larger his lips stretched back his white teeth gleaming in the sun, ”getting’ the joke,  happy to be part of it, unafraid to show his affection. The last thing I remember, sight of him laughing, double visions of his face bouncing to the music of HIS internal laugh clock.

I pulled the car door shut, put the Mustang into first gear, looked both ways and slowly let out on the clutch.  A split second before moving through the intersection  I glanced into the rear view mirror.

Kathy’s head was still outside of her window. She still had that shit eating grin on her face her head bobbing up and down and up and down and up and down just like the bobble headed hula girl that my grandparents displayed on the open shelving unit that separated their tiny little living room from their tiny little kitchen.

The End …..

Reliving the Moment One More Time

She faced downward, her spine curved, one side of her face drooped.  He held her hand, wiped the drool from her mouth. They seldom spoke.  Their hands spoke for them.

I pictured her as a slender and beautiful young woman.  Was she a good dancer?   Did she have children?  I imagined them kissing with youthful passion.

I thought; true love can’t be described, it’s a vibration between two people.  Was I seeing true love?

She turned and looked at me, seeming to sense my presence. The left side of her mouth curled into a half smile. Were her eyes telling me she understood my thoughts? Was she answering my question? “Yes, dear boy, you are seeing true love.” How did she know my thoughts?

She faced her husband.  He inclined his head, listened then rose and pushed her to the opposite side bench.  I wondered why they moved. Was the sun too hot?  Did she think she had answered my question and it was time to move on?   Was she too tired to continue our silent dialogue?

After moving I craned my neck to see them. Facing forward, they spoke softly then turning toward each other, they smiled and nodded their heads in unison. Were they telling each other secrets? Was she telling him a boy flirted with her? Or maybe she remembered when they first fell in love and wanted to relive the moment one more time.

A

SOLSTICE DAYS

I THINK SOLSTICE DAYS SUCH AS OURS … RELATE TO YOUNGER MINDS IN GENERAL,  THEIR MOVEMENTS SO FREE … UNANNOUNCED THEY’RE THE PERFECT HOUSE GUESTS IN OUR WORLD … AN END RESULT  ..

*******

LET’S FACE IT … THE WORLD’S A BETTER PLACE FOR THEM TO CO-MINGLE ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE SOULS WHO MOVE THEIR SADNESS IN SEARCH FOR HAPPY LOVE … THE SEARCH FOR SHOES WITH A BETTER FIT … THE OTHER FOOT IN UNION WITH THEIR OWN .. TAKING THEM EVERYWHERE THROUGH MINDS DELVED INTO …THE SELFLESS WORLD OF LOVE AND affirmation ..

*******

OF COURSE THE OPPOSITE CAN BE TRUE … BASKETBALLS THROWN FROM NOWHERE TO PLACES NEVER SEEN, DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW where they’re going or what their purpose is … ?  IT’S USELESS to search for a REASON SINCE … YOU’LL NEVER REALLY KNOW …

*******

IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE IN SLEEPING COMAS … ! YOU CAN SEE THEIR STASIS  … NEVER ENDING; THE CONVERSION OF THAT ONE INSENCSENT FACT OF LIFE … !

IT’S OBLIVION THAT SETS US FREE … !

*******

IT’S PART OF OUR SOCIETY NOW IN EVERY DETAIL … IN EVERY GENERAL WAY !  WE MIGHT AS WELL FACE THE FACT … IT’S ABUNDANTLY CLEAR …!

*****

WHEN THINKING THROUGH CLEAR VISTAS  … WE THINK THOUGHTS THAT THINK BETTER THOUGHTS THAN THOUGHTS NOT  THROUGH CLEAR VISTAS …  IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS ISN’T IT  … ?

*******

BUT WAIT … ! THERE’S MORE !!

BETTER  AND BETTER, MORE CLEAR VISTAS … THEY’RE  ON THE WAY …!

*******

WHAT COULD BE MORE OMINOUS ..?  SIGNS AND THERAPIES … THE WORDS OF MONKS … PRIESTS AND HARPIES … THEIR CURLING BEARDS AND SHAVEN HEADS OF FEAR … THE BREAD WORTH TASTING … ?  IF THEY ONLY KNEW THE HANDLE,  THEY’D KNOW THE OPEN FRAME ..  IF THEY ONLY KNEW THEY HAD KNOWN ALL ALONG  … THEY’D KNOW THEY ALL KNEW THE SAME … HOW SAD

*******

THERE’S NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN AND IT’S THE SAME OLD SONG isn’t it .. IT’S HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF .. 

*******

LIFE’S REALITY?

WHAT IS IT WE SEEK?

IT’S BETTER THOUGHT ! !  BETTER DANCING LOUDER SINGING

THAT’S ALL .. !!

*******

FREEDOM’S PRESS IS FREE AFTER ALL .. !  THE FREE PRESS MORNING EDITION … IT  COMES DELIVERED TO THE HOUSE EACH MORNING ANNOUNCING WITH GLEE DETROIT’S DONE IT AGAIN … THEY’RE NUMBER ONE  ….. IN THE MURDER CATEGORY?  (THERE’S LONG ROADS YET TO TRAVEL … IT’S A DEEP,  DARK SECRET … YOU KNOW IT WELL …)

 … BUT SERIOUSLY …..  IT’S NOT ABOUT TAKING LIVES  … IT’S ABOUT 4 SQUARE COUPLES DANCING TO AND FRO, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE …

PLUS … IT LEADS TO HIGHER BIRTH RATES … LOVE … KS !

Street Dance II

An older man wearing a cowboy hat

feather inserted into its leather band

braided with colorful beads

dances alone …

…..

his hands … !

elegant,

bent at the wrist,

palms facing forward

each finger poised differently …

…..

they move in graceful arcs

left to right in time

with the music … while

his feet trace graceful cursive patterns on the

black top street

below …

…..

A slender girl with long legs and boney knees

wearing a flared white skirt jumps up and up

and up …

…..

with each descent her white skirt opens like a parachute …

flairs outward like a gardenia blossom …

…..

she holds her neck stiffly …

bends her knees at the top of each leap

her legs disappear within the

flower …

 for one brief moment

she is suspended in mid air,

three feet above the ground …

ethereal …

her face lost in

ecstasy …

…..

the energy of the storm coalesces itself into a

swirling hot sun of

movement …

…..

the surrounding crowd becomes an orbiting mass of

planets and asteroids around the

hot sun of

dancers …

…..

dogs,  people sitting on curbs women with

baby strollers the

first row of onlookers on canvas chairs

form the closest

orbit …

…..

adolescent boys with sad searching eyes shuffle alongside

adult men and women with the

same expressions …

the outer planets wandering aimlessly …

…..

finally,  there are those outside the

orbiting mass of movement …

dead planets waiting for life

to inhabit them …

…..

at times they smile with slivers of fleeting joy …

they want to feel the freedom of

unbridled movement …

but they are trapped within

the confines of their fear  and

insecurity …

i gaze at them …

i sense their yearning …

a yearning to be

part of the

creation …

Street Dance …

The street was charged with the movement of a

gale force wind …

…..

People watching on the sidewalks or

on canvas chairs

seemed powerless to resist

the energy of the dancing

mass …

…..

As the mob of dancers grew

it reached critical mass,

broke apart and became

separate layers of a powerful

storm …

…..

Adult dancers formed the larger wind streams …

…..

Children flowed around the

larger currents of movement …

small eddies within the storm …

more powerful because of their

compressed energy …  little tornados within the

swirling mass of

movement …

…..

Four women with dyed black hair wearing

black leather vests with rhinestones,

high top cowboy boots,

black stockings with torn holes exposing their legs,

black t-shirts cut into strips at the bottom

and

tight black leather skirts …

dragged on cigarettes …

…..

They exhaled smoke from the side of their mouths or

turned their heads and blew …

…..

One of the women turned away from

the others, bent over

and began coughing

violently …

…..

Her mouth formed the shape of an O …

her tongue rested on her lower lip in the shape of a U …

her face turned beet red …

…..

while she hacked and barked

and hawked

the other three laughed and

pointed at her …

…..

She began coughing into her hand

wrapped into a fist while

moving her head up and down

as if in agreement …

  continued …

A Day In the Life …

… i happened to pass by the laundry room on the way to the bathroom, i saw some jeans that needed to go into the dryer … 

… so i put them into the dryer then i started to move the furniture back to where i wanted it … when i finished i remembered i was going to take a shower so i went in and took all the tools out of the tub, put them where they needed to be … oh!  there was the sandwich ! i hadn’t eaten it all … so i continued eating the sandwich while walking around looking for my camera (so i could take a before and after picture of the tub) … when i remembered taking some cool pictures a couple of days ago … i decided to take a look a them … so i sat down, logged in,  started to peruse when i looked over and saw two globs of grape jelly on the floor … shit!  after considering my options i grabbed an old wash cloth, wet it down in the bathroom and wiped up the jelly … ummm i wonder if i should throw the washcloth in the laundry basket … hell yes, so i threw it into the laundry basket then,  i remembered there was dirt in the tub from when i was doing my problem solving, so while i was in the laundry room i grabbed the shop vac went into the bathroom and and sucked it up …

continued ….. while sucking  i noticed how lousy the baseboards looked so ,,,,, continued 

Song of City Blue

We ate and smoked the evening air …

We danced the steps we knew so well …

… we sang songs we thought would never end … with flames of heart’s desire

when life had just begun.

***

‘Round and ‘round the room of souls we

danced with youthful abandon …

…..

Little did we know we

didn’t know …

and even less,

we knew it all.

***

When time has all but reached the end,

we will

meet again on city streets to

sing those songs we knew so well …

*****

songs from

all our midnights past when

Life

had just begun …

Street Dance – 2

…..

 an elderly man

wearing a white cowboy hat the

band

braided with colorful beads

a

feather inserted angled

back

one

beaded strand

trails off the

collar of his

shirt …

…..

 music

wraps around his

fingers

elegantly poised

each held

uniquely his

wrists bent ninety

degrees backward

the

palms of his hands facing

forward they

arch

left to right

 in perfect time with the

music …

his feet trace

elegant

cursive

patterns onto the

street …

a

line dance of his own

creation …

…..

the street fills with

kids and

adults

an energy mass that grows

larger and more

powerful

as time slowly

advances …

until movement and

energy create a turbulant

storm of dancing

bodies   …

…..

adults form the

wind currents of the

storm …

…..

 kids moving through the

crowd

form powerful

eddies …

separate

powerful

compressed

energy …

…..

small tornadoes

 within

the

swirling mass …

*****

a boy and a

tall dark haired

girl tug against

each other for

possession of the boy’s

yellow

parka …

…..

his face blushes

RED …

a

furious tornado

flashing lightening within

the

moving mass  … !

…..

 a slender girl with long

legs and knobby

knees wearing a

 flared white

skirt

leaps high into the

air her

neck held stiffly …

…..

her white

skirt flares into a

parachute or a

white gardenia

at the apex of each

leap she

 bends her knees …

lifts them up beneath the hem of

her skirt

 they disappear …

for a brief moment

she appears

suspended in

mid air

floating …

…..

a vision of

her etched

within the minds of all who

watch …

…..

her face enraptured …

lost in a world of

 purest

joy… !

*****

the surrounding crowd

watching the

dancers:

dogs

people resting on their

palms resting back on

street curbs

people

in

portable chairs or

mothers with

children and

strollers …

become

 an orbiting mass of

planets and

asteroids

around the

hot sun of dancers …

*****

further beyond the planets

  boys with

needful

eyes shuffle alongside

middle aged or

older men and women

wearing

sad searching

expressions … …..

 the

dead planets …

space rocks

searching searching searching

for Life to inhabit

them …

*****

outside of this universe of

movement

longing eyes

dimly lit … within

 the

darkness of

store front entranceways

watch

from their own

inner space …

…..

joyless expressions

 self contained within a

boxed world

trapped within the

slavehood of

themselves through eyes

too

terrified to join the

energy mass …

*****

gazing at them i sense their yearning to be part of the

CREATION … !!

Central Time, Bible Bread, Crows, Midday Sun, Retching Orzo, Laughter and More …..

I worked from six thirty eastern time (Tennessee is in the Central Time Zone) until around eleven o’clock.  Then I showered and rested until around noon.

After resting I drank a cup of coffee and talked to Hugh about computers.  Elli came into the kitchen to make sandwiches.  Hugh asked if I liked avocados.  I said yes but wasn’t prepared for the fabulous sandwich she made: swiss cheese with sliced avocado, mayo and mustard on that thick dark bread made from a recipe they found in the Bible.  Unique … like nothing I’d eaten before.  Strong muenster cheese made in Israel.  Very tasty.  Then I went back to work.

I finished the back of the house, took another shower and laid down for a half hour or so.  Then, I grabbed my camera and walked a quarter of a mile or so along the curving country road in front of their house taking pictures of the incredibly beautiful rolling countryside, surrounding Thompson Station Tennessee, thick with trees and pasture land.  The air, clear and clean and calm felt cool against the overworked skin on my face and neck and arms.  You could see a speck of pollen pass before your eyes if you stopped and waited long enough.

The rolling land and trees seemed to glow much like pictures of Tuscany that I have seen where sunlight has a magical quality … and so it was there …..

On the way back I approached an area where a noisy group of crows were having an argument in the thick vegetation near the side of the road left of where I walked.  They were fun to listen to … like listening to a bunch of guys argue about which NFL team would win the Super Bowl but, you could’t understand a word they said.  I couldn’t understand what the crows were arguing about either but I understood their sentiments.

I didn’t want to interfere with their angry exchanges.  I thought that if I surprised them, they might attack me.  Seriously!  So, I  crossed to the other side of the road.  After a few steps I think they sensed my presence and stopped “hollering” at each other.   Maybe they suddenly realized that, because of their incessant squawking they may have allowed a human to get too close to them.

After they quieted down I made caw, cawing sounds and laughed at them, as if to make fun of their squabbling and fighting.  A few steps later I hurled a couple of epithets at them for being so rude and stupid then laughed at them again.  Stupid crows!  Seconds later I watched them fly over the tops of the trees cawing as they flew away.

Shortly after that,  I walked through the front door just in time for dinner; tender strips of chicken thighs pounded into cutlets and  a vegetable salad made with small nuts the consistency of ‘orzo’.

At one point, when I took a breath to talk, I sucked one of the little nuts back into the sinus region of my head. I knew I was going to start retching so I threw my hands over my face and ….. retched!  (and retched and retched) I heard Elli and her mom … Lisa … laughing hysterically.  I peeked through my hands and saw Elli with her head back laughing.  Finally,  I coughed so hard I had to leave the table.

When I came back from the bathroom I told everyone that the nut I coughed up was as big as the  kidney stone  I had passed a couple of months ago.  The four of them were still laughing pretty hard.  I don’t know why.

After the dishes were cleared and stored away, we talked about music.  Elli left the table and, played the music of whatever artists we talked about … the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, music from the musical Annie.  (no Zeppelin, Cream or drum and bass)

Elli danced and everyone was entertained but she wouldn’t let me watch her.  I think she thought that because I had been funny,  I might make fun of her even though at one point I got up and showed her how to do The Jerk and The Pony.

After that, we sat around eating platters of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Lisa kept saying .. I love sugar, I love sugar …  L

Songs of City Blue/ the Songs of Midnights Past

We ate and smoked the evening air.  We

danced the steps we knew so well, with

flames of heart’s desire when

life had just begun.

***

‘Round and ‘round the room of souls we

danced with youthful abandon.

Little did we know we

didn’t know;

and even less,

we knew it all.

***

When time has all but reached the end,

we will

met again on city streets to

sing the songs we knew so well …

the songs from

all our midnights past when

time had just begun.