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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

FAR AFIELD



The rain swept through here this morning
cleaning everything but the film 
clouding your eyes

she was all smoke and mirrors

from the beginning
and on some level you knew that
but sometimes you have to do
the wrong thing
just to know you're still alive

so once again you've gone far afield

just to learn your lesson
traipsing through a meadow
dotted with toadstools
beside that Houston police station

Don Knotts' twin brother gloms onto you

at the hotel in New Orleans
breaking into an old barbershop song
and muttering inappropriate comments about
the young girl behind the front desk
as you stand there
trying to check out of your life
he was a tennis champion long ago
before the personality disorder set in

and you feel you need to wake up

from something
but you don't know what it is
and you know that nothing will ever be
the same again
but it will be the same again
after it's been different
for a long enough time

hey just try to find one

who isn't a little wacko
in some way
as crazy serves as the new norm
all fueled by drugs and booze and war
tumult and upheaval
the daily pressures of survival
as the TV screams
be afraid
be very afraid
and high school kids
serve as daily target practice
for the irreversibly deranged

our one slim hope to turn it around 

being to make "Jackie Blue" 
the new national anthem
sung at the start of every ballgame
the fans mouthing the words
with their hands over their hearts
so deadpan serious

and you 

console yourself 
with the epiphany that you see things
too clearly
with a grasp on the nuts 
of the problem
not commonly held
but once again you've squeezed them 
too tightly
as slippery sluts
slide through your fingers 
and you vow that next time
by freaking god
you will raise your standards
and use a little less olive oil 







25 comments:

  1. I so love that opening couplet, Tim. You have taken us on a very human journey, always with one eye on the fallible and the other on fable.

    and you
    console yourself
    with the epiphany that you see things
    too clearly...

    Doesn't help so much at 2.30 AM though, does it?

    Many thanks for visiting my school blog and for leaving your thoughts. I do appreciate you taking the time.

    :-)

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Kerry. And you have some talented students there, no doubt.

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  2. i found myself reading this twice...

    your writing styles reminds me a lot of jack kerouac and allen ginsburg...

    love the element of reality, the gritty truth...the examination of a life lived.

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    1. High company you've placed me with! Thanks so much for the visit, Stacy..

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  3. Reality is often much worse than the simplicity of our worst fears, and so much lovelier too...

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  4. This reads like a stream of consciousness poem, yet not in a vague way. The details are clear and interesting. So many good lines, my favorites being:

    "be very afraid
    and high school kids
    serve as daily target practice"

    and

    "but sometimes you have to do
    the wrong thing
    just to know you're still alive"

    There is truth in both of those statements, for better or for worse. Well done.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Justin. My next one will be a stream-of-unconsciousness poem--lol

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  5. ".....and you know that nothing will ever be the same again but it will be the same again after it's been different for a long enough time". This is brilliant, Timo. This is a very human write, kiddo. Well said.

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    1. Great to hear from you, Sherry. You always brighten my day!

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  6. Timo this is up there with your best--you are a master of the laugh to keep from cryin school, and also, you are one of my favorite story-tellers--blending the surreal and the real in a way that makes the real always come off second best. I was hooked at that first couplet, and enjoyed every word after. You have definitely got any mojo that might have been eleusively hiding back, in spades. Excellent poem.

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    1. You may have coined a new phrase, Joy--"The Laugh To Keep From Cryin' School." And, of course, you are dead on as usual. Oh, that may be a pun for you, since Halloween lurks around the corner. Thanks so much..this buoys my spirit!!!

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  7. whew, Tim. you skinned this one good. ~

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    Replies
    1. Much appreciated. Just peeling back the layers of my inner banana!

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  8. "and you
    console yourself
    with the epiphany that you see things
    too clearly"

    Somehow I think there are far too many of these people running around! Stanza six is just so depressing. I think the solution is to turn the news off!

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  9. I think you're talking about the people who are convinced they are right and have closed the book, closed their minds, and closed the discussion. Yes, too many of them running around. It would be okay if they weren't trying to lay their trip onto you, like going door to door--lol Yes, either turn the news off or just accept it for what it is, which is a lot of blown out of proportion BS, and observe the effect it has on the populace and how easily we are manipulated b the media. ...

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  10. Reality is often much worse I believe. Powerfully written.

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  11. Ah.. funny - I see I zeroed in on the same stanza as I did back in 2014! I think the solution is still: turn the news off ... :)

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  12. Homesteads,
    That guide these herds,
    Their foals stepping that course
    Into this world of poisoned hate:
    Teach life.
    _m

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  13. This is so good!!! And funny. :)

    I especially like the beginning and the end.

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