THE PARADE NEVER WAITS

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

In honor of the Blood Moon, I'm sharing a freebie with you from my book: Last Tango In Timbuktu.

Shelter along the cove

palm fronds fretting in the wind

sun beats down

eyes flutter behind darkened lenses

no secrets revealed

Dancing in the courtyard

summer smoke and gin blossoms

arms akimbo for kabuki

no tangos

or wild gang-bangos

for the faint of heart

Along the beach lovers entwine

like snakes that strangle their prey

love me a little

love me a little more

I'm not a lollipop

I'm an all day sucker

We take no prisoners

nor photographs of these encounters

for pride is like a ride

on a lizard's eyelid

the shutter clicks

when you forget to smile

Beyond the fire coyote waits

eyes burning like binary stars

in the morning he will escape

with a piece of your soul

Fair wind and a calypso beat

requiem for the summer's heat

magic spells and voodoo dolls

and dead men smell no tails

Crumpled napkins with lipstick traces

pedal to the metal

heading for open spaces

The parade never waits

Waves pounding the shore

echo the emptiness

phone abandoned in its cradle

like a waif on your doorstep

Staring into your breakfast bowl of Wheat Chex

you are reminded that you are back to square one

standing pat while the river of dreams drifts along in your eyes

Mata Hari

Harry Caray

Howdy Doody

Peewee Herman

Ethel Merman

Punch and Judy

It takes a village

to conduct a really good orgy

Will you stand vigil here

or will you run with the pack

into the black heart of the night?

Already you see the men are restless

and the horses nervous with laughter

The time is ripe

and you are no civilian

in this war

Assemble your brigade

we strike at dawn

ALONG THE PATH

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads--dVerse Poets Pub

old couples

meandering through the park

make me smile

though I'll never be fifty percent

of that kinda awesome twosome

peeps with pooches

the more the better

movin

stoppin

sniffin

make me smile

'specially when they choose me

to spontaneously lick

(the pooches not the peeps)

when I happen along

though all the lickers

I've known up close and personal

have slurped their last of me

 speakin of which...

young couples 

with strollers

movin along the path

always conversing

animatedly

about somethin

cuz they've got a lot goin on

in their world

make me smile

though no one's ever called me "daddy"

'cept a couple of floozies

back in the day

along the way

along the path 

I choose to walk alone 

but in my solitude

there's still some gratitude

still some reasons

every day

to smile

cuz it finally hit me ya know

that when I pop outta dat bed

each mornin

and still be hangin

round

still upright

and not uptight

that it's only by The Grace

it's only by The Grace

it's only by The Grace

say it again

it's only by The Grace

so come what may

I'll always find a reason

don't even need 

a freakin reason

to smile 

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads --dVerse Poets Pub

The story has been told before...
our intrepid host stops the film
described as a dream of dark 
and troubled things
for lively discussion with experts.

Essential questions we ask about life
while confronting truths
that didn't fit in with our holiday schedules.

When all hell breaks loose
as the Reptilians in the balcony
begin to shout: Bring on the crazy cat clips!

A hush falls over the assemblage
as the Lizard King's voice 
reverberates through the hall: 

Life, as you know it, is a dirty fairy tale...bittersweet at best...when our time comes, we'll drive electric cars, support compassionate causes, abolish pay toilets, and live in elaborate 
communal herpetariums! 

You grieve for irretrievable things
your whole lives long
then wax philosophical
uselessly
in a joint like this 
when that's really the long 
and the short of it

Then slowly, one by one,
as the realization sinks in,
the peeps begin to rise
and file out of the theater
in a sad and dejected looking way
as a series of crazy cat videos
seemingly endless
careen across the screen
for those still insisting upon
their full money's worth.
  

SHOUTING DISTANCE

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

To kick off the new year, here's a freebie for you from my book Last Tango In Timbuktu 

The rain came before sunrise
in steady sheets
like the one I was trying
to pull over my head

I was just out of a dream
where I was whispering into the ear
of a woman who seemed to be
 my counselor
or confidante
a dream where I had speculated about
the sex of a pencil

It was long
a real woody
and it could prick you
when it's sharp
no wait...erase that

It was worn 
past the last hurrah
like a space ship
in the shape of a cigar

(And when hers was worn down to the nubbin
Sylvia Plath stuck her head in the oven)

It made so much sense to say
that I am my brother's keeper
but of course the other side had just claimed
that we'll get you to the promised land
in just a little different way

Let us fly and make our own mistakes
don't need a hand or a handout
of course that's the way where
crash and burn
 is followed in sequence by
oh shit
oh well

The rain had no intention
of letting up
as dawn's curtain lifted slowly
the new year now within shouting distance

And in the dream I was giddy
as I breathed into her ear
that I didn't know whether to laugh
or to cry

The culmination of a lifetime
of fledgling flight

Don't be concerned
if I crash and burn