Monday, March 2, 2020
THE STARS RUN THEIR COURSE
a beggar-king
at Burger King
asking for The Impossible
now I'm a SpongeBob diver
beneath the 12 mile reef
a broken lance
torn underpants
it undermines
all my carefully curated bravado
so many lifetimes
you think Bigfoot
is concerned about
his carbon footprint?
and the case against
having anything
is that you've so much
to lose
(I'll send obligatory
condolences
or maybe congratulations)
but anytime you switch on
the radio
and Steely Dan
comes wafting
(like those Santa Ana winds)
you're ahead of the game
the bathroom down the hall
always has somebody in there
beneath the hand-scrawled sign
that says
Please take a seat
you can
of course
always hang it out the window
unless it faces the street
let the stars run their course
it all makes sense
in mysterious ways
one day your writings
will be all that's left of you
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the case against
ReplyDeletehaving anything
is that you've so much
to lose
Yes we tend to stick to what we have.
We hang onto that which is always slipping through our fingers.Ha...as I type this, "Dust In The Wind" comes on the radio.
Delete...and one day they will all be wondering what are Burger King and Sponge Bob! As I am in the midst of preparing to move and getting rod of items, I am struck with the phrase "it's all just stuff".
ReplyDeleteIt can be tough deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I've tended to drag a lot of stuff from place to place when I moved, then it sits in a garage or closet untouched. If you don't or won't use it, maybe somebody else will. Time for a garage sale!
DeleteI like the description of the "carefully curated bravado".
ReplyDeleteThat and my hair...carefully curated!
DeleteAh yes, how true... Love the way you playfully lead us towards such a powerful finish. I always enjoy your fresh voice, whenever I visit...
ReplyDeleteI do so appreciate your visits!
DeleteAt the end there may be noone left to read it...
ReplyDeleteAt some point, perhaps. I don't think that day is at hand, despite the media trying to foment unwarranted hysteria in the streets.
DeleteI always appreciate the lighthearted feel to your poems that somehow leave me reflecting on such weighty topics as the legacy I might leave behind. You truly are a master poet.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, for once I have no words. Thanks so much!
DeleteThis is so true, Tim, and the question is pertinent:
ReplyDelete‘you think Bigfoot
is concerned about
his carbon footprint?’
And what a thought:
‘one day your writings
will be all that's left of you’.
Will there be anyone left to read them?
The human race being virtually wiped out and then beginning again may be a cyclical thing. Books will survive, I think, even if there is no internet. That's why I always do a paperback version along with the ebook :)
DeleteYou start of strong with humour and end with compelling thought. No matter how long we are remembered in this world it's all naught when one considers the world itself will be gone one day.
ReplyDeleteI feel that we are "alive" until the last person who remembers us passes on. So even if some stranger reads or remembers a poem or something else you've written, you live on. Perhaps it's all ego, but who wants to think of having been here--often for a lengthy amount of time--and not leave a mark? "KILROY WAS HERE!"
DeleteClever lighthearted write that speaks volumes.
ReplyDeleteI don't consider myself materialistic whatsoever, but somehow my garage is full of stuff I keep just in case I need it, but never seem too...
Anna :o]
I like to say I'm not a hoarder...I just never throw anything away! :)
DeleteI do hope books will survive...I really liked the line about having and losing, I find it very true.
ReplyDeleteThank you. That's the game we play in this life--having and losing. It creates drama...on the personal to the spectacular global level, and my theory is that there is a divine intelligence that is addicted to the soap opera aspect of it who just keeps watching...and watching.
DeleteLife makes us stop and think from time to time knowing we are mortal beings. Nothing can change that. Very well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and good to hear from you.
DeleteLife has a way of having it's way with us doesn't it? I enjoyed this fun and playful.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bekkie! How's the bike riding these days?
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ReplyDeleteMaking sense? Is there sense to make? Ah, the stars know!
ReplyDeleteIt's written in the stars. It's written on the wind. It's written on subway walls and tenement halls. (and don't forget bathroom stalls!)
DeleteLove the Bigfoot question and I believe in letting the stars take their course of course. I once had a sign by my bathroom window that said "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.
ReplyDeleteAh, but how did she leave? I have a sign on my bathroom door that says "PARKING FOR PORTUGUESE ONLY"
DeleteYes, they will, which is why I put them in self published books so they dont get sent to the landfill. Smiles.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking. What the new human race discovers after the apocalypse might well be poetry from you and me :)
DeleteLovely.
ReplyDeleteAnd so are you, no doubt.
DeleteEnjoyed my second reading of this and your finish of: "one day your writings
ReplyDeletewill be all that's left of you" hot home even more powerfully today...
Thanks for reading it again. The ending is designed to get us to think about what our legacy might be.
Deleteone day your writings
ReplyDeletewill be all that's left of you - and lost in the vastness of cyberspace as well! That is a sobering thought!
When I go to used book sales I usually buy some literary mags from years past--ten,twenty years ago--and discover what some different poets--often unknown to me, wrote.I still hold out fantasies of someone from the future stumbling upon something I wrote and doing the same thing. lol
Deleteit all makes sense
ReplyDeletein mysterious ways
Ha ha, nice to know.
Yes...reassuring to think that SOMEBODY'S got it figured out. It just isn't us. :)
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ReplyDelete