Moving down the aisle at the SuperDuper market, a song from 1968 comes on the overhead speakers: Hi everybody, I'm Archie Bell of The Drells from Houston Texas... just as if none of this crazy shit had taken place in the interim and we are back to the purity of The Beat. We don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we want just as if this 3 ring circus hadn't come to town to stay, and we realized too late we'd given the ringmaster too much discretion and now he's wading into the crowd with the whip once reserved only for the lions. But this message from on high that's washing me in the blood is as primal as a heartbeat and the old gal with her cart that's doubling as a walker is moving her hips in a way that tells me to look away I'VE GOT ANTS IN MY PANTS LET'S DANCE!
And whether all of this bullshit falls away one day or we're in for a dystopian future that'll make 1984 seem like a mere prologue, my permanent escape through the time warp in aisle # 5 is already booked, knowing that all must pass 'cept for the one and only thing that will save us in the end... THE BEAT!!!
There are places in my mind I just won't go to as having been there once is enough for a lifetime I've no need to relive every misdeed or stupid mistake I'll wait to have all that read back to me at the gates of either heaven or hell
There's a mall just down the road that's dying it's a slow demise as one by one the shops are closing up shop (so where ya gonna shop?) and a walk down those corridors now encounters just a few curious soles making contact with the tiles and yours truly of course (cuz I feel so at home in lonely places) You can say what you want about the malls but for a long time they served as our surrogate downtown in the days of urban decay when nobody wanted the real experience too scary and so we strolled along in air-conditioned comfort and poked our heads into the shops and always seemed to run into someone we knew (whether we wanted to or not) and the seniors in their Nikes and jogging outfits puffing along twice as fast as anyone else and the smells...oh the smells... of sinful chocolate delights and sticky buns and the way they went all out with the decorations at Christmas time and the jolly fat man holding court (where the hell you gonna find Santa now?) It's a lot we're losing and we don't even care So I just think a eulogy is in order for the death of brick and mortar as we gaze glassy-eyed into that screen and click add to cart and wait for the guy in the brown truck to ring the bell or more likely than not just dump your package by the gate cuz he's got lots of rounds to make and you don't need to greet him anyways cuz after all it's not like he's anybody you'd be happy to run into at the mall
Lengthy verse (more than 100 lines or so) bores me to tears. Just make your point suckah, and admit that you are a novelist at heart. And haiku, while so tasty and perfect for our ADD world, is the Chinese food of poetry. You're ravenous again shortly afterward. So I'm going to feed you a light lunch to tide you over. Let's see...it's about me (isn't it always?) I'm wasting away in the bar of a hotel (you could call it seedy) when a woman slides onto the stool next to me. Maybe she's a hooker. Maybe she isn't. But we end up getting a room and afterwards as we light the proverbial fags (I don't smoke but it's necessary to the atmosphere of the story) we begin sharing details of our personal lives and lo and behold it turns out that she's my long lost sister! I look her square in the eye and say that I don't regret a thing. She says well she does regret one thing and I say what's that and she says it's that now you're prolly not going to pay me!
Did U ever think about why Officer Smith gets a lavish send off--a showy parade provided for by your tax dollars when he falls in the line of duty? I do, and I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the proper respect, such a risky job... but then we have Tyrone Smith over here (no relation) who was charged with an equally harrowing task-- that of driving himself to the store and back without getting pulled over for not employing his turn signal, and if he made one wrong move that could have easily been curtains for him too-- and ya see Tyrone was just laid to rest in a pauper's grave with no fanfare, no crowds lining the streets as the cavalcade of motorcycles files by, and it makes you think-- well maybe not you-- but it makes me wonder about why that is, and there's no other reason of course than authority must have its due... authority must always have its due.
Those who love fiercely and strongly often find themselves wrongly wronged or so it may seem as opposed to those who settle for what presents itself as a long-term solution to solitude which one who loves fiercely eventually learns is the long-term solution to two (many) wrongs not making a right
I've taken to writing my grocery lists on the backs of my business cards (I make better use of them that way) and if I should happen to forget and hand one out at least the recipient knows the answer to the age-old question of What's for dinner? And how one longs for the days when the man in aisle 5 talking to himself was just your garden variety crazy person and not some pussy-whipped hubby taking orders from headquarters or some Russian spy reporting to the White House 2. The highest office for sale to the lowest bidder while Joe Six-Pack grows so pious worshiping flags he's lost sight of the Grand Poobah who transcends all this tribalism but even God knows He's less sacred than profane 3. We gather by the river... we're not praying we're just wading in and peeing
4. There's another kind of pollution it is of the mind it's seeped into the water supply it's in the drinking water it makes you paranoid to the point of nothing and no one can be trusted not even your own mom you strongly suspect she's a crisis actor on her days off from the waffle house the next stop for you is The Walking Dead
5. I will admit it's getting harder to identify the good guys it used to be so easy they were the ones with the white hats 6. There's a deranged man who shambles down my street in the mornings muttering Take that shit to Valhalla! while tugging on his crotch
I feel that he's in contact with unseen spirits who know exactly what he's talking about but as for me I wrack my brain daily sifting through possible meanings I know one day that same flash of illumination will arrive for me being fully aware that to get there I'll have to follow in his footsteps
And if your life starts out Like crap There's no need to panic Cuz you can hit your stride A little farther Down the line I'm Exhibit A... But if your song starts out Like crap Like some rap crap That ain't got no melody That can only find the beat But not the beauty Then I'm outta here Cuz that same ol' song and dance Won't cut it Lessin' you're MJ resurrected On a Sunday morning Doin' the moonwalk On this planet badly in need of a miracle Or Rita Hayworth in that silky black Excuse for a dress Running like a watercolor in the rain Or even Eddie Money wailin' If I Could Walk On Water Could use that miracle now You betcha Keepin' the spirit alive And holdin' on
You bloated pig wallowing in the ooze of your own excess while that anthem rings hollow through every coliseum across the land so morbidly obese you can't even stand for it in decent fashion anymore that's alright don't bother cuz you've already shat upon all you once held dear (let's start with the word integrity) but traded for a seat at the circus clowns to the left jokers to the right hope you like the freak show bread and circuses for the (m)asses
Once again he's ignored the Steely admonition not to go for that cotton candy the kid will live not learn as his ship of state burns (Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" in the background) heading straight for that looming thing ahead His little Engine That Could having jumped the tracks way back in New Jersey keeps plowing ahead through the shit fields of time out of sheer fukU disdain So let's go downtown and find out where The Mikado is playing I need some color in these grey days rapidly fading to black Put on a grand show cuz I need you to take me for that ride to fool me again and in the end pretend again that I'm surprised
