\'Never Again\' Once More
03/13 2021
I
I walk along the interconnected grid of streets
Looking for answers among the intersubjective dream
Past closed bookshops
Past occupied bars of winter old
Past doctors tending wounded workers
Past the child in tears
The haze occupies this red rock ---
And for that I am afraid
But, granted, what would it be without all the people?
Any shadow has its yellow moon
And even though I would never say it
I'm grateful. and I'll show you how
The first window, and scene is that of the mother
That grasps the cane at twilight
And goes along with our charades
Even if we've all forgotten it
You who stare at photographs
As if their golden idols
And gateways to some other place
Your lullaby's eternal, your name transcends your fame
Drink to your second person at some wintery moon
The Jester, wearing a powder blue wig
Who lets it flow from him yo you, and from the masters to his face
He smiles, of course, against the bastard
Who punches him right in the face
And he just answers by whistling a tune
As I watch, and try to find myself
In that virtuous, smokey haze
And now leaning against the wall, the forlorn traveler
Who told tales of countries from far away;
Where misty mountains rained gold down below
Where the children stood as living billboards
Where coral reefs where replaced by plastic
Where baboons played guitar for laughter
And where up was down, and blood was water
And money wasn't worth anything more
Than what you did for your neighbor
And the value of love transcends that of hatred
He smokes, certainly, but will live longer than the rest of us
He loves us, but is blinded, for forgetting is a virtue
In the world of walking
Further down, blisters on his torn skin --- leaning over the grate on the floor
Telemachus sits and tries to see where it leads
Inhales that exhaust of false promises
The master of our domain
From that starting point will always lose everything
But can one really blame him?
The Gods are supposedly benevolent,
And where history once went,
Then must it not go there once more?
Everybody reassures him that everything will be alright
But the hot air is enthralling --- and the blinking green light even more so
II
The door will close
And intersubjectivity to be replaced
By singularity
What was once black & white
Will once again erase the blot of ink
On the eternal white page
Someday I might become myself
But try to imagine that place
And quickly lose yourself
III
I walk along the street
Of 'never again' once more
It is raining, of course,
And they laugh at me
For searching for you again
On this Friday evening
The riders going past me
Are kidding themselves with their lives of steel
Burying themselves in various degrees of nothingness
I dress myself in horns & blood
And stick myself with the knife
For the remote possibility of tomorrow
Tomorrows are sold by the dozen
In the form of jelly rolls
And purple velvet drapes.
The judge can only look as deep
As her eyes can see
Words bounce off the waterline
In the Christmas sale
The skeletons dance to the tune
Of their bones jangling in 3/4 time
As I walk past and mumble 'never again'
The night vibrates and nothing,
Nothing is just dark enough
To wrap up this song of faces