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You pull me through doorways
with cherry red charm.
You fill me with whiskey
and hang on my arm.

We waltz through the wreckage,
the crown and her guest.
Your hem lined with ashes,
the last of what’s left.

The clerk asks for blood.
The stone has run dry.
We promise, tomorrow
and feed him with wine.

The clouds now move faster,
with voice of hard wind.
It speaks to you only
as thunder moves in.

You twist here beside me
and curl like a vine,
your teeth in my shoulder,
reliving some crime.

You hold me so tightly
and whisper your vows.
Your secrets stay hidden.
Your tears are so loud.
Women dressed in bright skimpy costumes
streets drumming to the beat of the heat
A blur of eccentric colors expound the air
as we embrace the culture, the vibe...

Resilience, freedom, pride, nothing to hide
as we celebrate with rhythmic sound & gaiety
There is a whisper of moonlight in the air
that tastes up everything in sight, we dance !

Grand parades filled with masqueraded personas
spread the "Spirit of Love" be one with humankind
Calypso music, hip-hop, dance of every gender
kick up your feet, go ahead and surrender !!!

Toronto's Caribbean Caribana, here since nineteen sixty-seven
excitement like this you cannot purchase it at the 7-ELEVEN.
Nobody warned me
about the sound of skeleton laughter,
ribcages shaking like bells,
airless chuckles cracking the hot night,
slipping through the closet slats
into my skull.

It was fine with just Meg:
supermodel cheekbones,
a jaw that could steal my name.
We shared the closet,
my jackets brushing her collarbone.
"your flesh prison
can't wear that many anyway."

Then came her sister,
then another,
until nine of them
rattled teacups at 2 A.M.,
dripping through the floorboards.
My shirts fled to the hall.
I dream of thunder
that silences their bones.

They call it a ****** of crows -
but what waits in the dark,
rattling its teeth
for the last of you,
is a plague of skeletons.
If only I could forget
all the things that have hurt me
erase from my mind
the harsh words spoken —
the ones that made my heart bleed.

They linger on,
repeating in my mind,
hurting over and over again,
never letting peace settle in.

Nothing I do makes life easier
everything feels lost
In the darkness
light fades away.
Eventually, the sky weeps
chubby gloppy drops

(clown tears)

And things change.

The leaves, for instance
go from green

to red, yellow, orange, and blue...
Maybe

like gumballs in a glass globe?

(25 cents, a twist, and a clink,
they're free.

But only for seconds before they're shredded
by teeth and masticated?)

That is(leaves, we're back to leaves), before they turn brown and die.
I guess it's what you'd call the long goodbye,

to summer, romance, and whatnot...


And oh yes!

Did you know I flunked out
of clown college?

They said I was funny,
just not

honk honk funny...
A whimsical word painting.
writing songs sans artifice,
that grow better different,
different better,
the lyrics of a man growing older,
insides out, featuring his slips, all showing,
eyes squinting from hard lifestyle experience,
taking on wearied shades of beige yellowing,
a tanned blackness, time edits them, so now,
they sound the same but holier,
from the hazing of hazards
one builds for and by himself,
drilling & extracting the spit-shine of
all that all is fine,
but liquor & cat's paw black shoe polish
just can't quite cover 'em up (2),
the stabbing itch each of the every time
one quests and questions
his ego,
always another test…

why would I ever want that?

his fingers create tinkling at rapido pace,
tinkling an arrhythmia of rhymes
previously perviously (1) unseen,
self exploration, that we all realize
is an unforgiving, never ending,
source of melodic crying out loud;
and when the sensual, arrayed pleasures,
begin to bore
holes of no important consequence,
the querys~to~self get even harder
to explicate what they intimate,
who they implicate,
which parts of you,
failed to answer satisfactorily…

why would I want want that
forever?
(1)
Perviousness refers to the ability of a material to allow fluids to pass through. Pervious surfaces include porous pavement and asphalt. Unlike regular pavement, which is impermeable and creates water runoff, pervious pavement allows rainwater to filter through the surface and into the ground
(2)
https://www.google.com/search?q=cat%27s+paw+shoe+black+polish&sca_esv=ec9e5a722f530583&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS1169US1169&hl=en-US&sxsrf=AE3TifNnqbBcvvGAf8A75ME-01M_C2ofQg:1754156528053&udm=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgt_Cl1uyOAxU3k4kEHbPEKU4Q7Al6BAgSEAM&biw=1366&bih=969&dpr=2
Don’t do to others
what they have done to you.
It will never lift you up.
It will bring you down.
In the end.
Because you lived it.
You should know better.
You’ve become what you despise.



Shell✨🐚
beautiful morning
    amber filtered . . .
                      with the forest fire smog
it's fine   don't worry
    it's been carried a great distance
                 to reach our city
a slight itchiness to the eyes
a slight betrayal      with breathing being
                                    a little harsh for some
beautiful morning
        teased branches
                       their tinsel shadows
               and a warm rustle
01/08/25version above
NOTES FROM 22/07/25 :
beautiful morning shadows/of teased branches/tinsel shadows/and warm rustle

Haiku version :
an amber morning
teased branches  tinsel shadows
                           a warm rustling
Thriving in the sun she sways inside her garden
each time a fragrant wind arrives from the sea
Her lavendar blooms fill the earth with pardon
she bends at will like a tiny bud young and free

She is a rare and beautiful blue moon in my hand  
pulled from the ground she sets my heart aglow
when I inhale her, ... then I begin to understand
why she is my favorite rose, why I love her so

Giving always giving, she is the perfect flower
loosely scented in my home she is frangrance
convening with my senses with elongated hour  
this little rose of mine, means love & romance
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