Joseph R. Blough
Swaggers into a bar
You could tell by his look and his sway
He’d better not go
Near the wheel of his car
Or he’d land in the pokey today
Bartender Zeke
Rolls his olive-hued eyes
And presents irritation and frown
“Don’t be so bleak,
Mister Doom in Disguise,
I’m one wounded Joe-Oe. Blough. Me down.
“So….
Untangle that Noodle, Young Man,
The one in your vagabond brain
You’ll be much less tense
And the traffic less dense
So unstrangle that Noodle to Sane.”
We had done all we could with the kissing
And had driven each other insane
That old steamkettle lust wasn’t hissing no more
It was high-pitch a-whistling and raising some Cain
So she took me in hand
And we went and we shed
And she said
This is my flesh it is sacred
So touch me with care and respect
And she drew us together both naked
And she fondled my face and my neck
And we melted onto a soft surface
And we melted and joined up and riffed
And we gave in to frenzy and dervish
And together we bathed in the gift
From “Skin Gift,” a track on Engaged to Be Merely’d, an album by Nick NB
(First published in the Facebook poetry group Poets All Call)
Coda
Loves are lost
And irretrievable
Notions tossed
And blurred but grievable
Etched, embossed,
And I believe a full
Life is a song that winds down with a coda
Neath chupah or ceiling or scrolls of pagoda.
Woe-infused
Yet laughter-adjacent
Doom-bemused
Though joy’s ever-nascent
Thrice-accused
Of tales somnifacient
The weary composer welds landmarks with themes
With a filter of dreamstuff and not-as-it-seems.
If a song
Has many verses
Overlong
And laced up with curses
Quell the throng
Until it disperses…
You’ll find common threads in the lilting and lulling
And capstone that ending with smooth-water sculling…
Birth comes with cymbals
And nimble progression
Toddling percussion
Concussive succession
Wrought adolescence
Will test your endurance
Fledgling adulthood’s
Long stood in demurrance
Then the adventures!
The dentures can wait
Yearning and romance
And slow dance and Fate.
Now violins
For the sins and the story
Now muted woodwinds
Rescinding vainglory.
Soft notes that dwindle
Unkindle the flame
Your life’s coda ends
Yet ascends
All the same.
This morning I started the above image, and got stuck and put it aside. I then had lunch at the Senior Center, got a call from my mother asking for help, went with her to Walgreen’s and then Bashas’ and then back to her house to put away the groceries and then to Dignity Health to visit my ailing brother Brian and then back to Mom’s house, where I left her with her neighbor Jeff, who’s been helping her out as well, and then I walked to Yoshi’s (Have A Rice Day) and had their Spicy California Roll, an eggroll, and a medium Dr Pepper. The George and Dragon was a stroll away and I went there to watch the Chicago Cubs tie their World Series with the Cleveland Indians with their thrilling 9-3 victory, and I had vanilla ice cream topped with the coffee liqueur Kahlúa® to celebrate. Shortly after that I left for the bus stop on Indian School Road that would take me home, and it was there that a strange, slow tune blossomed in my head, and I came up with some words for it, and then some more, and discarded some, and continue to this moment, even after I finished the image with a mind to illustrate the song. Here are the words as of this moment:
search
i’ve searched for you
in time in space
i long to view
your loving face.
i know you’re way
beyond right now
i seem to sway
with you somehow.
some things are felt
before they’re seen
may travel melt
the in between.
may we behold
each other’s gaze
the tale be told
and well amaze.
i’ve searched for you
and we’ll be crowned
with dawn and dew
when we are found.
I just tried singing it, and it is so syrupy sweet it’s embarrassing. It doesn’t matter. It was the catalyst that helped me complete an image, so I’m grateful for the song.
One with Clay, Image and Text 