Laying alone along the esplanade,
Sprawled like a starfish, cold as a cod,
My thoughts’re scattered like a school
Of spooked anchovy, & occasionally,
Feelin’ as stiff and unlovely
As an Easter Island statuette, I sit up
To watch the sun set moribundly
To yellow… orange… maroon.
That Great Glowing Truth floundering t’some
Dewy eyed shore of the nether realm,
But here,
In the now, all hearts and coupled initials writ
By the water’s edge the waves overwhelm.
The sundry sea-shelled sights and
salty seagull sonatas
From the pier dissolve into miscible nonsense.
The beach towels are folded;
The sobbing infant’s scolded
For touching that tantalizing stinging jelly;
And the whole world rolls over on her belly
To a sleepy lay.
Although I could care less
Due to another dumb, humdrum midnight to wander
I’m castaway… & another… & another… & another
(Breaking news: another sad, homeless soul roams the streets in Biloxi!!!)
When a man’s doomed to judgmental glances
& beer-bottled romances.
Sneakin’ and stinkin’ w/ tail between my knees,
I’m the Smeagol tweakin’, the mongrel with fleas,
Mumbling the mumbo-jumbo of a kid off the grid;
Moon-maddened by delusions of his Id
On empty streets where the midnight trains wail and
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaail;
Mocking OPEN signs of pubs wink an invite t’no one;
skittish, emerald-eyed street cats
are always on the run,
As I too run through
all the damn missed chances from my adolescence,
Playing them over and over like a nickelodeon
‘till every bit of my self-respect
Is sliced ‘n’ diced into the chump bucket
& forgotten
to the point I think Fuck it
and simply disconnect from society.
And when the Great Truth’ll return,
marvelous as a roman candle
w/ its relentless burn
I’ll be long gone:
A sunburnt soul absconding for shade,
Dawn to dusk, ‘till the next afternoon fade
When I’ll push out of my mind again
e’ery mistake in life I’ve made.