O you recherché fleece of peace,
You sapphire snug in the brain,
Why of all mankind’s desire
Yours is the hardest to retain?
In dreamy childhood we understood
The rhythm of your smooth jive,
Hakuna Matata kumbayas, feelin’ so alive.
E’ery goof and gaffe was just another
Reason to love and to laugh like a sister and a brother —
To be rosy cheeked, frankincense streaked, nimble-limbed,
loose baby tooth grinnin’, sinnin’-on-a-whim
sponges of Looney Tune mantras we’d strive
Before the materialistic, money-money lust
And a Midlife Crises’ melancholic musk
Ground & ground your grandeur to dust,
& scattered it all in the secrecy of dusk —
Ashes of a loved one gone w/out a trace —
Before we could truly savor the flavor of your grace.
Like tender skinned Buddhas fresh from our palace,
Mortified by the cactus-touch of the world’s malice
We became. A lame-named generation
Experiencing the Illuminati ticks, political pricks
And giant dicks of Corporate America in full gyration,
Schmoozing about Washington Bay in their snazzy bathtubs
With Lady Liberty aboard twerkin’ with a golf-club
In one hand, a bacon-wrapped shrimp kabob in the other
Whilst the rest of us are left on the shore, pickin’
Washed up scraps from their smorgasbords, thinkin’
“What a bunch of sphincters stinkin’ w/ their charm
While Karma’s over here just a twistin’ my arm.”
Serenity, sweet Antoinette. Do not you remember me?
For three years feeling as useless as an old marionette
I’ve drifted dull as rubbish through bottles & cigarettes
Down the Louisiana delta of a maudlin mindset
In search of your Bourbon Street extravaganza
T’no success. Stuck here instead puking-up this
Stupid stanza in my house all a mess — stressed
From its dishes over-flowing, garbage beginning to mildew,
the lawn’s in need of mowing & again the mortgage’s due.
Sunken-eyed, without rest, I’m spent… I miss you…
Away you went, Serenity & alone I still am. Me,
Languid as a log rotting in a bog, and you,
You phantasmal Tenochtitlan, evanesced
W/ your Persian pleasures, tranquil Aztec treasures
Of dolce far niente once caressed about my mind
– enlightenment caliente.
You, you Road Runner risqué du l’lovebirds
Eloped w/ Father Time — both still on the honeymoon
It seems — & me, the Wiley Coyote out of schemes
To swoon you mine. Me, the awkward chain-smokin’
Pepe le Pu, drunk as a skunk to forget this funk.
To dumb nubs I’ve gnawed my nails down.
Ever-broader stretches the bald of my crown. Me, the
Dope-head Mississippi hippie, hopeless romantic hobo,
My life on slow-mo. along the worn avenue I hobble
Sort of wishin’ the asphalt would gobble me whole
Whilst I make another lugubrious stroll
To work my mind-numbing nine-to-five,
Wonderin’ “Lawd, why’m I alive?”
Bard-bearded, bare-footed, my chubby rump
Haggard and dragged through the slump
Of growin’-up’s paperweight responsibilities
& unrealistic 401k’s kickin’ me in my knees.
Slowly & surely, one by one the gargantuan
Makeshift crosses of my adolescence arises;
Struggling in an age no longer full of surprises…
Happiness’s only possible on silly commercials
& ridiculous billboards of imbeciles
W/ their “money-back guarantees”,
And shit’s the merit of college degrees.
Away I go, doomed to blue gloomed malady
To ravage, reign and ruin the beatific melody
Once trumpeting proudly in my heart… alas,
I’m from Serenity a whole planet apart.