someday

someday you will wake up and the bad people will all be gone and you will think, hallelujah this is the new dawn and you will take the scripture down from its secret shelf the one you have been writing forever all by yourself you will put it in a suitcase and go out into the street and you will nod politely to all the folks you meet and they will be so happy that their oppressors have fled that they will not even notice the frown on the top of your head you will take the suitcase to the river and toss it into the depths your sins will all be forgiven you will have no more to confess all the gods you invented and all the demons you named will be as if they never existed and never played the game you will put your hands in your pockets and walk back into town the celebration is only beginning but where is your golden crown?

friends

i was young and now i’m old i was hot and now i’m cold i had energy now i’m tired i was cool and now i’m wired i had the world spread out before me but then my friends began to bore me i was innocent but did learn that friends against me could quickly turn * i had a friend named jim i was better than him and another friend named lee he was better than me i had a friend named lou who knew just what to do and another friend named cole who wanted to save my soul i had a friend named clyde who took me for a ride and a friend named brad who took everything i had i had an enemy named joe who knew things i didn’t know and an enemy named ray that i hope to meet some day * friends and enemies vanish in the breeze i wish i had more friends but the dream never ends

walter

the sky was blue the earth was brown a breeze passed through the little town one cloud was white one cloud was pink walter thought i need a drink i need a drink and then another the sky is my sister and the earth my brother in fifteen minutes i must leave this bar and try to sell a human a car o what did i do to deserve this fate my dreams were early and my crimes were late today is just another day just one more drink and i will be on my way

harold and rufus

harold stood on the corner the light would not turn green his dog rufus was beside him his collar was shiny and clean how many long hours had harold stood on this spot? he tried so hard to remember but he could not was red alive and green dead? or the other way around? the cars went by forever but he did not hear a sound rufus remained as faithful as he had ever been through rain and snow and lightning his collar was shiny and clean harold looked across the street to fate he would not yield red would not last forever green would be revealed

beat

once, i walked down a dark street filled with flowers all the flowers opened, and spiders crawled out of them i tried to love the spiders but could not in despair that i did not love them the spiders turned into butterflies and flew away leaving me alone in the street which was also my lonely room but who was i? i tried to remember but all i could think of was turtles i leaned out the window but i leaned too far and i fell out i didn’t have my key in my pocket - it was the first time i had ever been outside without it everybody knows me, i thought. they will let me in even i don’t have my key the landlords were piling up my things all my books and sacred manuscripts from samarkand and tibet and eddie’s deli on west 44th street i told them there was no sense piling them up because i couldn’t fit them all in my suitcase i remembered the old days on market street eating hot dogs and french fries with jack and arthur before the barbarians came and sometimes even corn on the cob - in the shadows of the market street cinema we each had a little notebook mine was blue, arthur's was red, jack’s was crocodile green jack wrote a poem about the market street cinema “the floors soft as pancakes with syrup on saturday morning” arthur wrote one too - “the only man in the audience without a tattoo” as for me, i was terrified of the market street cinema even though i knew the red ants and demons of my childhood would never return any more than the white wings and eyeballs of the million forgotten gods and archangels we waited through a thousand foggy dawns for angel and abdul and the sailor to show up and they finally did, along with the prophet and percy and the inspector who told me many wise things all of which i have forgotten words are not water, but they can’t float revolutions come and go like jacks of diamonds but the queen of spades is still standing on the corner the cigarette shakes in her hand but the squad car rolls by

room

i walked in to the room and she said what are you doing here ? and i sat down in the old armchair that had be- longed to her grandfather and where her ex-husband liked to watch reruns of matlock

i rented a room - the directors cut

air banana clown doll elephant flower grass heaven impetus joker king lady in waiting market nourishment octopus piano queen refrigerator snake tarantula upstairs violin walrus exhibition yawn zero all of you behind in your rent

i rented a room

the air was smoky the banana was yellow the clown was sad the doll was mellow the elephant smiled the flower grew the grass was green and heaven was blue i rented a room on the 17th floor the angels were winning but the demons kept score i looked at the wall and the wall looked back i heard old number 9 coming down the track the impetus waned as the joker relaxed the king fell asleep the lady paid tax the waiter approached with a bill on a tray the king woke up and said please go away i saw it myself as i sat by the door because lions prowl and oceans roar the market flourished noodles expanded the octopus drifted the piano glad-handed the queen wore a hat the refrigerator hummed the snake said good night and called the tarantula scum upstairs in the moonlight a violin screamed the walrus ate peanuts at the nexus of dreams the maid swept up the peanut shells on the floor sixteen orangutans banged on the door an impolite yawn zero balance is spent all of you villains are behind in your rent i texted my mom and my mom texted me you’re my own flesh and blood but this is not poetry

room 4404

i had never heard of jonathon and i had never been to new york so i was surprised when jonathon invited me to stay with him at the grand hotel. i packed in a hurry. actually my aunt miranda asked for me so i did not really know what i had in my suitcase. the hotel was very wide, at least on the outside. there was a lot of work going on both outside and inside it, so i had to duck under and around a lot of wooden boards and cans of paint and burly workmen to get to the front desk. our room number was 4406. the 44th floor! the man at the front desk gave me a key and i went up by myself on the elevator, as there were no bellhops to be seen. on the elevator i had many strange adventures. when i finally got to room 4404 the door was open and i just walked in. jonathon was talking on the phone, and just nodded absently at me when i walked in. the room was actually a suite - a series of long and narrow rooms. as jonathon continued talking in low tones on the telephone, i went over and looked out the window. the window overlooked a beach, a sort of bay or inlet. on the other side of the bay tall cliffs rose up. i was hungry, and wondered what we would have for dinner. i must have dozed off, for when i woke up jonathon was gone. i was alone. i decided to unpack. when i unpacked i quickly discovered that aunt miranda had packed a number of grandfather’s old golf clubs along with a lot of warm clothing that i did not think was appropriate for the weather outside. five golf clubs to be exact. what was i to do with five golf clubs! i decided to go in search of something to eat, and some more suitable garments. when i checked my pockets i discovered that my wallet was missing, along with my passport! but as i was a presentable and civilized person i though kind people would help me when i explained my predicament to them. and i had no doubt that jonatjhon would return eventually and everything would be straightened out. i went back to the elevator and had more strange adventures.

it felt strange

walking on the sidewalk with the others still trapped in the truck megan wanted to take her chances but i felt a great sense of relief at the newsstand on the corner there were a lot of pictures of frank but no papers ernie was not even there i guess he was not too worried i went up to joe’s room his old telephone was still there the one that looked like a banana i was tempted, but left everything the way i found it in the office i crawled across the floor and got my pants back on everybody acted like they didn’t notice someday i will go back to the hotel and this time go up the stairs very carefully because you never know who is waiting