Neon Caffeine
—Poems and Visuals by Smith, Cleveland, OH
THE SISYPHUS EFFECT
I tried to tell her
don't get up
stay in bed
it's a scam
another reality trick
they get you every time
first you wake up
then you sit up
step out of bed
and whammo
they got you
again
they make you do stuff
be things
go places
eat
defecate
take
fake
I told her
tried to warn her
but no
she's up
doing yoga
making coffee
petting the cat
listening to Willie Nelson
caught again in the web of want
old debt new due
one more early worm demanding bird
Mystic City
RIP TIDE
Life's a beach, and sand you die
sow reap rip sew sow reap rip sew so
Our car clock's running slow
pretty soon we'll be there before we leave
and won't even have to go
I've realized global warming
is caused by too many hot babes,
and not enough cool cats
to lower their temperature.
It's all telepathetic
Calvary
TERRITORY
Monkey man
take stick draw line in sand
...there...you...here...me...
as if we get to choose
our abuse
(though we do)
live poet on the line
dead poet in the ground
memory walking
Gimme Five
SERVICE STATION
Heading for Amarillo to buy an Amaryllis,
I pulled into the station,
told gas guy to fill us.
He laughed,
"You must be old school,
from back when we sold service
and cared about the customer
until we found them clueless,
you're now no more than number,
low down on the fool stool,
useful,
yet quite useless,
so wipe your window,
fill your tank,
and pay us as you leave
and please,
say thanks."
Grey Sun
STATUS REPORT 298
If there is light
dark is near, and equal
Seems to be you and me and entropy
sliding down the coffin lid
digging our own dirt
I watch the faded once famous
fumble toward the light
for a laugh
Best know life starts out crooked
then fast frays south
to food or feed
You're going to need eyes
in back of your eyes
foots to flee
Pain polishes bone
time and sea smooths stone
Negative Space
ONCE MORE INTO THE BLEACH
This ain't poetry
but then we don't know each other.
We've nothing in common
except we're common.
My animal wants fed
my spirit needs growing.
If you can't eat sunlight
you must eat the once-alive to survive.
I wanna be an autotroph
when I grow up.
Until 6 kills 9
it's all relative, quantumtatively.
It's when one end's a fuse
you gotta worry.
Decisions decisions decisions...
a lollipop, or a lobotomy?
I got a new truthbrush
now no one likes me anymore.
14th Street
TODAY’S SERMONETTE
Rituals rise from lattice need
to gird with grid our daily bleed.
Outside the box is danger of
dragons and our falling off.
But go, step, it's just a line
authority insists is in your mind.
A line not there in any case,
simply something for saving face.
Too many chickens, cowards, sheep,
zombie people walking sleep.
Afraid to live so live a lie,
afraid to cut and savor pie.
Scared to ask for piece of puzzle
so booze and TV food do guzzle.
Afraid of life, they look to Gods
to tell them when they cannot trod.
But Gods are gone to Corporate Land
so say the monied Upper Hand.
We bow and scrap and shake in fear
avoiding growth and seeing clear.
Why use their rules to live your life?
It's up to you what's good, what's strife.
You pay the price of what they say.
I say we choose, go our way.
Fish in sea, bird in air, clan on land,
each one has its own plan.
Play and smile and laugh and dance,
discover stuff by taking chance.
Their code concretes on money myth.
No need to follow sez Irreverend Smith.
Bottom Line
FAIRY TRAIL
That low train moan
usually distant
has always been there
from my Bitterroot Mountain days
through the Paradise Prairie fields of wheat
to this lip above the Cleveland Flats
overlooking the once many-steeled valley's
last working mill
spitting toxic smoke and cold fire
between its Devil's horns
that moan promising other
not outlier
a somewhat belonging
somewhere down the line
if only you had a ticket
or the guts to hop a freight
because there's gotta be better than here
but after 70-some years
of falling for this shit
my weary has finally worn through
to bone truth:
you there
or you here
is still you
so what you want to do there
you must first undo here
remember
the mask you mock
may be your be
Omega
Today’s LittleNip:
Fleshless trees
stripped of leaf and bloom
wait for warmth
—Smith
__________________
Our Thursday thanks to Irreverend Smith (Steven B. Smith) and his quantumtative truthbrush, as we rock our way through another week. We started out on Monday with pies, and he reminds us not to “be afraid to cut and savor pie”—sage advice, indeed!
Today at noon at the Sac. Public Library, Third Thursdays in the Sacramento Room on I St. in Sacramento will hold a poetry read-around on the theme of beginnings, endings, time. Bring poems by someone other than yourself that celebrate the spirit of Janus. Then tonight at Luna’s on 16th St. in Sacramento at 8pm, Theatre Mutiny will be featured at Poetry Unplugged, along with plenty of open mic. Also tonight, also at 8pm, Poetry in Davis presents Kathryn Hohlwein, who will be reading with daughter Laura Hohlwein, plus Bob Stanley, plus open mic. That’s at the John Natsoulas Gallery on First St. in Davis. (Be there by 7:40 to sign up for open mic.) Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa, trying to remember to “… go, step, it's just a line…”
KrazyKat
—Photo by Smith
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.