It will all wash away
But we don't believe any more
Cause we've got our recruits
And our green mohair suits
So please show your I.D. At the door."--"Sin City" by Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons
Power only lasts a minute,
like lion piss on the trunk of a tree
keen on the next rain.
Girl, you're somebody's Venus,
but not everyone's;
while you give some fool your smile and make another one wait hope and suffer,
here I am, up from a trap-door Hell, denying you mine.
Zebra have nightmares of being chased,
when they dare sleep at all.
All are destroyers to the ant, even a bumbling child.
See the sun, the same one that burns
the cat, the commander,
the egg shell CEO and that cunt on the corner,
rising above them all.
Feel your own roar shaking the earth itself.
Dig it, but remember,
the legions with their whips and cages and clocks
have a circus to make you the foil of
in a Rome you've not imagined--more real than this desert you terrify today.
_________
for the mini-challenge at Real Toads: "Juice."
Yeah. Life is a pisser. Especially the final frontier of 'maturity'
ReplyDeletePreach!
The line "in a Rome you've not imagined" says it all.
ReplyDeleteI love the raw, angered tone of this one, Shay. The penultimate stanza is such a potent way to bring the whole to its conclusion.
ReplyDeleteHearing the roar... and imagining different Romes.
ReplyDeleteA letter to a young poet(a) about the difference between savagery and grace. To wield that power O so carefully and intelligently. Youth is so wasted on the young ...
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot going on here, all of it pretty amazing. Images whip in the wind like autumn leaves, so much so that each succeeding line seems more of a slap, more of a direct hit than the last. Power corrupts, absolutely, and kills, and taunts and teases, too, and sooner or later, will get its own sentence to the colliseum. I especially love the ending--"whips and cages and clocks."
ReplyDeleteI love the fiery tone in this one, Shay especially; "Zebra have nightmares of being chased, when they dare sleep at all. All are destroyers to the ant, even a bumbling child." Beautifully rendered.
ReplyDeleteWhips and cages and clocks will bring down the mightiest. Love this!!
ReplyDeletePower never lasts long. Love this
ReplyDeleteThere's always that cage (or even bullets). Beware before you roar.
ReplyDeletethis is awesome, SP, but then everything you write is awesome.
ReplyDelete♡