Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Panama Jim



Panama Jim falls in love with Rosaria Morales in the middle of a performance.

Panama Jim has a flaming sword half way down his throat when she flashes past,

Standing on the back of a horse as white as clouds,

As white as cocaine,

As white as sheets in a five-star hotel,

And she has her arm extended and the smile of a transported saint on her (truly lovely) face.



Afterwards,

Panama Jim searches the tents until he finds her,

Then spouts half a Neruda love poem before kissing her as if she were some sort of impossibly hot

South of the border blarney stone.



They do it.

Under the caramel corn wagon, they do it,

Then do it again,

Until the spoked wheels bow out from the sultry conditions,

And Jim and Rosaria relocate out of fear of a caramel avalanche.



Panama Jim has been a fire eater for seventeen years,

But suddenly,

All of that seems like ice cream,

Like laughing gas,

Like popsicles,

Compared to the inferno he falls into in Rosaria's arms.



Love is like canoeing on lava!

Then the canoe is gone,

And Panama Jim flails in the white-hot rapids,

Letting Rosaria polish his bones with her kisses.



Anymore,

(thinks Panama Jim later)

You don't meet a woman like this.

She doesn't just come riding by, on a coke-white horse,

With a rose in her teeth.



But this time she did,

And Panama Jim is glad.

_________

for One Shoot Sunday

15 comments:

  1. shay - i love your panama jim - i was balancing between laughing out loud and getting REALLY excited. great mixture of emotions - masterfully done - wow!

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  2. You are wicked, woman. Wicked. I'm laughin and cryin at the same time over these caramel-crossed lovers. The canoing on lava, bone-polishing stanza knifes right through though and takes it all on-love, lust, life, the whole thing. Finest work.

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  3. I love this!

    It is exciting and fascinating and bewitching and tempetuous and funny all in one.

    Brilliant!

    And the iamgery is fantastic!

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  4. OK..i was feeling really down,then i came to read your poem here.and OH MY! i just enjoy this switch of mood you gave me Shay..i love it! the madness of your poems leave me SPEECHLESS..Laughing and finally!
    LOVE IT!

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  5. great combination of fire and funny! Loved it :)

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  6. Your work always exhibits such a flexibility with language and meanings. Got me with "South of the border blarney stone." And then comparing love to volcanic canoeing—awesome. Vivid poetry.

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  7. This is hot and damn good. I love a story and you wrote a ripping one here, full of fun, passion, great metaphors and vivid images. Well done. What a photo prompt!

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  8. LOL, but then I must wipe away the tears of passion... wonderful write, filled with awesome imagery.

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  9. canoeing on lava!


    "An exploding cigar we willingly smoke." Lynda Barry



    Aloha from Waikiki

    Comfort Spiral

    ><}}(°>

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  10. All of the above. This was a wonderful flight, as always, you amazing poet! Loved the whole thing, loved their fear of a caramel avalanche, the floating on lava.......the "Anymore.....you dont meet a woman like that"
    All of it. Spectacular.

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  11. Jim and Rosaria relocate out of fear of a caramel avalanche...
    is that before or after the volcanic eruption??

    Oh Shay you hold the world on your burning fingertips - perfectly juggled

    Hugs sista

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  12. Loved it! -- probably not as much as Panama Jim though ;)

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  13. Coke-white horse is such a lovely call back You, my friend, are brilliant!xoxo

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  14. Polishing his bones with kisses . . . that's such an amazing line!

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?