“Rubin Valentine and a Trip Down Amnesia Lane”
We’re listening to poetry read by a drunk Kerouac
While Dean Moriarty yells “Go for it, Jack!”
And off in the corner where no one can see
Hamlet woos Juliet, down on his knees
But she pays no attention and calls for a broom,
Watching Romeo kiss Ophelia across the room
Romeo pines for Jezebel, who went far away
And called for a taxi after she promised to stay
So Hamlet moves on, undaunted but sad
Looking for the Queen of Hearts in his hand
For the sign in the road says this way she came
And Doctor Faustus beckons to join in the game
And when Hamlet sees her, she’s dressed all in gold
She says, “The lepers need curing, they’ve all caught a cold”
When he leans in to kiss her, he’s caught in a crook
Held by Holden Caufeild, who’s reading a book
He stands with Othello, with a sword on his back
They say, “You can’t have her if you’re dressed all in black.”
To which Hamlet is puzzled, for his cape is blue-green
And they answer, “Look inside, that’s what we mean.”
Hamlet runs off to wardrobe as quick as he could
Saying, “I’ve spent so long felling happy,
I’ve forgot how to feel good”
When he returns, in a suit all of white,
There’s blood on the floor from a terrible fight
It seems Martin Luther was recently slain
By Frankenstein’s Monster, who then ran away
Hamlet seeks out the Queen, who is crying alone
He falls down before her and begs for her hand
She says, “I can’t love you, though you’re the best that I’ve had,
You must fight that monster in a faraway land
And though you win, you will never return,
I know this is the best,
And I hope you will learn.”
We’re listening to poetry read by a drunk Kerouac
While Dean Moriarty yells “Go for it, Jack!”
And off in the corner where no one can see
Hamlet woos Juliet, down on his knees
But she pays no attention and calls for a broom,
Watching Romeo kiss Ophelia across the room
Romeo pines for Jezebel, who went far away
And called for a taxi after she promised to stay
So Hamlet moves on, undaunted but sad
Looking for the Queen of Hearts in his hand
For the sign in the road says this way she came
And Doctor Faustus beckons to join in the game
And when Hamlet sees her, she’s dressed all in gold
She says, “The lepers need curing, they’ve all caught a cold”
When he leans in to kiss her, he’s caught in a crook
Held by Holden Caufeild, who’s reading a book
He stands with Othello, with a sword on his back
They say, “You can’t have her if you’re dressed all in black.”
To which Hamlet is puzzled, for his cape is blue-green
And they answer, “Look inside, that’s what we mean.”
Hamlet runs off to wardrobe as quick as he could
Saying, “I’ve spent so long felling happy,
I’ve forgot how to feel good”
When he returns, in a suit all of white,
There’s blood on the floor from a terrible fight
It seems Martin Luther was recently slain
By Frankenstein’s Monster, who then ran away
Hamlet seeks out the Queen, who is crying alone
He falls down before her and begs for her hand
She says, “I can’t love you, though you’re the best that I’ve had,
You must fight that monster in a faraway land
And though you win, you will never return,
I know this is the best,
And I hope you will learn.”
“Devoid”
(...sometimes i feel like i don’t exist...)
At 4 AM Friday
Desolation was an entity, not just a name
He could feel it with every bristling nerve ending
As his boot heels
Clicked on the pavement
The winter sting tingled his skin
Tickling his skin
As it pierced through his light shirt
He approached the sidewalk
But it was heaped in snow
From the blizzard
He could remember worse in his short 23 years
But not for a long time
In the distance
He could hear the ‘whoosh’ of the cars on the highway
On occasion, he could even
See one
His eyes searched the sky
For the moon,
But it seemed to have forgotten
It’s place that night
Replaced instead by a murkey sea of clouds
he pulled his leather jacket tight
Around him
As the wind lifted again
And tried to undress him
He stood in the middle of the
Road
Looking
Occasionally
Over his shoulder
For cars
That never seemed to meet their appointments
The yellow lights
From the closed shopping mall
bathed him
Casting him in a brown hue
Like a vague earthen statue
“Hello?” he called out
And it could have been the last word ever spoken
(...sometimes i feel like i don’t exist...)
At 4 AM Friday
Desolation was an entity, not just a name
He could feel it with every bristling nerve ending
As his boot heels
Clicked on the pavement
The winter sting tingled his skin
Tickling his skin
As it pierced through his light shirt
He approached the sidewalk
But it was heaped in snow
From the blizzard
He could remember worse in his short 23 years
But not for a long time
In the distance
He could hear the ‘whoosh’ of the cars on the highway
On occasion, he could even
See one
His eyes searched the sky
For the moon,
But it seemed to have forgotten
It’s place that night
Replaced instead by a murkey sea of clouds
he pulled his leather jacket tight
Around him
As the wind lifted again
And tried to undress him
He stood in the middle of the
Road
Looking
Occasionally
Over his shoulder
For cars
That never seemed to meet their appointments
The yellow lights
From the closed shopping mall
bathed him
Casting him in a brown hue
Like a vague earthen statue
“Hello?” he called out
And it could have been the last word ever spoken
(Sometimes, i get the impression that i’m dead, or at least separated from the world in some crucial way. i feel ethereal, and though I can see that my feet are touching the ground, I feel like i’m floating. i reach out, somehow expecting to grasp something ungraspable, like some piece of knowledge that has eluded me these twenty-three years, but even in this dream-like wakefulness, it still seems to hover just a split second before my fingertips. i can almost see it, this ultimate goal that i’ve been hunting down since the day i was born, but still it taunts me, laughing while i cry, like some vengeful devil who has been put in charge of chronicling my life from death to birth, who knows every detail, even the ones i missed, and it leaves me to wonder: will i grasp this knowledge before the day that i am floating away, or even if that piece of knowledge exists... the last word...)
“A Poem for a Beautiful Girl”
I’m looking at you long before you see me
As I walk through the darkness of the parking lot
You’re coming through the automatic doors
And the way the lights shine down above you
It looks like your beauty seems to radiate
I can’t help but stare at your long
Thick blonde hair
And the oceans of your cerulean eyes
God damn! That’s where I want to be
Your coat is too thin
But shows off your perfect figure
Filled in all the right places
Receding in all the right places
But the snow is making you shiver
And even in the distance, I can see your pale cheek quiver
You see me as I come into the light
I’ve never met you before, but I feel like I’ve known you forever
Or maybe known someone just like you
Somewhere in my pock-marked past
My eyes are lingering on your lips
Thick and the color of strawberries
On a hot summer day,
Lips I want to feel with my own
You see me looking
And when our eyes meet, you look away
It makes me wonder
What is it you don’t want me to see?
Why does it look like those lips never turn up?
What is the reason for the sadness of those eyes?
That is a question you don’t need to answer
Because I think I already know
And I’m sure that so do you
Sometime in that cold, lonely future
You’ll have nothing but your tears
When the rays of time whither your skin
And scorches away your looks
Leaving you only with what’s inside.
I’m looking at you long before you see me
As I walk through the darkness of the parking lot
You’re coming through the automatic doors
And the way the lights shine down above you
It looks like your beauty seems to radiate
I can’t help but stare at your long
Thick blonde hair
And the oceans of your cerulean eyes
God damn! That’s where I want to be
Your coat is too thin
But shows off your perfect figure
Filled in all the right places
Receding in all the right places
But the snow is making you shiver
And even in the distance, I can see your pale cheek quiver
You see me as I come into the light
I’ve never met you before, but I feel like I’ve known you forever
Or maybe known someone just like you
Somewhere in my pock-marked past
My eyes are lingering on your lips
Thick and the color of strawberries
On a hot summer day,
Lips I want to feel with my own
You see me looking
And when our eyes meet, you look away
It makes me wonder
What is it you don’t want me to see?
Why does it look like those lips never turn up?
What is the reason for the sadness of those eyes?
That is a question you don’t need to answer
Because I think I already know
And I’m sure that so do you
Sometime in that cold, lonely future
You’ll have nothing but your tears
When the rays of time whither your skin
And scorches away your looks
Leaving you only with what’s inside.
LACKLUSTER
I think you’ve let the shine go to your head, little girl
Let the iron sulphide spectacle of my desire overwhelm you, little girl
Because I’ve already grown bored with this game
Just like I’ve been trying to tell you for quite some time,
But you were so caught up in
Playing “hard to get”
That you didn’t see me lose interest in the prize
I’ve been trying to explain
For the better part of my life
In exasperated pleas for you to just go away
That this kind of reindeer game
Makes me ill
And shame on me, I let you fool me twice
But I’ll be a damned god,
Another fallen archangel, clipped wings
Falling so beautifully, gracefully,
If I let you do it again
Because, darling, this heart isn’t made of stone
But the armor around it is
So pick up the pieces of my shattered breastplate,
And I’ll assure you that I didn’t let it break the skin
And then, you can either stay or leave
Because neither will effect me much anymore
And I can watch in quiet amusement
As you prick yourself on the thorns of your own childishness
Which I first thought was,
Awwww,
So cute little girl,
But then I saw your life is a heartbreak, little girl
Spent on the wings of another catastrophe
Another sad song sung by a leprose heart
I tell you this little girl,
Just look in these black eyes, and see the soul they contain
“Sweet Chastity in Wonderland”
Anti the Hero enters the church
He has an appointment with the Devil for lunch
He wants to learn the meaning of life, and he's looking for the truth
Anti the Hero asks the priest if he's seen the Devil, but the priest scurries about and doesn't notice him
He says he doesn't have time for such foolishness
The Devil prances in and sits down next to Anti the Hero
He is smiling
As usual
He has two buttons on the lapels of his wolf-skin jacket
One says, "Jesus was a man"
The other says, "Men lie"
The Devil bids good morning to Anti the Hero and puts his feet up on the pew
"I hope you didn't wait too long," The Devil says
When Anti the Hero says, "No," the Devil shrugs and says, "Oh well"
The Voice of Morality comes in to yell at the priest
She is drunk and smells of stale urine
She has been sleeping in the streets because she thinks that's how to suffer
When the Voice of Morality sees the Devil and Anti the Hero, she stops to tell them they're wrong
When the priest ignores her, she goes to sleep off her binge in the confessional
"It's going to be a good mourning," the Devil says to Anti the Hero and goes off to the concession
stand to buy popcorn
A Great World Leader comes in to see the priest, but he says he'll settle for the Devil if the priest is
busy
When he sees the Devil isn't there, he says that he'll settle for Anti the Hero
He has taken LSD and contracted HIV, but says he still works for the NWO
He demands respect, even though his phallus is buried in a rat
He goes into the confessional to see if he can seduce the Voice of Morality
The Devil returns with two boxes of popcorn and asks if he missed anything
Anti the Hero says, "No"
Enter a man wearing a shirt that says, "I Love Satan"
He is carrying a sword in one hand and his dignity over his shoulder
The Devil smiles and hands a bag of popcorn to Anti the Hero
The man sits down opposite the Devil and Anti the Hero, and admonishes them for being in a church
He tells them he is Satan's Chosen Warrior
The Devil smiles
He asks the man if he would know the Devil on sight
The man says, "Yes"
He begins to whisper insults about the priest
When the priest's ears perk up, the man runs out, looking over his shoulder
He is careful to take his sword, but leaves his dignity on the pew
The Great World Leader tip-toes out of the confessional
He has impregnated the Voice of Morality
They will name the child Syn, but neither knows after which parent
With a bang and a flash, the Good Christian woman comes in
She is excited about seeing the Devil
She says a religious experience with him is better than no religious experience at all
She shakes his hand and kisses his hoof
He pats her on the head
He tells her that Jesus loves her
She bows and runs away
Anti the Hero asks the Devil if it's always this exciting
To which the Devil replies, "Only when you're here"
Their conversation stops when a black man in a tiger costume stalks into the church
The priest screams and runs into the confessional, waking up the Voice of Morality
The black man says his name is The Roar of His Brothers
He begs the Devil for the power to stop the men wearing sheets whiter than their skin
He says they hunt him down and burn his flesh
He then asks the Devil to clear the white people from his Homeland so it can be One
The Devil slaps him and calls him a blasphemer
He sounds offended
The Voice of Morality comes out of the confessional
She is crying because her child will not be stillborn like its mother
She puts her arm around the Roar of His Brothers
She promises the Devil he'll burn in Hell if he doesn't grant both wishes
The Devil ponders them and looks them over carefully
Then he agrees to grant their common wish to always walk with their backs to the Sun
The Voice of Morality exits, supported by The Roar of His Brothers
The Devil nods to Anti the Hero and tips his top hat
"I must be going," he says. "A Devil's work is never done"
He skips out of the church, leaving Anti the Hero with the bill for the popcorn
Anti the Hero enters the church
He has an appointment with the Devil for lunch
He wants to learn the meaning of life, and he's looking for the truth
Anti the Hero asks the priest if he's seen the Devil, but the priest scurries about and doesn't notice him
He says he doesn't have time for such foolishness
The Devil prances in and sits down next to Anti the Hero
He is smiling
As usual
He has two buttons on the lapels of his wolf-skin jacket
One says, "Jesus was a man"
The other says, "Men lie"
The Devil bids good morning to Anti the Hero and puts his feet up on the pew
"I hope you didn't wait too long," The Devil says
When Anti the Hero says, "No," the Devil shrugs and says, "Oh well"
The Voice of Morality comes in to yell at the priest
She is drunk and smells of stale urine
She has been sleeping in the streets because she thinks that's how to suffer
When the Voice of Morality sees the Devil and Anti the Hero, she stops to tell them they're wrong
When the priest ignores her, she goes to sleep off her binge in the confessional
"It's going to be a good mourning," the Devil says to Anti the Hero and goes off to the concession
stand to buy popcorn
A Great World Leader comes in to see the priest, but he says he'll settle for the Devil if the priest is
busy
When he sees the Devil isn't there, he says that he'll settle for Anti the Hero
He has taken LSD and contracted HIV, but says he still works for the NWO
He demands respect, even though his phallus is buried in a rat
He goes into the confessional to see if he can seduce the Voice of Morality
The Devil returns with two boxes of popcorn and asks if he missed anything
Anti the Hero says, "No"
Enter a man wearing a shirt that says, "I Love Satan"
He is carrying a sword in one hand and his dignity over his shoulder
The Devil smiles and hands a bag of popcorn to Anti the Hero
The man sits down opposite the Devil and Anti the Hero, and admonishes them for being in a church
He tells them he is Satan's Chosen Warrior
The Devil smiles
He asks the man if he would know the Devil on sight
The man says, "Yes"
He begins to whisper insults about the priest
When the priest's ears perk up, the man runs out, looking over his shoulder
He is careful to take his sword, but leaves his dignity on the pew
The Great World Leader tip-toes out of the confessional
He has impregnated the Voice of Morality
They will name the child Syn, but neither knows after which parent
With a bang and a flash, the Good Christian woman comes in
She is excited about seeing the Devil
She says a religious experience with him is better than no religious experience at all
She shakes his hand and kisses his hoof
He pats her on the head
He tells her that Jesus loves her
She bows and runs away
Anti the Hero asks the Devil if it's always this exciting
To which the Devil replies, "Only when you're here"
Their conversation stops when a black man in a tiger costume stalks into the church
The priest screams and runs into the confessional, waking up the Voice of Morality
The black man says his name is The Roar of His Brothers
He begs the Devil for the power to stop the men wearing sheets whiter than their skin
He says they hunt him down and burn his flesh
He then asks the Devil to clear the white people from his Homeland so it can be One
The Devil slaps him and calls him a blasphemer
He sounds offended
The Voice of Morality comes out of the confessional
She is crying because her child will not be stillborn like its mother
She puts her arm around the Roar of His Brothers
She promises the Devil he'll burn in Hell if he doesn't grant both wishes
The Devil ponders them and looks them over carefully
Then he agrees to grant their common wish to always walk with their backs to the Sun
The Voice of Morality exits, supported by The Roar of His Brothers
The Devil nods to Anti the Hero and tips his top hat
"I must be going," he says. "A Devil's work is never done"
He skips out of the church, leaving Anti the Hero with the bill for the popcorn
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