Flashes 15

You
are not
your nose

A piano’s
a harp
with hammers!

I don’t

envy these
leaders

*

Pornography:

oversexed performing
for undersexed

Unhappiness

is not the same
as sadness

Guilt:

a guide
to improvement

*

Radio

blurting blurb for
Pizza Pimp

Courage
is
contagious



.

Don't Belong Here

How many miles?
Still can’t shake it off
Face in the mirror won’t tell me
Where to go

Gonna find that happy place
Far away
Soul of a bird above me
Shows a way

Gonna beat a path

That’s off this lonesome broken road
Gonna find a way
On my own

The blues have got me

On the run
The blues my God have they got me
On the run

I want to fly

Fly fly fly
In all that empty space
Up in the sky

Gonna beat my wings
Lift off this lonesome broken road
Gonna find a way
On my own

I don’t belong here

God I know I know
I don’t need to be told
I’ve got to go

I don’t need to be told

I’ve got to go



.

6 Haiku

A red-eyed fly waits
on a concrete slab before
he buzzes away

The cars and the surf
make the same breathing sound
as they roll along

Train’s in a tunnel—
Wow! I just noticed that I’m
alone in this car...

*

Raven overhead
raking the air with its wings—
the cat’s eager eyes

Brilliant twittering
drone of distant birds behind
this one’s close hoo-WOO!

The cat curled in leisure,
her eyes two dim lamps gazing,
on the rumpled bed



.

Guthrie As Hendrix On Puccini

In a recent dream I am watching a black-and-white documentary about Jimi Hendrix.

In one scene he is playing a keyboard which features some sort of pitch modulator that can at a touch of a button transform the note of any key he presses into a flat 7th, a flat 3rd, etcetera.

In a later scene, Hendrix and two bandmates are standing beside one another in front of some immense oak trees. There is a close-up of a bandmate who says “I think Jimi’s greatest strength is his skill as an actor.” The camera pans to Hendrix, who now looks like a cross between Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Woody Guthrie. “An actor!” he laughs. “That’s funny—an actor!”

This is followed by a montage of this Mitchell/Guthrie/Hendrix’s performance antics. From these glimpses, he certainly evinces a showman’s charisma—one shot shows him standing before a group of rapt children, wielding a violin as if it were a parade leader’s baton, a gleaming look of a conjurer on his grinning face.

Later, this same version of Hendrix is shown in a tight close-up, looking at his interviewer unblinkingly, saying “Of all the classical composers I’ve heard, Puccini is the only one who strikes me as truly crazy.”

.

Come On Down

Got a glimpse of a notion
Flashing through this town
Something’s set into motion
Word is getting around

Could it be there’s a scene busting out?

Come on down!
Come on down and spread it around
Come on down!
The shell is broken—we broke it open
Come on come on down!

Once a secret is spoken

It’s hard to quiet it down
Once it’s out in the open
It’s hard to turn it around

We can see that their scheme’s breaking down

Come on down!
Come on down—it’s tumbling down
Come on down!
We know it’s broken—we broke it open
Come on come on down!

Another flash in the shadows

Another lonely place
Another clash in the battle
Another glimpse of grace

There’s a circle that spins round and round

Come on down!
Ride the rise before it turns down
Come on down!
A holy roller—before it’s over
Come on come on down!



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