Solara 96-110

 sorry for the wait, world.

XCVI
my words are more like nonsense and still, someone is agreeing with me. they’ll come forward, in disinterested clumps/amoebas who can’t be bothered to congeal. hell no, we won’t grow! little tests of disbursement. lessening the impact. still they will arrive at the appropriate moment to chant something like a sad battlecry, another little ditty made by a combination of scatting and yawning. to think, this all came from nothing.

XCVII

you know that i/critter of the swamp/deep forest kin/sad enough for two of us/mourn collections of broken trees and the rotting stumps of yesterday//i done told you, pa/there ain’t nothing for us here anymore/not like yester-years//a voice emits from swamp country-beware-it snaps-for my violin is broken and i have used the word “for” when speaking to you. this must mean i am serious//i am a conscientious swamp thing objector/give us honest truths/those condos aren’t building themselves//pa, get off’n them condos/they ain’t hiring none of us under the best’ve them circumstances//free labor is the voice of the people//i’ve had about enough of this swamp shilling/sad to be leaving, but look what we’ve become//

XCVIII

when will the babbling stop? i would like to know. i would like a timeline expressing the ability to change and the inability to let the real words come to the surface. bad enough, we let real sentences stand on their own merit. word bubbles, next to the river, like it has something to say. we cannot understand the language of water. it was never meant for us. not you, and certainly not me. i will lay my head on the pillow each night and know i’ve done what’s required of me; water thoughts be damned. what will the current bring to you? 

XCIX

like a bridge/over the Atlantic Ocean/like the industry cropping up on said bridge/think of the gas monopolies//the hotel chains, springing up like snakes out of a cylindrical can/economy revitalized//shirts commemorating the trip/like a dream, only commercial/only filled with roadside attractions/only a pain when you break down/all that smog and the fish below/we’ve done it/

C

We were leaving, long before the rest of us had planned to go. No bags, just our feet, the wind. This fellowship. We knew what was behind us. We didn’t want it anymore; not like this. Not this time. You followed suit, eventually. Followed the path we marked with scuffs, our easy conversation and camaraderie with one another, still drifting on the wind. Along the metal, over the water of a river long forgotten. We all went elsewhere, to a point unknown, unimportant. Just, not here.

CI

Fidelity/Thy name/Is a flower/In a barren field/Next to a rotted out tire/Shine yourself/Back into the forefront/You’ve earned your fifteen minutes/Baby

CII

is nature/good/and done yet?

mingling with our affairs/our

ill-gotten/treasures/hidden on

maps of a golden/imagined country.

interceding with what we’ve/made/

linking within an abandoned fence/this

Semi-forgotten bicycle? Can we/just

agree to go our separate ways?

CIII

I can’t/won’t change what you did/left to devices less formal/less honest/rewritten along the rust marks/along the old wounded lineage/I can’t bring it back to life/not the way you want it to be/not like before/not even halfway back, or halfway/there/the silver standard, untouchable/you’ve been handed an opportunity/not an invitation to revision/lessen exposure/lessen the blow to the ego/let the rust become native and take control of the operation/we’ll have to make do with what is left/salvage it/somehow/

CIV

Some unseen hand, in an unseen tongue, on a spent piece of paper, has taken to recording the enterprise of the past. Left us, guessing at the detailed notes. Headshakes and mutterings. Another lost opportunity. Not recorded in the annals of history. Another one, gone. Again.

CV

exposure/the sun/like wrinkles,

this/like parchment/finer aging,

this/loadstar, shackle on the neck,

this/a destination/an obstacle,

both/this/in heat mirage/shimmering

air, this/lend me what is yours/not mine,

this/ 

CVI

truth is vision/and what the eye/is beholden

to/the truth is/that i am no longer/seeing clearly/

what is in front of my eye/instead/i invent a truth

fitting my purpose/my need/another color, another

shape/another landscape//

wind, rake this still form/gather the dust 

and swirl/remake

this truth into something we will

all believe.

CVII

gurgle and whimper/the future has devoured me/beneath the waves/cosmic/sound/ocean/all in a swirl of cacophony/let my heart know it is stopping soon and/the sputtering is natural and/soon i am food for a fish/set of fishes/or an enterprising beast designed in sound/the light is faster than we imagined/even with everything we know/we still/know nothing/

CVIII

shifting the terms of service/fire below water/lightning on both levels/what we see and hear/not relevant to a discussion of this magnitude/as earth splits/as water leaks from the apartment above/less you know/less it your friend/as the smoke shifts downward/up and away/we are going somewhere unexpected yet/yes/another surprise/right about now, you’ll be coming up for air/surprised to see what remains/what has left us/

CIX

Not sure/relief/or pained response/misfiring of a synapse/the leg kept twitching/long after the brain was good and done/who knew what was really/at peace/what does rest look like\when left to our devices/moments of weakness/a triumph in stillness/this, a monument/this, inflection point/willed into knowing yourself/like an arbitrary spin of a wheel/spokes flying in all directions/and then, peace/

CX

this is
not what i
had in mind
when the day
started. dearly
absent lightning
and broken crack
of thunder. my stare
has traveled the eons
and cosmos. i expect
some raving spectacle
and was met with
unsure cymbal claspings,
shrugs from the players,
less prepared than me
for what comes out of
the sky. today. 

Solara 81-95

 it's back.

LXXXI

pieces assembled and disassembled by an untrained eye /my own/. endless variety. for shame for sooth for all of us another grumbling naysayer, well wisher on hiatus. from the sound of the song above, at least the ones with wings, they seem to be attuned to the proper frequency/they shall know us by our primal shouts and the glue all over our hands.

LXXXII

Wisdom-decanted-strewn about in reckless patterns/the eggs are shaking-forming cracks along the edges/new will become old and weathered-inheriting the birthright/only the eyes of something nocturnal-primed with a tuning fork-ready to see the unending soul train line clapping off rhythm-some guy with a tie around his head/this is living, isn’t it?

LXXXIII

I’ve seen/this present and future/slurring themselves together/whisked by a fork with a broken middle prong/runny eggs, half congealed in the burning pan/smoke crawling to the alarm/the batteries, long dead-of course/yesterday’s responsibility becomes today’s should-have-been-handled/revising the ad-hoc to-do list with the power of hindsight/look into this soul/know it for what it might just be/tomorrow and yesterday and today/

LXXXIV

a mess won’t clean itself. this,

mess, this display of common,

vulgarity-dripping with spent coffee

grinds, with the shrapnel of yesterday’s 

crumbs. we’ve succumbed to a slovenly

detente, waiting for those who might

fix the situation to accept their fate. their

calling. it will not be me.

LXXXV

Lost in the hours/frittering/careless blooms/bitter tinctures/medicine in

name only/this pastime, the consolation round/the little way each second

wilts from the flower/gathering at the base of the stem/left to darken and 

shrivel/among good company/let the dust collect as well/marking the passage

of a moment to the next/

LXXXVI

sell me this peace. Let me know /beauty/ at whatever [price] this <sign exchange=to a conversation rate/less than what you’re hoping for/name this price. name whatever demands, and I can meet them/with gusto/verve. I want the grandeur to move through me/once more. Let me be still, let me /know/ this, once more.

LXXXVII

been here/before/enough to walk with confidence/eyes closed and blindfolded/scales of justice in my outstretched arms/dodging root systems and rocks of assorted sizes and shapes/passing judgment on casual wrongdoers and those of a more nefarious strain/even those caught in the web/of something more complicated//my feet dance my path to the destination/where everything will take care of itself/

LXXXVIII

victory at last/i stand/exulting myself/slings-arrows, whatnot/want not/what has it cost\\withering shell of myself/worth it\\yet another promise i have kept/one with enough dirt to bury both itself and me/as i let myself descend/to rest/to my just reward\\ 

LXXXVIX

hello/this is my mess now/you should be proud/me-dutiful disciple-to your method acting/this molten hot coal in my stomach/single hand clapping/otherwise empty room/just me, this disarray, and the feeling between us/these vibrations sealed in a tomb-off the coast of a nearby tourist trap/enough with the merriment and the speculation/let us begin-in earnest/

XC

where i end and you do not begin/and where this is all one stripe of the tiger/and this is another interruption of service/and you called for anyone who would listen/and no one called back, though it is of note that you did so in a pidgin-binary and morse/who in their right mind would harken to that call\\and you’ll love it all/i want to believe it/so much/

XCI

no/less than/off-centered and sleep deprived/the image slips between boundaries/losing itself//no/revise the initial opinion/condensed, almost/unmoored in space/another frictionless arena/no applause//no/more than/nothing/this one becomes/more\\

XCII

They’ve made you like this [noir in nature] (broken appearance)/let you know-yourself-barely/<disrupted a few key processes> and set /in/ motion, 

the hovering doubt; this elegant distaste; the lamentable fog that swirls around

your form in public settings. come on. stop acting so surprised by what 

you’ve been made

to be.

XCIII

cue the evil laughing again. cull those who don’t have the right vibrato. an art, this laugh. meet us, usual haunts, usual conditions, use the password-we won’t reveal it here but it rhymes with…careful, careful, eager beavers. no, that was not a hint, it was a chastisement. we have lost the luxury of being careful. they’re starting to catch on. we are not trying to be ironic here. no, parking is not validated either. you’re all missing the point here.

XCIV

cut rate children’s programming after the camera’s departure. golden smiles of miscreants and moderate malfeasance. no one sure if this is scripted or a vision of some kind of kinship. the critters in their postures, they aren’t clueing anyone in here. just wrinkle your brow in amusement, onlooker. how often do you see something like magic anymore? why not choose to believe it might still be possible?

XCV

march/uninhibited/this day is the sunshine made/for you/dear ones/giving yourself to the flow of feet/of the swell of other people/the street cannot hold you/dear ones/this calculated showing of joy/this/takedown of fear/this/ownership of family/one that is forged/one that is cultivated/less of the conscription of yesterday/now/we take one step forward/and ascend/

Solara 66-80

 a return to the Solara.

LXVI

What we’re waiting for/together/is some kind of magical pyramid scheme that will help us all /transcend/ into wearing monocles and hiring associates to carry our gold on their backs at all times. Who could /blame/ us either? Though, I think monocles are hard to balance. Also, anyone /who is/ anyone has cryptocurrency. Hard to insert the gold into the computer, I imagine. I’m going to /live my life/ in-0-1 combinations. Affluence in a cloud. Affluence forever. Digital/ monocle//. Forget the rest of /you/.

LXVII

Once monoliths. We are like the hulking beasts of our past. Lunging to the present. Clawing to the future. Half of my desires are lost in the passing of one minute to the next. The other, a fierce sunlight, bearing down on the sundial. Merciless, an eye eternal. I could easily be lost to the reveries and delights of any given yesterday. Remain at attention. Stay a course. Survive.

LXVIII

It might /begin/ as a sliver of mercury floating its way towards salvation. It might /begin/ as the gentle lulling of a breeze against the window. It might /begin/ as the sun peaking out from the endless night. 

It /becomes/ a storm. It /is/ the end. For now, let us /bask/ in its simplicity. /Before/ too long. /Before/ we must change course.  

LXVIX

My evening was ruined/no fault of mine/or yours/or anything for that matter. Nothing to be done about it/really/when we get down to it. Outside the scope of our control/of our collected wisdom/and experience. What can be done about cosmic events? Certainly, I am no expert/neither are you/I suppose.

LXX

what, peace and /heaven/, when. where/each/collide. how, in song/we are all made purer/minor miracles of flesh/bone/salt. give in to this /endless/ wandering gaze. somewhere, like all lost objects/come to be /found/ again/with no sense of urgency. written for us, above our vision/in slivers of/the/ infinite.

LXXI

I once dreamt/the afterlife/in a side room of my elementary school/illuminated as statues/seen only by lightning. God had jokes about hell and I missed /my family. Eternity was a long time/perhaps/definitely. Ten and dreaming of a heaven-in the building where I was /learning/forgetting/obscuring myself. I’ll never forget the lightning, the awareness there was a border I couldn’t cross. Then, in an instant /I arrived./

LXXII

I didn’t want a prayer card. They gave it to me anyway. Nothing was saving this soul /or my own. Still, I was polite and took it. The words were imaginary. The /picture, some stock/ image /underwater/. I wondered where I really was. What had I done? I spoke the words. /Began to rise/and found myself home /finally/ or that’s what I’ll /tell myself/ 

LXXIII

You could. Try to take water in hand. Hold it. The source. Slipping. I’m being profound again /aren’t I/held, my hand/my breath. All of this, a patient game of waiting/who will blink, /first/ more sounds from far away. More light rays, in the flux of waves. My chest, this fire/this staring into/another void. Water slips from your hand/ again/ 

LXXIV

Don’t pull me into your ideal version/unhinged material and beauty. Aggressive and color stripped/swelling violins/selling me something I /never/ knew I never /wanted/. Taking me beneath the waves, this siren song/this web of impulse deregulation/this hug of the waves, dragging me deeper/beyond the surface. Never let me have my own ideas again.

LXXV

You’ve decided for me/stuff that turns a dream to cinders/ashes. Decocted and reduced-left in the pot too long. Lost in the reverie-turning to a weathered paste. I’m heavy of foot again/loss on my features/stolen from me. Sing me this symphony, wind/let me set it and -not- forget it, /this time/

LXXVI

I think I /finally understand./ it all./each rendering of the impossible /begins with the/.end point in mind/scrolling through infinity—left to our own descent 

into madness/and the multiplication tables turning [in on themselves]./ever the gyre/endless manifestations: in a sequence/

in a volume beyond

numeric representation. All of our hands are /raised/. 

LXXVII

I won’t deteriorate any longer. In our conversations, you’ve shown me versions of myself. Reworded me for clarity and reformed my broken stabbings of sentences for something listening, somewhere, and we haven’t really been speaking. Even still, I am in debt to the caverns you have shown me, have left me to wander. Even as you, yourself, continue your own excavation, elsewhere.

LXXVIII

and still persistent. very much in the throes of some kind of fever. pressing forward when the shakes set in. easing the symptoms. letting off the adrenaline rush. stuck in some sense of purpose’s flight patterns. thirst never quite quenched. again, a rush. again, the old sense of wonder. it never goes away, does it?

LXXVIX

this will eek out of me/running away with the feeling/in spurts and shouts and shouted gulps of hot air/in the worst moment possible/letting it buoy itself behind air/fueled by shrill projection/less of a spectacle, but no one is looking away/break and crack and fall into the smaller, jagged pieces and distortions of the feeling consuming the whole of my attention/focus, viewer/let it seep its way from me to you/drink and/be full

LXXX

Disappointed/denial, in retrospect/sunk in feathers/free and floating//glass cracking from the edges to the center/uneven/scratched to the point of concern//each sound, sharper than its predecessor/even this mockingbird’s lament/this robin’s aria/this crow and its pointed stare/focused and waiting/drenched in our disillusion/nothing is the way it was/promised//

Solara 51-65

 15 more for your general enjoyment/perusal.

LI

I’ve never been more accomplished, in my statement/this mess/I have reaped what I have sown/culled from the aging crops/taken what can be saved/left the rest for the locusts/what you see/now/is the after-image/the negative of the actual photo/left to the stillness/I am pensive in my victory/my eyes do not waver/never off of the horizon/this one is for me/for me/alone/let me bask in it/

LII

seen/

A vision/of

failure/of

time’s victory/of

another reminder/of

god’s laughter/of

mild songs of lament/of

sweet, sonorous silence/of

the aftermath of something/seen/

as nothing/ 

LIII

Again, artist behind the art/in plain sight/with their forebears/visual ancestors/ascetic comrades/becoming one/with/creation/an uncertain unification/right in front of us/behind our own frame/in the home of another onlooker’s onlooker/visions of an eternal vigil/uninterrupted through the eons/left to their own musings/look on/ 

LIV

You’ve already been able to know me, so well. I’ll drop the act and let the spectacle take me in it’s loving arms. Unbend the knee/oh how the old habits/die hard/. I am fighting to remain present./in this/very moment/you witness the true, /miracle/ I will be made /manifest/a glorious manifestation. My, how the stares of your peers, in horror, mollify and make you happy. how/appalling. How interesting.

LV

What longing? Watching the Sun crash into the Earth again.

These dreams. The projector has 

one film. I can’t look away either.

Looking on /helpless/

like the child when mom and dad

dis/agree/ and there’s nowhere to look

except right into the blaze/knowledge being

what/ever/ it is this time. Some talisman, some

chain. Rooted to the spot. This operation is /already/

a disappointment and a realization. /Both/.

LVI

My life has become just another

/imitation/ of some surrealist painter’s

portfolio where I say shocking things

and make still more shocking pictures

in shocking mediums and no one has much

to say but applaud /with gusto/ and /I guess/ 

there’s not much else to do but put the brush

into my solar plexus until it enters my body

and I can finally try painting my /soul/.

LVII

Oh god, I didn’t mean it like that. Please

take it away and let it out to the pasture.

/you know what I mean by that/let’s not mince

words /or meat/. Sometimes the reality sets in

and I am filled with buyer’s remorse, at another

Loss. What I’ve commissioned /”what have we done?”/

You know the answer, /so do I/. Let it sink in and do the Lord’s 

work to each of us.

LVIII

The great plains sing like they are America. The creatures harmonize behind the plains. I am unmoved because I am already America. All of me/is reaching for something pastoral. Something from a place I have no /access/ to anymore. Some part of us long forgotten//. I asked for this, didn’t I? 

LIX

A view. A sky. Rocks and trees and overgrowth. Clouds of undetermined menace. I was promised spectacle. I was promised miracles. Here I stand, where I’ve been my whole life. Counting clouds. Waiting for the universe to lift its gaze from the cosmos and pull me up with it to a fate deserved.

LX

Good ol’ respite in the end of a good ol’ bad day. Darn tootin’ and damn skippy and what have us. Not a whole lot to it when the sun winds down and the moon winds up, and I ain’t plum foolin’ myself otherwise. No sequence to interrupt, just the comings and goings of the world and its mischiefs. Me and mine and you and yours, just witnessing the whole spinning mess of a thing, aren’t we? Might as well /crack/ open the suds and /get to it.//

LXI

Dream this /world/-World dreams me/Left within confines of a broken, overflowing circle. Slipping from the margins, undoing and cooking myself-in symmetrical /burnings,/ patterns. Longings escaping from their cages/given to their movements, /baser/ instincts. Willing to be lost. Willing to compromise the whole structure-ruin the enterprise. My world rolls over in its /sleep/the alarm rings and /know it/ now. All of it.

LXII

still floating, even when the pieces are coming /undone/. stands still at an edge: staring at /the bottom-/-, absorbed by the distance, echoes and shrieks, modulated-pitched /down///remains affixed /to the point assigned___to the silent window to the/whistles coming back from an .abyss. left to its own amusements___gasp at the appropriate interval. any day .now/. 

LXIII

-alight with clouds/tear it down-gripping the seat’s headrest. old visions of nightmares/combustibles set, in the foreground, the flame/ approaches. never/ letting

it out of our :sight: not blinking/as the rains arrive/as the window fogs/as the mind is left to 

its own devices. we envision a future from what little we have acquired along the way.

LXIV

-you couldn’t /imagine/-even if you/desired it/what will be left behind/and what will be made of it/when we go,[and we’ve already gone, mate], we’ll be/unable/to set the agenda/any longer/. feel my heart’s ache at the /loss of/ agency. you’ll know it in the space where blood pools and leaves, though it’s not something we’d call a heart [not on you, mate…never that]. you’ll know something similar, something like a feeling/right?/

LXV

The fireflies came together to perform a collaborative picture series. We all held hands and smiled. Life was perfect again. Finally/right/. Showing the audience the truth of our priorities. Always/coming back to the heart. A pleasant reminder. We /only/ need love. They seemed to shout. Then they started trying to sell us a timeshare. /we were drawing our/own/conclusions.-all /along/-/