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The Sleeper In Transit
The Sleeper In Transit
All I woke with was the gloss of dismantled angels,
exterminated angels on each fingernail.
Nothing is tiring as being an agit prop
at the infinite. Just this morning I woke to
to screams innocent of death and the contractor
wept (eyes like skinned haloes),
saying “He died the way he lived”,
helping them zip the landlord’s bodybag,
his monocles leaking with egg yolk, small
metal pieces I assumed to be tiny clock
hands or bugs gone deviant sticking out.
Babydoll came later, but we were both tired,
and we saw each for the first time, really….
we woke again and were in the a flea market
the city goers like to call “Revisited”
because the burn marks from the first owner’s
operatic death (lighting a cigarette while smoking
and drawing down De Chirico’s moon) were there.
She said I needed a little style and she waxed my
eyelashes into scissored puzzles that got a few stares.
At the bus stop where she left me with the last beer
I saw an abalone moon man screaming at the cops,
saying these papers were his “DOCUMENTS! THEY ARE
MY FUCKIN’ DOCUMENTS!”, and trying to point them
in my direction.
I went to 3:00 mass and I threw open all the confessionals;
moth eaten velvet ropes concealed beatified rodents.
and my heart moved in theirs, theirs in mine.
Everytime I go into the library with no light I genuflect
and put on my yellow raincoat, as in that strange man with Curious
George. I have hung my stopwatches to my knitted eyebrows
and swam the dirty river downtown, hoping to find a helping hand,
hoping to find my pills, hoping to disperse in the black jelly
of an august moon on the bazaar…
Comments
weirdelf
Wed, 2017-08-09 13:29
I feel like I've been looking forward to something,
not knowing quite what.
And this was it.
Fuckin' love your work man.
https://soundcloud.com/neopoet/the-sleeper-in-transit-by-john-fink555-allen
I'll post it anywhere you like.
I can't really offer any useful critique, it's just a wonderful, unique poetic experience. Echoes of Burroughs, Bukowskie and weirdelf (if I may be so bold).
cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry
fink555
Wed, 2017-08-09 22:28
Thank you
friend! There's a particular pleasure in having your work recorded rather than just copied or even just published. I picture reels, etc. Your dedication to site humbles me.
Pax,
JTA
weirdelf
Wed, 2017-08-09 22:41
Then again...
I've lived all my life with the nagging feeling I'm missing something just as good or exciting or important somewhere else. And of course it is true.
There should be a poem in there somewhere.
cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry
fink555
Wed, 2017-08-09 23:21
The life lost in living
Is the most fun life of all!
weirdelf
Wed, 2017-08-09 23:52
ayup
'a life lost in living' good title
cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry