Carter Monroe

mortal sunday


bird soaring in the next room

with charlie waller and john lee

the silent screen brings visions

of athletes and whores to the front


life is out there somewhere

begging for mercy

in an altruistic manner

muted by opinions and groups

bound by the prison of reassurance


catnaps stalk men silently

on sunday afternoons

like bobcats mired in stealth

betraying no logic

in search of the prey


my head is a home

within a home

where imagination fights

to free itself from cut grass,

washed cars, and misinterpretation


what to write before the swirl begins

what to think before the muse hits

how to be in twilight dusk of life

who to know to make it better

what to love in the end



live at the montreaux jazz festival


eddie harris sax hovering

over the tops of les's keys

black and white in sync

with god's own sense

of jump and jive perfection


i wanna soar over the top

and mouth the words

in a night-trained run

of cosmic sequined overture

verging into a seamless spiel


my back and forths equate to notes

words always fail compared to sound

i wanna spur a jaunt toward the light

feel the whisper like a cold shower

move the mood in a sinful spree


everything and nothing becoming the same

one song to the next - always the case

roaming inside with now, tomorrow,

and yesterday merging like a collage

venting the melodies of combined emotions


the warm feeling kicks in - another 24 behind

bobbing and weaving in the listening

kicking, scratching, wishing, smiling

wet hair matted - ceiling fan - holding head up

silence is a surprise - quick breaths emerge


time to make it soft - i'll let gram parsons bring me down



dilemma


i once saw literature everywhere


walking through faulknerian wooded haunts

tailing barking dogs that circled scented trails

old men carrying shotguns, spitting tobacco juice,

whooping at the sight of the prey, cursing missed shots

trying to "cut him off" before he got to the swamp


i once saw literature everywhere


occupying a barstool on a regular basis

grown men drunk and crying over lost loves

toot in the back room bought, sold, snorted

women leaving their husbands and fucking

the guys who sit beside them every day


i once saw literature everywhere


fat, spandexed women spanking babies

with gusto in massive chain department stores

wasted husbands following sallow wives

wandering by shelves of nothing in search of same

buying something to make the saturday seem worthwhile


i once saw literature everywhere


paired women walking the streets in masquerade

exercise being superfluous in friendships built upon alibi

with need for "outside" relationship and something more

than the home front held in its wanton taken for granted state

children old enough not to require attention, so why not


i once saw literature everywhere


people picking their noses at stoplights

turn signaling becoming a lost art

driving via cruise control passing and being passed

by the same people again and again

cell phones stuck to ears as cars weave drunkenly


i once saw literature everywhere


card games in the backs of service stations

carrying into the evenings long after closing

the last 30 dollars spent to match a losing pot

wives calling and being lied to

the sheriff coming to wink and take husbands home


i once saw literature everywhere


college kids with poems coming to my door

saying they heard from their parents

that i used to be "out there" and maybe

i would like to read their scattered tirades

and asking me if i knew green day


i once saw literature everywhere


births, deaths, lives lived in a flash

every single one a better book than has been written

car wrecks, handicaps, divorce, tragedies, reactions

the token promises made from stale remembrance

in some off brand divine tragedy of "i thought i should"


i once saw literature everywhere

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