Home       Bios    Links     Reviews     TS Publishing     Guidelines     Chaps

Michael McLain

MOVEMENT IN STILL LIFE, TRACK 3


unknowing, i queued the music

this was the music

the music she danced to-

when she danced for me


dim lights

the drugs in my system

her body

her scent

breathing her in

feeling her warm skin on mine

feeling the beats drive my pulse

every nerve awake

flooded with serotonin


every break in the beat

makes my heart swell

as if i was there again

in the dim lights

with the drugs

and the girl

scratching her body on the floor

like a housecat


i can smell the oils

i can feel her small breasts on my cheeks

cold rings through the nipples

the silver peals of a bell on my face


reaching for her

lithe body staying just out of reach

desire eating me


all that is gone

but the songs bring it back



BEATFREAKS


long nights

driving the dirt roads

with my copilot


searching for the elusive party

talking big

like we were men


we wanted to escape the hood

we knew it was killing us

a little bit every night


the cops

the fights

the drugs

the poverty


those nights

we escaped

sweating and grinning

in the cab of a jeep

just a couple of beatfreaks


bobbing to the music



JJ'S POEM


you arms were familiar;

your face an old friend

(but i couldn't tell you why)


a voice of butter and sugar

a laugh like the smooth clink of ice cubes

in a glass of dark rum


countless nights in countless cities

(some were warmer than others)

seven countries

twenty four years

two broken hearts


never met anyone

quite like you


a soldier slept in your arms

and he did not dream of fire



FOUR IN THE MORNING AT A CERTAIN FRANCHISE DINER


denny's is a microcosm,

a world unto itself,

where normal rules do not apply,


especially at 4 AM.


police and drug dealers will

peacefully coexists in the same space

at the same time

sipping coffee and thinking

about business at usual.


rednecks, fags, raver kids,

gangstas, wannabes, yuppies,

blue collar, white collar,

villain, hero, proletariat,

and the rare few who defy

category


it is where everyone is equally

served mediocre breakfasts

at any hour

at a reasonable price


it is where the broken and old

spend their last dying sundays

befriending the ever-changing staff,


and the young get forcibly evicted

as a rite of passage.


denny's is where

sometimes,

the dream comes true.



DECEMBER 24 2003


christmas eve was spent

in a tent that smelled like kerosene

eating hickory farms snack samplers

drinking lukewarm peach tea

listening to false yule spirit

echo between the tents

and spin off uselessly into the desert

where it will fall to the earth

and go unheeded

by the things that dig holes

and eat each other

by night


[Home]