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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
 Posted - 10/22/2004 : 16:42:09
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I have gone to that
dark heart of the night
And seen myself looking back at me
As in a mirror
Asking
How did we come to this?
Flying in a dream...
Ready to die but
No longer wanting to
It is time to shed the old
Dead skin and bring out
The new wine...
Tomorrow we dance...
Rev B |
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Ron L.
Swinger
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 17:28:47
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Sometimes, he never knew what was real and
what wasn't since the best he got was
half-sleep. He thought Rocky might have
crawled across him during the night and he
surely was gone. Broken sunlight cautiously
made it's way into the cabin to match his
feelings.
He reached into his backpack past her gift
and a paperback of "The Stand" for an almost
bent pack of Pall Mall's. The cough seemed to
come from a deep unknown part of him. He also
had a snack pack of Ritz's peanut butter and cracker
and scooped some water from a small puddle in an
old tire track.
What road there was went away from the Sun
which was where he wanted so he began to follow
it.
A walk man without a Sony. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 19:25:18
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Apocryphal horses
Brought him straight to the door
Of her gaslit shack
Out on the desert
To a woman with a candle
Behind each eye
Came a man descended from fire
Shh
Too dark to say anymore
To the south is Rancho Viejo
60 miles off
And sleep |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 19:42:19
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Baile and Ailinn ~ A Legend
~1380 Book of Durrow~
Baile of the Honeyed Word, heir to Ulster, and Ailinn daughter of the King of Leinster are appointed to meet at Dundealgan. Baile arrives and is greeted by the Spirit Messenger. "What news do you bring?" asks Baile. "Ailinn of Leinster was setting out to meet her true love but the men of Leinster held her back. Her heart broke then and there from grief." When Baile hears this, his own heart breaks and he falls dead on the strand. The Spirit Messenger flys on wings of wind to the house of Ailinn who has not yet left to meet Baile. "Whence come ye?" she asks. "From Ulster by the shore of Dundealgan where I saw men raising a stone over the one who has died there, and on the stone I read the name Baile. He had come to meet the woman he loved, but it is destined they not see one another again in this life." At this news, Ailinn too falls dead and is buried. An apple tree grows out of the grave of Ailinn and the apples bear the likeness of the face of Baile. A yew tree springs from Baile's grave and takes the appearance of Ailinn. The two trees are brought down and made into wands which the poets of Ulster and Leinster cut the love songs of their two Provinces. Two hundred years later, Art the Lonely, High King of Ireland orders the wands to be brought to the Hall of Tara. As soon as the wands find themselves under the same roof they spring together. No force can part them. So the King commands, "Let them be kept like jewels in the treasury of Tara." And so it comes to pass. Around the peat fires of Ireland today this Legend is told. The belief is these two spirits prevail with each telling for those who hear and tell it. And now I have told you... |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 19:45:24
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When he finally saw her face
After all the miles
He had been with her
He realized that his eyes
No longer mattered...
Her beauty was so far within
That he no longer cared
To do anything but hold her...
So many fires had warmed them
So many trails had carried them
So many trials between them...
But, oh what a face he beheld...
The envy of the Dona Giovanni...
When he no longer cared for beauty,
Beauty became his...
Rev B
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Lee F.
Firefly
USA
2550 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 20:58:58
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There's a fool in my glass
who remembers my past
He keeps staring at me
With each drink I take
He laughs in my face
I wish that fool would just leave!!
for Hank |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 12:53:27
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It's time we all started dancin
Under the eclipsable sun
We're all gettin tired of waitin
For the omnipotent One
He's in us,
He is us,
He knows it
It's time that we knew it too
The One we seek is all over
It's up to us to break through
There's a soul that ties us together
It's name is whatever you say
Come sit with me now in the evening
And we'll drink to the undying way
Tomorrow is never the right time
For us it's always today
So grab a partner,
my friends and we'll all dance
Around that rock that stands in our way
Rev J Alfred Buckman
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Edited by - buckman on 02/14/2020 18:24:39 |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 13:55:11
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A brighter day. My neighbor came home from Good Will wearing a courting shirt. "...an' another one here in the bag," he said, "now don't you go gettin' no matchmaker look in your eye." He's taking the Widow Catherine to Marie Callender's tonight. "We'll probably hit that salad bar real big." Then they'll move to a small house with a wrap-around porch overlooking the valley's misty irrigation. Of an evening they'll stroll through the Village to the library with the four-corner clock. Where the last light of day gathers effervescent under one tree. The moon will rise over their house every night carrying its shadow in dusty blue fingers. And on rainy days she'll say, "Oh, raise your hand and brush that cloud out of my sunshine. Just move your finger...blink your eye...
If I had a camera I'd take a photograph of them, but...it would probably come out a blur.
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Ron L.
Swinger
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 13:56:06
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As the Sun rose, the smell of damp earth
surrounded him; it seemed to him a curious
mix of the living and dead. He thought if
he could get to the sea, it might heal him
as it had before. Ever since she had left,
the darkness threatened to paralyze him and
his arms and legs were as heavy as the fruit
on an apple tree at the end of October.
At least if you kept moving, it left despair
a few footfalls behind.
Jays shattered the air with shrieks in their
search for prey. Brutality in blue.
He was getting close to something man-made for
the tops of beer cans were relecting sunlight
in the woods and parts of a Kingsford bag were
near the side of the road. They didn't look new
either.
About a half hour later, he came on to a group of
buildings and a carved wooden sign that said "Ride".
He didn't know if was a name or...
a strong suggestion.
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Edited by - Ron L. on 10/24/2004 12:41:18 |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 14:53:15
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Illiance and Grania stared at me as I rode in... When I told them of the
campsite and Our victory they shed quiet tears for those who had not made
it... The river runs, the moon is high and clear and it is oh, so bitter
cold... But, there is one more hand to be dealt before we rest... I will never
feel the guilt....
He looked as tall as a redwood to me, silhouetted against the moonlight as he
was... There can be no fear, no guilt, no backing down... Too many have given
too much to make this moment possible... Eyes appear in every window; no one
wants to miss the circus, do they? Well, they will be surprised when the smoke
clears, and so will he... If justice be for me, who can be against me? The
moment has come that will define my life forever... I step into the street…
The tension builds with every passing second... Most of his face is covered
by the brim of his wide hat... His first words are drowned out as the wind
picks up... Again he attempts to speak... "Drop the Chalupa", he yells, and
tilts his head back and roars with the laugh of a man with no cares... "I
arrived before him and you both, and was ready first," he said... "He is in the
Devil's presence where he belongs... It is finished, my friend, there are no more
debts to pay..." As I looked at him, I could see that his side was
bleeding...
Grania/Rev B |
Edited by - buckman on 02/14/2020 18:26:02 |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 17:58:57
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He sleeps close to water
For the sound of it
He disturbs the moon
He rearranges the furniture under the sky
Each night he pulls the sun down from the treetops
Each morning he flings it back up again
His name is a password through a locked door
He opens and closes his eyes unaware of his power |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2004 : 18:03:32
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| Now we're taking the kids to a haunted house over on Juniper. It's the right night. Fight your way through sticky cobwebs. Black cats and bats in the belfry. And in the courtyard that ruby-eyed crow. How they love getting the Hell scared out of them. Hocus Pocus. |
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Ron L.
Swinger
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 10/24/2004 : 13:28:28
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Thee was no Welcome Wagon or Rotary signs here. There
were a few pickups and what looked like a new Ford Bronco
with a Sheriff's star all parked in front of the "Ride"
Store. In another time, it was a place they would have
loved to hang out. There were old Wonder Bread and
Redman Tobacco signs and a really old drink machine
where you had to slide the bottles through separate
slots. There was a guy behind the counter looking like
something out of "Deliverance"
"Do somethin' for you?"
"How far is the ocean?"
"Just go to the river.It'll take you there".
"How far?"
"'bout 35 miles and you best stay on the south side
where the main road is".
When he asked about the town name, Farley(at least
he looked like a Farley) said this was
where people used to get a ride downriver
but there were no regular runs, The tourists
kept the Summer busy but very few came after September.
James thanked him and slid a couple of RC Colas out and
replenished his peanut butter and cracker supply and
stuck it all in the Jansport.
Just down from the store was the bridge where
you looked down this seemingly endless canyon
with a dazzling white ribbon of water below.
On one side was a steep side filled with timber
and on the other were sheer walls of rock.
He was almost across the bridge when he heard
the Bronco behind him. It passed him and stopped
and as the driver's door began to open, he flashed
on "First Blood"...and as weird as things had been,
wondered if Brian Dennehy would step out.
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Edited by - Ron L. on 10/24/2004 13:29:34 |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/24/2004 : 14:31:09
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As I left the main road and turned down the narrow, winding two laner that took me down to the river at Garrison, I could see the mighty walls of West Point through the trees... I can't help but think of the Revolutionary War every time I come here, I would think that everybody must.... The Hudson narrows, the mountain looms large and it is like being in a canyon.... Of all the lovely places in the Hudson Valley, this surely must be one of the loveliest.... It has certainly been painted by more artists than almost anywhere else on Earth.... There is an amazing collection of paintings from the Hudson River School of artists that can be seen on the internet.... As I got to the river level, I noticed that Pete Seeger's teaching/working sloop The Clearwater was at the dock and that was always exciting because it seemed to always attract a group of some kind when it was here... On the radio they said it was 2 degrees and with the wind chill it was actually about 5 below... That's when I spotted Ralph... I really didn't want to cry because one, my cheeks would probably freeze and two, well, Ralph already thought of me as kinda weak and sloppy sentimental and I hated to reinforce that thought by crying in front of him.... But, I couldn't help it.... With Barb's birthday having been last Sunday and Jesse's thirtieth today and my parents being away in Florida, man, I had just been feeling so all alone in the world and to finally find this big, beautiful ol' polar bear again after all this time was almost more than I could handle... I had been waiting for it to get really, really cold again which it hasn't been this cold in years.... Then, I knew I had to go somewhere on the river where we had been before.... and third [thirdly? in the third place? once, twice,three times a la a a dy, no no no stop singing will you, Buckman, you're supposed to be writing...] OK, and third, there had to be music, because if there's anything I know and you know, if you've been paying attention atoll the last few years, that Ralph likes, besides fish, it's music.... Good music, bad music, goin half mad music; all day music, dance the night away music, boogie chillun stuff, cajuns in the rough stuff, ragin so tuff, um, stuff; road songs, rain songs, train songs, even half a brain songs; high, medium and low stuff, and maybe even Manilow stuff..... But, NO OPERA, except for Placebo Domingo and Josh Groban maybe... But, that being said..... Um, excuse me, Rev, but you're wandering again.... I know that you don't have BJ here to keep you on the track, but you are losing your finely-honed point again, as usual, and maybe you would want to get back to it before you lose ALL of your readers....
Back in June of 2002, for one reason or another, I had had to leave my beloved Hudson River, and of course that meant leaving Ralph, too... We had done some fine work that year together:A review of the Paul Simon comeback album, You're the One, the wonderful Dylan album, Love and Theft, and finally, Sailing to Philadelphia, the absolutely terrific Mark Knopfler CD... We had talked about books and movies and alot of other stuff thanks to a dear lady in Texas that allowed Ralph and the Rev to have space in her wonderful magazine, Marq's Texas Music Kitchen News... Under the name of Observations and Medications, I'm sorry, Meditations, we had a semi-irregular [now just what the Hell does that mean, Buckman?] column in an internet publication that is as fine a piece of information and writing and fun as exists anywhere out there today... If you like music and especially Texas music, including Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams and alot of new stuff that you've never heard of before but will be hearing of soon.... well, MTMK News is definitely a place you need to not only visit, but get bookmarqed [haha, I crack myself up] just as soon as you can.... Anyway, I had to leave Ralph, and if you've ever left a Polar Bear before then you'll know just what I went through.... For the rest of you, you're going to have to picture me, standing on a raft, at the end of a dock in Nyack, New York, hugging this two ton furry mass of blubbering bear.... Oh, he hated for me to cry, said it made me look weak and unmanly, but it was ok for him, because he said that there was no questioning His manhood because, well, he wasn't a man, so it just didn't matter... It was logic like that that was the reason that Polar Bears were no longer the driving force on this continent that they once were back in the days before the Train of Manifest Destiny swept west and wiped out the Indians and the Buffalo and yes, campers, the Polar Bear... ANYWAY, again I keep going off the road.... I had been looking for Ralph, since at least the top of the page and since I had lost my BJ, not just because I was alone but because there was so much good music and I wanted to get my old buddy's opinions on some of it... Of course, opinions are like IceHoles, everybody's got one and nobody particularly likes the smell of anybody else's, HOWEVER, Ralph and I weren't like that... This was somebody that I could bounce thoughts off of like he was a wall in a racquetball court [he was about the same size and color of one].... I wanted to talk about some of my new friends's's's music like Doug Lang and Andrew Polk and Andrew Perry and JonMark Stone and some of the stuff I had been listening to since I saw him last like Diana Krall, Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, The Jayhawks, Josh Groban, Chris Isaak, new Van Morrison, new Delbert McClinton, new Steely Dan, new YoYoMa [or YoMoMa depending on where you were raised], Limp Bizkit, BlackEyed Peas, Matchbox Twenty, Jerry Jeff Jazz, new Zevon, old Zevon, missing that nutcase wildman like he was family.... When Warren went down it was like a shot through the heart; not only had we shared alot in common plus the music that had been so good, so right for so many years and except for a few things that the public latched onto was almost a guilty secret.... but thirdly [again it happens!!] he and Barb had gotten their lung cancer seemingly simultaneously and though in the back of my heart I had hoped for a miracle of Biblical proportions.... when he went down for the count, I realized with a cold shudder that it really was going to happen to Barbie and that she really was going to die.... I don't think until Zevon died that I had used that word, even in my head, I just went day to day enjoying just being with her and thinking that she could just stay at that level of sickness for a long long time.... But around the time that he died, she started getting progressively worse and really going downhill fast, so that his passing was real personal, like he was family... Of course he wrote one of the best songs ever about losing someone, in his case, a wife that left him, called They Moved the Moon........ And now, of course, as usual, not surprisingly..... I have lost my point...... Oh Oh... No, I got it, I got it..... it was about finding Ralph again.... And we will see what Ralph has been up to sometime soon, I promise..... But, you know what, campers? Our time is up for this weeks little shindig and I have to go do my errands and go about doing the things that make up my dark little life.... I don't mean to be maudlin or mello dramatic or depressing at all here, but the light really has gone out of my life.... As time goes on, I will learn how to light a candle, then a flashlight, and then, finally, maybe, a full time fully lit room again.... But for now, I will continue to push ahead, rumbling, bumbling, stumbling along down this road in the dark.... Taking my time with it, not rushing it... The time must be right or I will end up like El Topo, by Alexandro Jodorowsky.... THE MOLE IS AN ANIMAL THAT DIGS TUNNELS UNDERGROUND SEARCHING FOR THE SUN. SOMETIMES HIS JOURNEY LEADS HIM TO THE SURFACE. WHEN HE LOOKS AT THE SUN, HE IS BLINDED....
Rev Buckman
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/24/2004 : 21:11:02
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| It wasn't fog. But a cloud come to earth. Lace panels sliding up on the shore. Delicate, salty, deceptive. Long rolling barrel waves breaking beyond the breaks. Big rips and an undertow that pulled us down the curved coast in seconds. Finally the seamless sky blazed with fire at the horizon as the sun slid toward Hawaii. October 24, 2004 the angle of the light is melancholy. How much longer can we stay in the water? |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/24/2004 : 21:21:39
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She got used to him slipping
Into the corner of her ear
Out of nowhere
Matter-of-factly
That was his trick
Appearing
His heart full of coincidence
Beating under the badge
With its low flash-point
And faulty fuse
They traveled the dusty southwest
Close as two hands praying
When the sun threatened
To pull the sky apart
He offered a cup full of rain
She cut his blue heart
Out of his burning shirt pocket
She safety-pinned it to hers
He sent signals up
To the smoke-smudged sky
He sent
There's arson on this page
Fire
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Ron L.
Swinger
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2004 : 14:04:29
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Who stepped down from the Bronco
looked more like Will Geer with a
leer.
He had an old Mackinaw with a orange
hunter's cap.
"You headed down the Rogue?"
"Well, the side of it anyway."
James had no I.D. and really only
knew his name was James Paxton Read.
But Will only said:
"You got 35 miles to the Pacific and them
cougars been busy lately. It's afrer dark
when they can getcha. Stay on the main road
and try to find shelter after sundown".
He thanked him and the old man got back in
his SUV. As he drove off, James noticed the
bumper strip:
"Honk Only If You ARE Jesus".
For Roisin: About 4 years ago, the Feds started putting all these Tsunami warning and evacuation signs up and down the Coast. Probably somebody "CYA". It really upset people here in Gold Beach since the main economy is tourism. They may pay a little more attention in Crescent City since they actually had a Tsunami in 1964 as a result of the Anchorage quake. |
Edited by - Ron L. on 10/27/2004 14:05:45 |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2004 : 20:29:41
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OK, So I don't know where we were, but here's where we are... It's 1978; George Washington
Bridge heading into Manhatten; Hal Galper, Jazz Penist
[I know alot of people like
pi-a-nist, but I know that the high flutin say penist so I can too] extraordinaire riding
shotgun.... He's the damn reason I am on this bridge at 3 AM when I have to go to work at
7 AM.... I was running an AutoPartStore then, it was before I had learned the scam, um,
the fine art of Reverending and actually had to work for a living.... Although Ralph and I
played pretty fine, too.... Yeah, Ralph was there[the Polar Bear, if you hasn't been here
before] and he was riding second shotgun in the back of my grey BelAir with the green door
[a long story] with a standup bass and a, thank God, really skinny black, bass player,
who, if I could remember his name then I really wasn't doin a good enough job of getting
messed up then and I was so I don't....
Hal had taken out his glass eye, on the bridge,
and was cleaning it and it was all I could do to keep the car on the bridge and at the
same time I knew that Ralph wanted to swat the back of his head to see if the other eye
would pop out.... I knew that's what he was thinkin and I could almost feel his paw comin
up when I pretended to stretch and smacked him right on his nose.... While the big baby
whimpered, I wanted to ask Hal about this little demonstration but I just kept driving and
thinking of the night we'd had.... We tended to burn the candle at both ends, the middle
out, outside in, any way you could burn, we burned.... We drank, we smoked, we did alot of
coke and basically made our parents proud not to know us...
Yeah, we had wives and
families,but it didn't seem to matter; all that mattered then was the night, the jazz, the
drugs, the CATS.... I met more jazz people in two years than I ever will in the rest of my
life.... Big ones, small ones, never wasses, soon to be's, suicides, movies, dramaqueens
and inbetweens.... So, of course, when Jackie, my high school buddy, who owned the bar
said he needed somebody to drive Mister Galper and Skinny Minnie into NYC, I put down my
straw and raised my hand....Ralph was back in the alley [he couldn't come in; I mean I was
white, but Ralph was really white, we didn't wanna blind anybody] doin that dance he was
Always doin and I came out and yelled ROAD TRIP and he just went nuts.... Tryin to fit
that bass and Ralph and skinny in that back seat was kinda like doin the Rubik's cube, but
as you know, when you are doin coke, Anything can be done.... So, we drop Hal off near
Times Square and take Minnie up to Harlem.... He says, now lock your doors, and get out, I
know you gots a Polar Bear, but you is the only two white things for miles....
GET OUT..... Driving back up the Hudson River with Springsteen on the 8 Track, I said to
Ralph, Buddy boy, what's it all mean, anyhow? And I never forgot what this big Buddha Bear
said,
Mean? Buckster, it don't hafta mean anything.... It just is..... It just is....
And
I said, Ralphie, are you mockin me because I'm a Christian and you're a Pagan, and doin
one of those, Enlightenment, I don't know what it means, lines? Oh, now and zen you have a
good time, but...................................
Buck, drive the car, listen to the
Universe..... and please, just shutup......
Thanks, Buddyboy, now and Zen, for all the good times and all the memories..... Wish
I knew where you were, now, wish I had BJ here to snuggle with on this cold night....
But
it is what it is, and it just is......
Rev Buckman |
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andrew p
Firefly
USA
3936 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2004 : 21:33:48
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You tell 'em Preacherman...
tell it like it is/was!!
blessings...andrew |
Edited by - andrew p on 10/27/2004 21:45:45 |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2197 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2004 : 19:06:16
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| She is delivered by a black car with one suitcase and two packs of gum. To a place in the city. Italian family. Six noisy kids. The mother always screaming but never angry. Black cast-iron stove in the kitchen she lights with a long piece of straw. Smell of gas, garlic cooking. The father walked out every night after supper. Nodded to her in her private school uniform though she didn't go to school anymore. They walked to the Boulevard an hour away. Past the Park and the Cathedral. Past the markets with strung-up salamis and cheeses, glassy black and green olives in barrels, cookies that looked like miniature weddings and made the street smell of almonds. When she lagged, he didn't tell her to catch up. When he got to the place where she was to wait, he pointed. She stood in front of the restaurant and watched hotdogs turn on a roller grill. He went into the bar next door. He paid off or he collected. When he collected he bought two hotdogs with double Texas hot sauce. He handed one to her. He stopped at the farmers market and threw a crate of oranges up on his shoulder. An hour back. When he passed the Cathedral he made the sign of the cross. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, stern, like what are you waiting for? She crossed herself too. End of April. May. Early June. Sun in the sky every day a little longer. Nighttime not starting 'til nine. She liked it. She thought she'd stay there forever. |
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The Nightly Vigil