Lights In the Park (day 1568)

Where I come from, wounded soldiers are hid behind shadows and only come out at night when small dogs are being walked by wobbling, aging men wearing the same thing they’ve worn for 20 years. The leash, however, fits just as it should. I wonder, rather curiously, what sports or video game they’re missing as they pull the mutt home.

When I sit and stare at the business, it rolls by in a drawl so thick, screaming girls in stretch limos seem normal down city streets where younger hip dudes with Chuck Taylors on discard the evening’s steaming pile of dog shit into an overflowing disposal bin painted green.

Lights on a distant sports building shift through the lower half of the color spectrum, causing the young girls white dog to turn a more rusty yellow. I try not to look at her puppy while she ruffles the poop bag. Young white boys talking in a foreign tongue park their father’s white suburban in a permit required zone and pass their joint around as if it’s their first nudie magazine at summer camp.

I sit silently, sipping on my micky of Sailor Jerry’s and pretend there’s nobody I’m thinking of and somebody to walk home to. I left the light on beside the bed to give off some sort of impression anyways. 

20150912 - Ned Tobin - 1

Out in the Open (day 1272)

Shadows in my heart
Are the types to be tested.
Are the types to be worn out.
Representing all I haven’t been.
Saving it all, loving it all;
Shifting working class numbers
Without an exhibition.
Count me down, live me up,
Wear me out; explicit.

Nanana na na na.
I’m out in the open.
Nanana na na na.
Matchsticks on the benches.

And like my mystery,
As I slide with the breeze
I come up with animosity,
Luminescity.
Chivalry in a shadow
Died like the one headlight.
One headlight making it right,
Making it anxiously toes tap,
Tippity-tap, tippity-tap,
Left right left. Left right left.

Nanana na na na.
I’m out in the open.
Nanana na na na.
Matchsticks on the benches.

Out in the open I stretch to the breeze,
I let go as I please and
Stretch upon all those I see.
You let go, you take aim,
You stick up with the pain,
You let go my hand.
You don’t know, and that’s all right.
Because we’re put here to ever play,
We’ve come here to forever stay.

Nanana na na na.
I’m out in the open.
Nanana na na na.
Matchsticks on the benches.

Well Worn Booths (day 901)

I was at the market
Surfing along well worn booths
Passing by idle buskers
Thumbing old good luck charms
Worn away

Here I smelled service
The toils of seven generations
Sweating in the fields
Sending wives to sell
Gnarled stone washed fingers

It is romantic
Startling romance amongst
Brutal ages
Suffering humbly
Expressive humility

And at night
Late at night when
Stray dogs find moving shadows
I wonder who
Sleeps more peaceful

Riga - 201209 (596 of 605)

A Bloom (day 839)

A bloom
Expanding and compressing
On sun lit impressions
Gorging it’s way forth
Through a timeless dance
Silently mirrored by lonely sisters
Holding hands with twigs
An attached lifeline
Until the dance has ended
Visitors have bowed out goodnight
And a hush settles
While shadows envelope

2013.05.09 - Prince George Spring (4 of 100)

Amongst and Along (day 768)

Beyond and beneath as I sat in the grass
Life was a flowing, amongst and along
Where once was a bumble bee
Soon came a mosquito
And the common house fly,
Pestering without biting
Towards the South was the valley
China Mountain loomed beyond
Green as the grass grew
They sky was as blue
And the purple lupins
With orange poppies gathered round
Mixed with slowly dying purple irises
With forget-me-nots galore.
Tramping around and around me
Going back, to, and forth
Was a fresh set of legs
A young border collie named Tex
Oversized collar and curious nose
Up and to the left now
Then back over he’d go.
Pansies along the railing
Painted clay earthy brown and red
And above it, the birdhouses
Two up there now
One rotting and perched
The other one newer
Enough for just one.
The big fir yonder
Was home to the blackbirds
They built in their nests
They grew their young offspring
However you look at it
They were encroaching on the squirrels
But that battle was lifelong
An act of natures wiles.
While sun started setting
Shadows became long
So sitting on the grass
Was no longer in the leaves
And off to the dinner table
To dine and try cards
And just like the sun’s retreat
So was the warmth

Faintest Scent (day 650)

Into the faintest scents of memories
The world whispers it’s answers
Up and beyond leftover thought
That faintly caress hovering fading light

[Past shuffling feet
That arch through cobblestones
Past empty mouths
That gape wide at silent sidewalks]

Like smoke in humid shadows
With careful fragmentations floating
Full of unanswered love letters
That lingering gospel subdues
With spoken promises

A shifting presence marks its space
With hidden answers carved into air
Whirl winds here collapse time
And carry fading light into darkness

Stranger (day 604)

A passing stranger steps onto the street
Three wise men watch him with their eyes
Pulling apart the layers of unknown
With one single nod it’s all gone to waste

Flying with patience an assault comes ahead
Loaded with a single sword
One made to draw the blood of valiant men
The attack goes ahead

Hands moving without thought
Trained for this night
The four become one
Across the rough surface of the street

Clanging swords ring out into the night
Intensified by the glaring moon high in the sky
The warrior’s shadows all bounce off the walls
Leaving traces carved out on the surfaces

One man with hair tied high above his head
Yells out into the night
A victim to the strangers sword:
One knee, sword curled into the heart

The three that remain round into the stable
Horses are gone; all out for the night
Only the warriors remain
The magician starts the fire and the blazing builds

One nick on the shoulder for the stranger in rags
The wise men were right, they knew who he was
Staring and breathing and allowing it to flow
The three, instant action, begin once again

A sword through the neck takes down the second wise man
His long netted hair flails out in a circle
Around the dying corpse, gasping for breath
Flying down low, another life for you now

With that quick flick of the wrist, two is all who remain
A wise man now friendless, and the stranger in rags
They know it has come to this, they saw it begin
A few knowing glances, a few words to share

But not with this bounty, the booty in rags
Tucked deep inside, is what they came for at last
It is death for one more, this battle is fast
Swords drawn for attack and a rush to the head

Circling one another they trace out their path
The fight and its wings is back on the street
With swords flashing wildly repeating their names
The masters dance in the ancient martial art

Without a noise escaping their mouths
The show, a pure form and fashion, carries on
Dust kicking up and the moons glare from all angles
Then, instantaneous rest

A calming all around as if hushed by the night
Settling of the dust, echoing of the night
And footsteps leading away, one last wise man dead
One stranger continues, awaiting the next challengers without relent

Fall Evening (day 524)

Windows fall lonely with the setting sun
Gold shadows are cast through the valley
And yellow tipped leaves sitting on trees
Balance the deep evergreen with the
Dying grass, splayed deep into the horizon

And with the deep fall night falling heavily
the mist at the East end of the valley rises
As if gyros were actively spewing steam forth
From its guttural bowels in sighs of relief

One moment a deep gold descends upon the valley
And in the next breath an early evening dusk
Settles itself upon the livestock that graze
The giant fur stretch their arms wide
Before they fall into a long nights slumber