Pointed shoes and unknown teams
Wizards of unknown degrees
Who fall in line with questionable ranks,
Lawless rascals and witnesses
When the song returns to its true tune
Coyotes howl at the full moon
Without truth to be defending
Sprawling out amongst bullfrogs dancing
Does the rhythm carry itself
Between trees of varying thickness?
Through the trails amongst the seeds,
Down the hill and into the distance.
I can remember where you went
Like sandy memories
Slipping out of an upturned shoe
Into a little puddle
Waiting quietly beside
The mudroom floormat
That I never liked, anyways.
Sometimes I forget the beat;
Lost souls that took my heart;
Forgetting to write the due date,
I reset my passwords
And upset my stomach
Into a lunch box at breakfast.
I was at the riverside
Listening to bagpipes roll
Like blood letting drilled into my head,
Little splashes kept overwhelming
The lunch I had planned
And my new shoes now soiled.
It’s not that I lose the time,
I keep that in my head
Like Lou Reed holds a note,
It’s that full time
Seems to expand vertically
Nearly catching all of these stars
With a beat I’ve never heard.
(part I)
I woke to complete silence
Yet my knees screamed louder the murder
When I shifted them from slumber
Half crosslegged I had fallen backwards
Into sleep that left smoke trails
Through my dreams.
My nose was hiding itself from the cold
I looked searchingly at the fire
I could feel wasn’t even hopeful.
My pack was close enough
So I knew where matches were
But kindling rested beside my axe
Yet to be shorn from its whole
So were the tea bags that would slowly ooze life
Back into my cold frame
Easily forgetting the eyes of last night’s terror.
I made it a habit not to look back
When I walked away from yesterday’s camp
You don’t need that to remember what’s already known
Like folded socks in the side of my pack
I was well kempt and had a full bottle of water
And the industrious chipmunk
Was happy to see me go
Understood by the sounds of his chatter
That followed me along a path
I was making with my compass pointing East.
My first few steps always remembered
What yesterday so easily forgot
So I stopped and untied my shoe
To clip my nails that were growing healthy
It’s much nicer to put on warm socks
Then cold and wet socks of the first light of morning
And my pack jingled merrily
As I swung it back on.
Scanning the vastness was hard to comprehend
What had alarmed me so easily
The night before,
What creatures our dark mind magically creates,
And now looking back at me was salal so thick
No ghost could sneak through
And my heart reminded my mind
To believe in thy safety one thousand times again.
Slowly my breath found it’s groove
Steadily flowing with each footstep
My packs new bumps settled itself softly
And the world began to expose itself to me
With every step a new angle
A new tree fallen sideways
A slug neatly stepped over
An unidentified toadstool
A river softly gurgling somewhere in the distance
An obstacle I’d have to traverse.
I want to go off and into something else
I’m not here anymore, left blowing into the wind.
Where does my pain come from every night?
Leave me there, it’s in my soothing song.
It’s not lines I’ve drawn across my head
Nor lines that draw my sheet to bed,
It’s circles running down my cheeks
To smother every heartbeat I don’t want to forget.
I’ve lost the difference in my dreams,
They’ve come into my days with open eyes
Reaching out to what I see;
Reflections shaking out in twilight’s lake.
Harmony will be my memory’s drawing
As I lay my bedding down as straw,
Take my hand with what I’ve yet to say
And brush my dusty shoes so that it’s here I’ll stay.
Where is this spot that exists between dream and reality
The viscerally imaginative soft stuff
That shakes shaggy ground free of complaints
And sunsets clear morning’s dew
From cobwebs shining as if testing new approaches
To similar corners, similar filters, similar dreams
That sit still and recoil while inhale meets exhale
And spring meets autumn
And one meets two
And a shoe gets worn through by impermanence of space
That’s always been growing up and chopped down
And eaten and fed and counted and weighed
And slotted into a spreadsheet marked with scales
Ranging from zero to ten with a save button
That creates multiple redundancies.
When the only request is for a tiny piece of convenience
For just one moment.
And in a flash,
With feet firmly planted securely on uneven ground
And hands held out in wide Namaskar to this beautiful world
A little droplet of rain shall fall perfectly
Upon a freckled upturned nose holding thoughts
Of a sunny day and all the rays of life shall shine down
In abundant warmth like a ticking clock
Chiming in at every quarter hour.
I am the hipster
Fly by my pants nomad
Living by instinct
Freezing each mundane square
Inside distance I tread.
I lie awake at night dreaming,
Feeling pressure to explode my insides
Upon any medium I dare,
To swing my resources
Into left shoe – right shoe
While keeping alive the motion
Of original expression,
Dissolving away cultural expectations
As black coffee drips naked
Upon my stained fingers
Tapping lightly on my conscience,
Erupting in ecstatic orgasm.
I’m an East Van thug
I’ve got dimes for your eyes
I wrote empty lines
For shoes your size.
Beats’n’bustin
And breakin signs,
I’ve locked this hood
On playing this rhyme
Crack crack
Break a ga-lack
Break your mother fuckin’ knees
Smack; my attack
From Hasting’s to Oppenheimer
To Railtown smokin’ crack
These pimps are all small time
Knock’n at my back.
I’ve got thugs in my pocket
From Strathcona to Clark
Commercial to Main,
Remember sucker, East Van’s the land
All you rebels cryin’ loud
My shit’s locked tight
Now strap on your booties,
Baby, let’s dance!
I faced two paths today.
A corner held me steady.
I crawled into an oversized shoe
And wiggled my way around.
A ship’s horn called out loud.
Sun caressed my left half
As I sat facing West.
Dinner was served upon a plate
I hadn’t eaten from before.