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

Colonel Frédéric Joseph Archilles Beautenieul (day 740)

Hello my brave and valiant soldiers
At attention here before me
It is my duty today
To inform you of the
Change in sentiment exhibited
By superiors
To declare peace with the world
[insert cheers here]
After 8 years of brave battles
Valiant feats in combat
Extraordinary efforts
And a death toll I dare not count
But may god speed each one of them
[moment of remembrance]
After two weeks of discussions
Behind closed doors
Between both sides of this war
The decision has been made to cease fire
And sort out our differences
With policy changes and peace
[insert cheers here]
This resolution is encouraging
For the future of mankind
With peaceful measures taken
And cooperation in this world
Though we are soldiers
Hardened through years of combat
We fight for peace
Not to smell more blood
[murmur of agreement]
We will remain engaged
At our current bases
Secured around this land
For precautionary measures
Set in place to demobilize the zones
Troops will be sent out
To deactivate bombs,
Warheads, missiles
Any explosives laid in the ground
In this land we’ve all come to know so well
We do not want to have these years of war
Pockmarking this land we’ve all come to know
With dangers and explosives
That can effect generations to come
This will be our main job now
Of which we will carry out
For a time of one year
Upon completion, the situation will be reevaluated
And if deemed appropriate
The orders will be given
To return to our homeland
Return to our families
And end bloodshed
[insert cheers here]
At ease soldiers
The war is over
[insert cheers here]

Colonel Frédéric can be purchased here.

Hallow’d be Thy Casting Stone (day 633)

Love crawled away
And I said safe
Time stretched our touches
And I said delay

Why don’t soldiers of fortune
Get the last wrecking ball
Make last what you love, man
Make last what you love

Perhaps bothered angels
Floated down to touch sin
Leftover madness
Is tomorrow head’n in

Bothered be laughter
Set out in stone
Hallow’d be thy casting stone
Full may its splash be charged

Poor Silly Darling (day 301)

Poor silly darling
With her eyes open so wide
It’s such a shame
The moon passed it’s time
Sailing the dark seas
Forever calming
Amongst the rustling leaves

Poor silly darling
With her arms so comforting
They haven’t told stories
They’ve shared life
With the ailing soldiers
They’ve doped dressings
Amongst the morphine lectures

Poor silly darling
Who I love there so quietly
Books on her lap
And her feet resting flat
The river that runs
Along high mountain plains
Is always cold against the virgin skin

No Mortal Man (day 250)

The world wheels it’s sad plans, and little laughter
Without any qualms of repent or malaise
Yet holds dear what soldiers fear
And keeps repetitive patterns to our daily madness
In spite all the sin, in all the hours of distress
Sent hurtling through the air like scatter bomber;
No one near is ever safe
We find a serenity in a song played from a far away speaker
Slowly winding its way down the backs of a thousand year old men
Climbing the lamp posts in an excited chatter
Rattling the car horns as they whisper on through the bright light

Sweet angels come out then, with their faces turned down
Deeply focused on a task they care nothing at all about
Yet their patience controls their movements
Their virtues calculate the proper time to set forth
When once again the music from distant speakers
Curl down the ancient backs of the fathers of old men
Nothing can stop them then, with their time in front of them
For sin is within those who stop the proceedings
No man mortal can avoid the dance deep within