Into the raw dark
I cast my thoughts
Happiness was just there
Skittering briefly through neural pathways
Like mercury without the poison
I would grasp it and work it into the defiant fur
Of my favorite cat
Then in the back of my mind
I bank the glowing embers of a warm contentment
Knowing that even in the land of endless summer
Storms will come
And she will blink, my familiar
Silver balls lit with moonlight drop once again into my hands
We will leave this home office and dance to the tunes only we hear
Spinning out the fear
Into the raw dark
I cast my thoughts
Happiness was just there
Skittering briefly through neural pathways
Like mercury without the poison
I would grasp it and work it into the defiant fur
Of my favorite cat
Then in the back of my mind
I bank the glowing embers of a warm contentment
Knowing that even in the land of endless summer
Storms will come
And she will blink, my familiar
Silver balls lit with moonlight drop once again into my hands
We will leave this home office and dance to the tunes only we hear
Spinning out the fear
Into the raw dark
Winehouse Brandy As published by the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal Summer 2022
Amy invades
takes up cocktail hour residence
Soft as shadows she casts silhouettes
tightly cut into shape by her X-acto knife voice
a dollop of dissipation floats in the refrain
She is the hors d’oeuvre served on a Ritz cracker in the local pub
Defiant, her lyrics undulate
sassy sad angry
Amy’s brave wise cracks
Every word snaps
Because her mouth forms the sound before it emerges
Knifes in
Warbles out
Some verses click, they are the essence of castanets spoken
How does she know
exactly when to breathe
exactly how to stay
just ahead of the beat?
Confident
Vulnerable
In her words “laughed at by the gods”
Teasing her hair up just before the show
lining her eyes in long strokes like a Pharaoh
She is sex honest on stage
Brandishing belly she pours her frail brute strength down inside your head like Alambic Brandy, and you smack your lips
Ah
that burns so smooth, pour me another
I stretch and relax
The first verse a frisky kitten
jumps into my reverie and tears through it
emerging as a bobcat
carrying in her jaws the broken limp prey
of yesterday’s arrangements
I acquiesce to her genius
takes up cocktail hour residence
Soft as shadows she casts silhouettes
tightly cut into shape by her X-acto knife voice
a dollop of dissipation floats in the refrain
She is the hors d’oeuvre served on a Ritz cracker in the local pub
Defiant, her lyrics undulate
sassy sad angry
Amy’s brave wise cracks
Every word snaps
Because her mouth forms the sound before it emerges
Knifes in
Warbles out
Some verses click, they are the essence of castanets spoken
How does she know
exactly when to breathe
exactly how to stay
just ahead of the beat?
Confident
Vulnerable
In her words “laughed at by the gods”
Teasing her hair up just before the show
lining her eyes in long strokes like a Pharaoh
She is sex honest on stage
Brandishing belly she pours her frail brute strength down inside your head like Alambic Brandy, and you smack your lips
Ah
that burns so smooth, pour me another
I stretch and relax
The first verse a frisky kitten
jumps into my reverie and tears through it
emerging as a bobcat
carrying in her jaws the broken limp prey
of yesterday’s arrangements
I acquiesce to her genius
To order a copy of Summer 2022 issue, click here: http://www.0s-1s.com/new-magazines-iii/hal-37-1
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