Outdoors a young soldier with large eyes gazes into a Church

at its ikons and holy images

while clandestinely not many strides behind him

an extremely inebriated man weaves – skillfully – and stops to urinate silently on the stone foot of one of the Churchs flying buttresses 

the drunk is a writer who no longer feels urged to write other novels

his last book satisfied him immensely

he can breathe memorized passages from it as easily and thoughtlessly as he can draw coin from his pocket 

he fondles his cock

shaking the last bit from it

then distracted

the shaking turns into stroking

as he spies through an open window  

across the cobblestone courtyard

a barmaid bent deeply to gather thin-stemmed glasses and ceramic steins

clutching them she cradles their open mouths to her ample breasts

the soldier and the writers heads are fixed in opposite directions

each fascinated by what their eyes behold
                                              they are deaf

surrounded in the black night

oblivious

early early Friday morning,  26  7. 13

solace

comes in many forms

it is rather dependent upon the person

isnt it

ones trash anothers treasure

it comes from a deep secret place

it wasnt a fancy one

formed white plastic    

                           stained  he could wash it all he wanted  but the stains were set

they were set the moment they were made                                                     like scars

dull white plastic

it wasnt expensive  he wouldnt buy something expensive

something doesnt have to be expensive to do a real good job   

                                                                                                           a good thought

unremarkable  though one rarely heeded these days when a flush of green cash

supposedly

bought the best     or

was pilfered elegantly  one more sucker born mewling and balling

it had been made in-country once

it was made far better then

forged by a resilient pride

the pride attached to its manufacturing

a pride that rose again when it was found on store shelves

flushed with pride when it was found in a friends house or apartment

pride  tactile and effervescent 

he liked it best when it was smoking

aromatic steam emitting from vents in its flat crown

swirling

it made him think of himself when things were coming at him too fast  when his brain

wasnt able to keep pace with his thoughts and inspirations  when his hands were far

too slow too illegitimate to capture with pen and paper all the scenes and images and

conversations   

           soliloquies desperate

                         desperate prayers   his brain was supposed to be a delimiting organ 

funneling all his transactions into manageable parcels  Get in line  Take a number  and

the smoke the steam

                                    were the riots in his head

externalized

vapour  feathers  waves  lace  spiderwebs  ganglia    the erratic yellow trembling tips of

fire

solace comes in many forms

1325,  Friday,  26  7. 13

inside America

                                                                          a far different America than he grew up in

a culture of death was born and persists

parents dress their babies and children in camouflage

or outfits decorated with skulls

he was puzzled                                                            

                                                                                     they did not notice what he noticed

the skulls

white bared bones

laced in red flames

grinning lurid

or sadistic

eyeballs

suspended on nothing

stare from their sockets

he read widely 

things found their way into his hands

for instance  anthropology 

there are three human races  

the Negroid Mongoloid and Caucasoid

                                                    Black Asian and White  for those who avoid –oid words

their skulls are specific

and very different from one another

his notice was

first and foremost to American parents 

then to a remaining share of other Americans who buy and wear clothing garments

tchotchkes you-name-it

that sport skulls

the skulls advertised

are Caucasoid-shaped

hard not to wonder if this 9/11 born-and-bred popular death culture isnt suggesting 

something

that maybe Whitey

ought to pay attention to

1753,  Saturday,  15  2. 14