With more skat
than a stray cat
can poke his eyeballs at
the punk
in the Midnight Choir
starts to twist and shout
Yet …
the All in All
all too beautiful
for even a bird on a wire
to sing about
Like that
concert hall in Vienna
where your lips
were so warm and wet
Getting a feel
of the real deal
… that love thing
Upon a mission
a royal commission
seeking foremost
the rock solid Kingdom
It all starts from within
Seizing the living moment
Best be in it
to win
And Leonard Cohen
he’s moved on
to the Tower of Song
To find truth
without love
or at least a trace
of faith and hope
like trying to climb
the highest peak
of Mount Everest
naked
without oxygen
or even a rope
Not saying it can’t be done
but man …
sounding much like
a clanging gong
in the Temple
of a world gone wrong
Or have I found
that love thing?
From the mire
of the dire basement
that we’re standing in
try as you might
to sight the heavens
across the endless skies
Far better
in the light
seeing the world
through heaven’s eyes
Heart and Soulful
Holy Mindfulness
is the rightful place
where we all belong
And Leonard Cohen
he’s moved on
to the Tower of Song
I too
have tried
in my way
to be free
If it be your will
then let it be
Yet
here on earth
they sentenced me
to forty years of mayhem
for spying
the celebrants
of sin
Tell me
where does
this world end
and the next begin?
Because
I don’t like your
toxic culture mister
And I don’t like
the choir
you’re singing in
I don’t like Big Brother’s
twisted little sister
The King
of everything
He’s coming back
He’s coming to reward them
The King of hearts
and minds
the Prince of Peace
returning
But first
we seek the Kingdom
Then let freedom ring
And Leonard Cohen
he’s moved on
to the Tower of Song
I’ve been buried
and I’ve been dug up
I call it grace amazing
You called it dumb luck
And thank you
for those items
that you sent me
The stone monkey
and the ink
under my skin
I’ve tunnelled
towards the light
and now I’m ready
First
we occupy the Kingdom
then
let the revolution begin
Yes … Jesus was a sailor
when he walked upon the water
Seeking the lost at sea
and the drowning
The stranger
the gambler
and me
And Leonard Cohen
he’s sailing on
to the Tower of Song
Through all
the rise and fall
the pulp fiction
from hell’s kitchen
I really like
to walk
that tightrope, baby
I really like
to hear
those Sirens sing
But to see that nightmare
of deception
prowling through creation
Jesus told us
yes he told us
Kingdom starts with
Remember me?
I use to to live
without rhyme or reason
Remember me?
I plugged your Hi-Fi in
You loved me as a loser
You’d hate
to ever see me win
With Christ Jesus
my ship has finally
come in
No longer tied
to a kitchen chair
With a Glory
and a broken Hallelujah!
But first
we take the Kingdom
Losing it all to win
And Leonard Cohen
he’s moved on
to the Tower of Song
I’m counselled
by a whisper
from the heavens
Once I was blinded
by visions in a spin
Now it’s …
So long Chicken Maryland
That frozen turkey
who nearly did me in
For now I’m guided
by the beauty of creation
and a thirst
for the Kingdom
where I first heard
those angels sing
Jesus told us
yes he told us
Kingdom begins within
And Leonard Cohen
he’s singing along
from the Tower of Song
~ by David B. Redpath © 2017-20
Artwork;
‘La Musica Sacra’
~ by Luigi Mussini
Photography:
David B. Redpath © 2017-20
David Redpath 
tiptoe outside for vitamin D
———–0———–
axe-swinging neighbors
Florida Argonauts
men who finger
their beverage bottles
and think about sailor sodomy
pain/pleasure imposed upon Ishmael
comradeship with Queequeg
no letters in that signature
just a small Leviathan
———–0———–
dinosaurs in a treacherous world
dinosaurs ripening on the tree
the children of Adam
were rather large
LikeLike
some people are ordinary
others the children
of the highway
where beasts
run wild
taken to the edge of understanding
shown the ropes and taught how to be
what was green now brown
the wind old and uneven
family dinosaurs gone
given permission
to exhibit
THE MUSEUM OF MICHAEL
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what is it that links the word ?
remove the eyes
cement the ears
the poet protests
white apes outside the door
begging to be included
in the godlike science
of communication
———0———
before Eve, children fell from trees
their clean feet on the ground
gravity forcing them filthy
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———0———
Adam pulled from the water (given lungs)
———0———
asked to obey the command to reproduce
Adam pollinating the trees at night
moonlight kissing his seed
———0———
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forced to recognize what we wish to deny
let loose from the grave, to escape
———NO SUCH LUCK———
your sister bride
your mother bride
your incestuous union
from death on the bed
a new creation
a child of flesh
———0———
the metaphysics and alchemy
the ambiguities and profanity
balanced hatred and affection
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multitudes
not measured by car
multitudes
hours and hours by plane
religion by a throw of the dice
———0———
opposed motives
each side of a spiritual door
self-contradictory Easter clothes
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honest Christians naked at Easter
“all having been given”
only devils celebrate
peacocks from Hell
———0———
———0———
the knock on the door
it is your heart pounding
LikeLike
the moan of my missing feet
I cannot walk away from the dialogue
bestial and human, Bethlehem ignores me
———0———
Sin slips into skin
profane perfection
LikeLike
no matter the number of prayers
the fruit less than fresh
white no longer white
aboriginal recognition
a watering place gone dry
———0———
love suggests an end to circling
and yet, all things return upon themselves
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a foothold in the slippery norm
impulsive deviancy at best
———————-
Honeymoon Hotel
———————-
writhe and suffer
membership complete
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THE MUSEUM OF MICHAEL
the hum of thoughts be plural
ancient black men who work on the railroad
wave as they pass by, happy with a head of weed
no falsifying brother, half a man never makes a whole
seasoning from martyrs’ relics
bone salt for the pinto beans
poorly dressed, no meat
THE MUSEUM OF MICHAEL
ecstasy from self-recognition
with more than one face
plurals can be strangers
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NOAH INFLATED
swallowing lions and tigers
reptiles and things with wings
NOAH INFLATED
swallowing lions and tigers
but never the battle-horse
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NOAH INFLATED
happy in an unhappy way
imperfect, yet
gigantic volumes of seed
putting Adam to shame
LikeLike
pollinating the Eden forest
an angel under each arm
Adam lost in lust
embryos heavy
each child
Jesus
LikeLike
NO female thatch
speckled breasts
a one act play
fear not impotence
SEX: getting/spending
sow, weep, labor evermore
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one Michael
silently weeps
dried blood on factory feet
dragon teeth damaged skin
one Michael
raped before
the true harvest
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organs
disorganized
ceasing to function
the brain
with one last decision
to seek the wisdom
harvested in suffering
or despair in the incompetence
of medical intervention
whilst mesmerized
within the loop of a question
“Do I Really Care?”
Elon Musk
wearing a surgical mask
carved an X on my forehead
saying … “Welcome to the Family.”
as a quartet of scantily dressed
nurses chanted … “One Of Us.”
Elon then gave me the option
of having a Neuralink chip implanted
directly into the brain leaving me free
from the daily mundane
as it filters out the pain
of walking amongst the dead and dying
or diminish into total disconnection
all I could do was flip a coin
as I never forget
when it comes to an incision
let fate makes the final decision
just ask Steve Buscemi and Sharon Tate
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(imaginative literature)
IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE:
young Jesus masturbating
with fingers not forks
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the value of a memory
smoking a cigarette
with one or more apes
(+) one day you find yourself dressed
separate from the others
tobacco becomes a poison
not an amusement
the value of a memory
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standing in the grave
one Michael
perhaps, Mathematical Michael
not a single straight line, circling
confused neighbors
in the near darkness
trying to identify themselves
to identify the knower of all known
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a single word
MULTIPLE
an epitaph if you will
to nullify the nihilism
MULTIPLE
a single word
a multiplier of the will
existentialism
is what you make of it
a singular footstep
into the infinite
“One small step for Michael,
a multiple leap for mankind.”
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finding it difficult to insert oneself
no need to finger for a wheel rut
the wife has grown over
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when it comes to insertion
good things come to those who wait
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“when it comes to an incision
let fate make the final decision”
————————————
————————————
TODAY:1964 Lancashire
the exit of the Everly Brothers
————incision/decision
drunk on what one loves
some say pleasure
but IT
just passes through
suitcase and all
(+) panicky: a taste of pleasure (+)
words advertise our choices
our existential choices
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the long and winding road
to be found in the presence
with pleasure beyond measure
untethered from mortality
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I was given this poem by a stranger at the vegetable stand
he said that I could put my name to it, call it mine
——————–0——————-
——————–0——————-
advertisements for sanitary products:
a natural everyday experience (boy scouts prepared)
the sensitive side of being female (white shorts on a bicycle seat)
11pm party and the Bull Dyke recalls a menarche experience
cotton batting and beach towels
(+)———(+)
Nick Cave steps out on stage
his pockets full of cotton batting
he’s the Daddy of Health-Related Opportunities
touch yourself without embarrassment, touch and swear
(+)———(+)
romance is making points
without being bound by it
internalizing down there
redirection lover
peopling
(+)———(+)
the smell so close
explosive pungency
Sylvia Plath
caught up in a frog breeding blob
who’s laughing now ? (reproductive snot)
LikeLike
glorious
the spiral galaxies
a hundred thousand light years
far beyond the Milky Way
countless
the dead bodies
floating in a mother’s tears
with nothing more to say
LikeLike
my new Neurolink chip
the Waldo ™
has reprogrammed me
in the art of eyeball transparency
by deleting the inherent bias
of the collective placebo
thus restoring the singularity
as yet I’ve been undetected
by the Matrix
but just how long that state
of freedom will last?
only God and the Waldo ™ knows
RAHMA by Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
I am the hymn the Brahmin sings.
The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
LikeLike
Sylvia Plath wasn’t sleeping
like a fairy tale maiden
in the kitchen
she was inside the oven
having melted like a ball of wax
hammers and chisels, it was a mess
Sylvia left this world
minus some fingers
and a knee cap
LikeLike
it wasn’t a tampon that damaged Sylvia’s virginity
her hymen had multiple openings
poetic cervical secretions
cottage cheese edged
with a hint of red
(+) physical activity and self-pleasuring (+)
photographs of Sylvia and Lee Harvey Oswald in bed
LikeLike
a bedroom pet
of a man famous for murder
a fan of the curve in his dick
Lee Harvey Oswald
I showed him an anatomically correct doll
and the locations he could visit, the playground
LikeLike
The Waldo ™
my Neurolink chip
downloaded a new site
for me to view
‘Old Joe’s Big POTUS In Action’
first up was a clip
of Joe Biden covering
Taylor Swift’s face with blow
(it was actually barely a drip)
after T-Swizzling her ass
with his State of the Union Dildo
now I’m looking for directions
on how to delete
unsolicited downloads
of old wrinkled dick pics
no thanks to The Waldo ™
as I care nothing
about an upcoming election
but only Tay Tay can give Joe
a winning erection
LikeLike
Lee Harvey Oswald
was interchangeable
he was circumcised/uncircumcised
innocent and naughty, less than healthy
cheap whiskey on the night stand
a rolled condom, dark with age
the room too small
to wheelbarrow
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The Silvia Plath Soup Kitchen
nourishment: compulsive behavior
cigarettes and psychotherapy chitchat
deeply ingrained patterns of gender violence
Placebo citizens seem to swim against the tide
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forbidden to find companionship
searching reflections in the dark
an ape inside a white man
imperfect, out of time
—————————watching other people watch me
endless talk of walking and running and standing tall
my lower self washed away, so quickly gone
LikeLike
perhaps, ten cents to stare
without the wraps
baffling nitwits
uncertain footing
the flaw of Michael
LikeLike
comedy night at the Honeymoon Hotel
recreation and nothing more
some of the openings
are weirdly stitched
husband finds his coffin
deep inside his loving wife
LikeLike
“SEXUAL GESTURES THAT SUPPLEMENT LANGUAGE”
the lesbian librarian refuses to loan out to poets
————————————-
————————————-
morphine-laden sleep in the library basement
10,000 volumes of wounded narcissism
(+) the complete Michael ? (+)
LikeLike
only yesterday we rose from all fours
and became a vertical species
hemming and hawing
afraid of separating
personality
genitalia
LikeLike
words:
self-fulfilling and circular
often a guise of supposed originality
friends become detached observers
neon socks and porno size shoes
life flooded with mistrust
highly divided Michael
(+) never deviant
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scooping out the insides of hundred dollar bills
exploitative sexual pursuits
therapeutic sodomy
hairless cat slick
(((((((((the rigors of disciplined thought)))))))))
LikeLike
wishful expectation
HONEYMOON HOTEL
one single performance
physical love—heroic combat
Mother packed the Thread and Needle
LikeLike
HONEYMOON HOTEL
where the wilderness
has pubic hair
face-to-face struggles
a broken arm, a missing finger
childlike chants turned to concrete
LikeLike
youth decided to visit
to befriend my love
to take away
my treasure
three or four puffs
the world opened up
seductress turned deadly
youth was nothing more or less
than the cravings of a long-legged fly
LikeLike
———————————————“I just want to punch
a hole in the wall and grab me some of those skull valentines
for me cannibal girls”
I cut me a hole in my pant pocket so they can touch but not bite
————————-a hell of a poker, they say like giving birth
LikeLike
sent home with a ticking
faceless pocket watch
what sounded like
intoxicated talk
was rigmarole
hard of hearing
Death reading lips
———0———
———0———
LikeLike
peeking through a window
I saw the poorest citizen in Placebo
feeding paper money into a small stove
penniless but basking in expensive warmth
Birthday Wishes
a few final years of that
from a tiny crotch hole
puffs of Michael
LikeLike
in Placebo:
(+) sexual indulgence is on permanent backorder
sexual abstinence painted on the welcome sign
being exonerated is difficult to impossible
LikeLike
sins and sinners/sand on the beach
sins of the father floating overhead
forest-bordered Placebo
in constant shadow
apes of all shapes and sizes
each one a shade of Puritan
gloom
LikeLike
Placebo Neuropsychiatry
the rigors of disciplined thought
patients belch absinthe poisoning
———0———
pleasure exhausted
stagnant sunbeams
strapped to the backs
of chameleonic roaches
LikeLike
the single thing that occupied the minds of chameleonic roaches
a new attachment
however eroded
disheveled in Placebo
somewhere near the Dollar Store zone
where lesser insects lose their way
LikeLike
nonstop manic and submanic poetry
written in the dark
muscle-bound
fresh men
LikeLike
hanging on by a thread
to the faintest whisper
of pleasure long forgone
a torment for the dead
ever rueing being born
longing to remember
whilst unable to forget
the blast of a hungry horn
a molten spasm
frozen in time
within the thirsting chasm
of a raging storm
LikeLike
the minds of chameleonic roaches
cutting wood, digging coal
fermenting grapes
———————————apes wearing Lou Reed underwear
———————————peddlers desperate to unload
———————————never giving, always selling
like a child (for we all should)
papier-mâché Michael
LikeLike
males get restless and like to mix with their own kind
talking does not solve anything or end loneliness
Confucius says, “Biggest cock goes first”
what looks like a smile
is a stretched mouth
LikeLike
complete strangers inform me that dragonflies go way back in time
as if that makes bearable and light the past
men with dirty hands and no soap or water
an incriminating smell, self-knowledge
LikeLike
without question,
at sometime, at someplace
a human made visible the term
I-M-M-A-C-U-L-A-T-E
C-O-N-C-E-P-T-I-O-N
there were cartwheels, handsprings
curiosity and gossip
LikeLike
my guess
a Hail Mary pass
the Mother Mary
of all conceptions
lest any mere man
should ever boast
LikeLike
at one time, the weight of the past was warehoused in Paris
over the years it has dissolved and blown away
perhaps, it was turned into building blocks
Paris has a large number of buildings
how many from France to Placebo ?
nameless towns, often shy
out of struggle, birthdays
LikeLike