Camel Juice

Twinkle, twinkle, little sheik
you think you've got us up a creek
Costs above the dunes so high
like a golden bullion pie

Twinkle, twinkle, little tsar
keep your oil right where you are
If I need to walk for miles
blisters yes, but you'll see smiles

Choices slim, but they are there
don't include your palace chair
Twinkle, twinkle, little prince
thoughts of you just make me wince

It's our fault, I place no blame
but don't you think that it's a shame
For any country to have to
rely upon a petting zoo

Twinkle, twinkle little Prez'
please heed what your nation says.

Ring, Ring, go away...........

Phones, phones, phones, everywhere you turn today there are phones and personally, I believe they are misused. At the risk of sounding like my dead grandfathers grandfather, a decrepit dead fart, I will gladly voice my opinion, even on a phone if need be. As you all know, no revelation, in today's society everyone carries their phone on their person; whether it be on their hip, in their pocket or purse, or plugged into their ear looking like a huge blue palmetto bug about to dig in and make a nest. There was a time when two people were in a room alone and a voice was heard that the other would naturally turn to listen and offer a response. Today however, in the same situation, it is rare that the conversation is aimed at anyone other than a mouthpiece, a portal if you will, not the person you may be with.

You see people on line in the bank, standing at a grocery counter, driving vehicles, landing at an airport, in the backs of churches, I've even been in public restrooms and have heard people speaking from behind doors on the bowl! I don't know about you but I'd rather not have to hear someones blow by blow description of what last nights dinner has done to their stomach; especially as it's occurring! You know how those rooms can echo. Don't get me wrong, I know the importance of a cell phone, I carry one, my wife carries one, everyone I know carries one and it is very helpful and useful at times but there are many times when they are used as a mere distraction; not a need to convey information. Anyone that works or has worked with the public knows that due to a cell phone they have been interrupted in the middle of conversations or transactions while their customer has answered their phone; and it very rarely involves the matter at hand.

How many vehicular accidents have occurred due to these wretched little monsters and their availability? I'm all for the progression of civilization, I would never stand in the way of the evolution of anything, the leaps and bounds that man has achieved since my conception have been utterly amazing but sorry guys, I detest these little ringing nuisances. Again, no doubt, they have their place, everything does, but I feel that these things are not bringing us closer but actually pulling us farther apart on an individual level. We no longer recognize people by their voices or faces, we now know people by their numbers, by their ring tones. I'd be willing to bet that I could pick up someone else's cell phone, dial one of it's contacts, and have a conversation with a complete stranger and they wouldn't even know it was me; instead their brain would somehow make them believe that I was 851-5698, since I'm sure they would answer, "Hi (whatever 851-5698's name is)".

As much as I claim to hate these things and gripe about their misuse, unfortunately I myself am also guilty of the same as I complain about. I've never gotten to the point where I had to talk to someone while on the john, I can draw lines, but yes, I too have used it as a distraction at times. I do however try to curb it's usage to what I feel a conveyance of necessary information. Perhaps since so much of what I do involves using the phone that I try to limit using it as much as I do. Who knows? What I do know however is, if you feel like rebutting this or helping me to understand why I might feel this way about a wonderful addition to our technological lives, tell me face to face or write me, please don't phone me since I probably won't answer anyway.

You tell me

Mashed words
crumpled note
Cyber nerds
code they wrote
Unhinged door
no brainiac
Lack of rapport
don't mean jack
.

Cop a squat
near the throttle
Prozac yacht
in a plastic bottle
Hockey puck
slippery ice
A little luck
would be nice
.

Unwanted whiff
an oily rag
Dirty handkerchief
makes you gag
Supposed prose
what a joke
I must suppose
it's just a cloak

Clotted roads

An inundated mind becomes muddled
causing confusion as to where to turn next,
which step is right, which walked path will begin
the series of the correct progressions
.

My filtering abilities seem to be clogged
for the most part and simple tasks now
cause me to be overly cautious which in turn
leaves me too often feeling mentally paralyzed
.

Maybe I need a new vision, a new purpose
to enable me to let my newly chaotic existence
fall to the wayside and once again start
seeing and sensing an orderly life; like before
.

"It's only human" they quip, "part of the process"
I've read, but this cannot continue, this isn't me,
at least not the me that I have come to know,
the me that I have become comfortable being
.

I wish it was as simple as flipping some valves
into the backwash position and clearing the muck
from blocking the way, adding some clarifier tonight
so the morning would bring clearness to to it all

Lights, Camera, Action

It's "An inconvenient truth" but
"The first five people you meet in heaven", if you do,
could be "Stranger than fiction" not "Just friends"
.

I feel "Regret to inform" you that "Me and you
and everyone we know" who are seeking "A home at the end of the world"

might not make "The final cut"; it may not be our "Destiny".
.
So "Live forever" now, "Smile" at every "Shopgirl",
"Head of State", "Cop", "Waitress" and "Lonesome Jim"
ask them all "Shall we dance?", have "The time of your life"
.

because "Chances are" the "Fictitious marriage" between
"Heaven and Earth" is like a "House of wax", "Nothing Sacred",
"Liquid moments" "Frozen alive" ready to melt away
.

It's "Never too late" though, you see, "Laughing matters",

so be able to say "It was a wonderful Life" "Before the devil
knows you're dead" or you too may live "Happily N'Ever After".

The following movie titles are credited in creating the above writing:

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - Sidney Lumet - 2007

THE FINAL CUT - Director: Omar Naim - 2004

HOUSE OF WAX - Director: Jaume Serra - 2005

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN - Lloyd Kramer - 2004

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW - Miranda July - 2005

A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD - Director: Michael Mayer - 2004

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH - Director: Davis Guggenheim - 2006
STRANGER THAN FICTION - Director: Marc Forster - 2006

SHOPGIRL - Director: Anand Tucker - 2005

SHALL WE DANCE - Director: Peter Chelsom - 1937

JUST FRIENDS - Director: Roger Kumble - 2005

REGRET TO INFORM - Director: Barbara Sonneborn - 2000

DESTINY - Director: Fritz Lang - 1921

LIVE FOREVER - Director: John Dower - 2003

SMILE - Director: Jeffrey Kramer - 2005

WAITRESS - Director: Adrienne Shelly - 2007

HEAD OF STATE - Director: Chris Rock - 2003

COP - Director: James B. Harris - 1988
LONESOME JIM - Director: Steve Buscemi - 2005

CHANCES ARE - Director: Emile Ardolino - 1989

THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE - Director: Kirk Browning - 1976

FICTITIOUS MARRIAGE - Director: Haim Bouzaglo - 1959
HEAVEN AND EARTH - Director: Oliver Stone - 1993

NOTHING SACRED - Director: William A. Wellman - 1937

LIQUID MOMENTS - Director: Ian Stewart - 2005

FROZEN ALIVE - Director: Not Available - 1964
NEVER TOO LATE - Director: Giles Walker - 1997
LAUGHING MATTERS - Director: Andrea Meyerson - 2004
HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER - Director: Paul J. Bolger - 2006

rrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

Thanks to Poefusion I have discovered Easy Street Prompts and given it a shot looks like it will be fun.

It's amazing how quickly
one can become tattered
after the loss of one dear

I never knew how much
of him was holding me
from unravelling, uncoiling

I knew I was patterned
after him but never had a
clue that he was my glue

Or thread if you will that
kept me in one piece,
held me together until

He was gone, then I knew
as the hole just grew
bigger and bigger by the day

Leaving me ragged, scathed,
almost torn in two parts
with little hope of repair

Paper, plastic or reality

OK, it's been quite a few days since I've written anything and this morning I had some time and checked out Friday Five - the words are brittle, aluminum foil, Polaroid, skunk and salt - not too easy - I decided to try something I've seen done before and combined the five words given as well as my own choice "cautioned" and put it all into the previous form - the Sestina - here we go, I must admit this was tough!



There is a dreamlike haze surrounding the streetlamp, nothing brittle
more like cloudiness than a sharpened, focused Polaroid
flaring nares inhale my fearful stench much like an angry skunk
while the beads that form on my brow are filled with borrowed salt
and my knee joints are reminiscent of crinkling aluminum foil
I could not deny being aware, just this very morning I had been cautioned

Call it a warning or call it an alert but yes I was cautioned
and despite the growing sense of dread my brains were brittle
and could not heed, I belted my knife like an aluminum foil
oblivious to the possible outcome, just seeing my minds Polaroid
in no way caring if perhaps my visions like bland food needed salt
in order to properly taste, sense, my enemy, that man, that skunk

Tonight I needed false bravado so I first got as drunk as a skunk
so as to care not that I had been first and foremost, cautioned
my concern was to lure him to this spot like a deer to a block of salt
and without his knowledge leap out and begin to pummel his brittle
bones capturing each individual assault to his body like a Polaroid
that I could relive and reuse as if it were yesterdays aluminum foil

Part of me knew I was wrong yet part still glinted like aluminum foil
at the thought of slaying, or even just deeply hurting this lousy skunk
I even considered having a friend stand by with a camera, a Polaroid
to be sure that each moment was saved for posterity, hmph, cautioned,
I'd rather savor this moment like a confection of nuts, a crunchy brittle
that has all the sweetness of candy yet still has that trace of salt

You see, my life has been like an ill prepared Martguerita, never any salt
on the rim and my desires never stayed hot enough, like aluminum foil
that when used and removed from the heat has merely become brittle
and tasty yesterdays can only conjure the lurid aroma of the nasty skunk
It's true, yes it is, it's me who does the warning, I'm the one who's cautioned
myself, I always do, and as long as I'm in control there will be no Polaroid

There will be no slaying, no intentional hurting, no, never a Polaroid
yet for some reason I seem to enjoy filling my wounds with plenty of salt
and always manage so, no matter if I have or haven't been cautioned
my tongue lashes upon itself like the sharpened edge of aluminum foil
and my only enemy is myself, I'm my own evil, my own stinking skunk
I often question my motives for why I've caused my heart to become brittle

My dreams like an old Polaroid photo have a way of fading into nothingness
whether my cautioned thoughts are reality or just my possessed fear

Maybe someday my brittle composure will again be like supple suede
and I will once more be able to smile while I taste the salt of the day

Perhaps the time will come when the skunk inside of me just up and dies
and I won't have to try to recycle my minds aluminum foil ever again


.