Thursday, March 2, 2017

the ink of all poetry fades


(some perceive the glass as half empty

some perceive it to be half full

i believe the glass doesn’t exist

-john young)

 

took a bus on lincoln ave

from santa monica

to rose ave

 

could smell the beach

when i got off the bus

started walking toward

ocean front walk

 

turned on speedway instead

no reason

but when i came upon

that paining of jim morrison

on a building

i saluted with my flask

and drained it

 

last time i was here

was the third thursday

of last year’s september

venice art crawl

now i just walk speedway

till i replace my flask

with a 200 ml bottle

at the first available

slip it in my pocket

decline to pay the dime

for a bag

and get on the venice boardwalk

feel the cold ocean breeze freeze

my sensibilities

i learned long ago liquor

doesn’t really keep you warm

and zip up my jacket

take out my cigarette packet

while my mp3 randomly selects

“you get what you give”

by new radicals

 

i’m not impressed by much anymore

but i’m near wave crest ave

watching the night’s black ocean

as i raise my bottle in toast

to the layers of los angeles

and quote jim morrison

“i see your hair is burning

hills are filled with fire

if they say i never loved you

you know they are a liar”

 

they say you are not

artistically relevant

until you are in some kind

of studio

 

i’m not interested

because that shit is tested

by ostriches that bury

their heads in the sand

 

i am as l.a. as you get

without the paparazzi

the interviews where i have to say

how horrified i am by world hunger

how we need to put more democrats in office

so they can tax the working class

to provide for those in need

who can’t eat like me

after signing a multimillion dollar deal

this has put me on the l.a. map

and makes me and all my opinions relevant

fucking celebrities

idiots idolizing ignorance as an

indigenous species

 

i light another cigarette

and blow it in the face of l.a.

 

yeah

me and l.a.

i quote three days grace

“i hate everything about you

so why do i love you?”

 

fuck it

where’s my bottle

i want to strip naked

run full throttle

into the california sea

but this time of year

the water is too damn cold

so i sip

further zip up my jacket

and slip back into the obscurity of

the dark streets of decay

where atheists still pray

to the patron saint of lost causes

 

light is only good for casting shadows

which vanish until the next neon distraction

and poetry permeating platitudes for pain

is not art

i’m only into artists who want to urinate

on the audience

that has come to view

the voices in their head

they have placed on paper

canvas or celluloid

i’m sure bukowski hated us all

but he was always willing to take our money

bottles of booze are expensive

when you buy them everyday

 

anyway

this poem is as pointless at this night

but i don’t have a pretense of a point

to anything

unless you consider pointing out the pointless

a point

but who among us isn’t lapping

away at a liquid of lies

 

i flip off the waves

the moon

ocean ave

and decide for the rest of this night

i will be quiet

 

***

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