POEMS BY
DAVID A. BOLES
DO ALUMINUM CHICKENS
EAT METAL FEED?
(©) Copyright 1986, David A. Boles and Neural Impulse Publications. All rights reserved unless you feel like stealing some of these words, lines, mixed up images from the imagination. In that case, by all means use them, Just give the Author credit where credit is due. Also, if you find a penguin hitchhiking by all means give him a ride. They have an incredible fear of flight.
A NEURAL IMPULSE BOOK
A night on the town
cheap port
tasteless gin
a pipe filled with opium
i ready myself for bed.
I would like to thank Mt. Aukum Press for assistance in putting this chapbook together. Ben L. Hiatt, for never ending encouragement and support. To Neural Impulse Publications and the vision which it brings. And to my faithful Blue Guru, for delivering me to the valley of print. Thank you all.
Do aluminum chickens eat metal feed? Do psychic cows produce more milk? Do humans truly have it within them to understand the universe? These are all facets of our daily reality that have perplexed me since my youth.
In my short travels about the planet I have come to learn that no one reality is ever Supreme, unless of course there is money involved and in that case everything becomes null and void, no, in an absolute setting of serenity, say, a bar in the Green Light district in Pusan, Korea, now there is where you will find your answers to the questions of life; your supreme reality. I found mine there, along with a couple of other items which provided endless hours of amusement and infatuation, and i quickly discarded these answers as soon as i realized that i had found them.
with beautiful dancers
a smile is pure ecstasy.
And the gifts of
diamond
jade
or gold
will never equal the madness
of any one
given moment.
Come on, Sunday's so long
you know?
Did you take him to the
bathroom?
Well, lets do it
we haven't got
all day.
Yes, i've put gas
in the car
did you pack the sandwiches
potato salad
beer
No, i'm not going to drink
while i drive
much
Yeah, yeah, lets go.
Well, Jesus,
the damn thing started
a minute ago.
Shit.
No, i don't know
what's wrong
I just
here
you start it then
smart ass
i'll drive it
just because you started it
doesn't mean
you can drive it.
You sure
he's been to the
bathroom?
Alright
just checking.
here in home town.
Setting sun
lazy breeze
neighbors playing ball
by the shadows
Juke warm kool-aid
served up
no sugar
makes it taste
like fine, cheap wine
i wish
But the shadows
have grown even longer
and they are right:
you can never go home again.
The only real regrets
i have in life
is that no one
has ever called me
excellency,
and i'm beginning
to go bald.
your way to the city to make sure
that you don't get side-tracked
by a pink yellow great big
sonofabitch and want to turn around
and yell into the ocean
the fact that the last time you
saw the pink yellow great big
sonofabitch
you lost your mind, there
on the streets of san fran
or perhaps it was another
city
who knows
who cares
for every time you lose it
they find it
and mail it to you
C.O.D.
It's a rather ignominious place,
a hotel.
Sterile walls,
crisp, uniform sheets
bible 'neath the phone,
could be anywhere
or nowhere
nowhere at all.
They ask;
"What city?"
He replies;
"Any city. Take your pick,
make your choice, they're all
the same, There is no difference."
He smiles.
They're new at this
still learning the rules
still attempting an answer
But for him there is only laughter
lonely, silent laughter.
They ask;
"What city?"
He replies;
"Any city. Don't you know?
they're all the same,
All of them, dead, decayed,
lost cities, lost lovers,
we're all moving in circles
going absolutely nowhere,
nowhere at all."
Hotels,
i'll try to explain:
Picture a tomb
lying empty
a waiting grave
to swallow you whole,
A friendly night clerk
hands you your key.
You ask him what room.
then, what city.
He smiles, as he replies,
"Any city, my friend.
Any city at all."
of times past
i stumble through
a memory
and apologize
softly
as i leave
the room.
Stand here
no gas
just beans
blank walls
no bed
cold cat
wet dog
burn it all
for a price
get high
come down
touch ground
Big Bad Limo
gonna
run
you
down.
Walk soft
vote mean
gotta stay
in between
don't move
too fast
man on top
got cash
toll booth
thirty five
you got
thirty two.
last chance here
was five miles back
way too late
for love lost
in subways/highways/byways
anyways
love is lost
thrown out to gutter
washed away
what was no more
i'm cleaning house
throwing out garbage
give to trashman
he'll take it
down freeways:
highways
anyways
love is lost
last chance here
was five miles back.
Sorry, baby
sorry.
And it's like it's
happening
right here
all around us
as sit
cafe style elegant
Sipping 'spresso
being cool cats
hanging out
talking Nietzsche/Goethe/Hesse
main man scene
of artists/poets
Hanging out
being cool, really cool
in upstairs room
with heady smells
of mushroom people
laughing twilight
through amber eyes
wizened gnomes
while Beast be driving
in hepped up caddy
through some sand nation
with war and of guns
but cafe type hipness
don't fuck with these matters
of Beast in some caddy
of war and of guns
too many bad news
be spoiling espresso
sour our outlook
on beat madness self
And it's happening right now
all fucking 'round us
we cafe type people
been left in our dark
and ramblings on inwards
from eastern mad visions
i gotta go-leave dump now
& sort this all out.
Wind blows softly through
the trees
like shadows drifting through
my soul.
Steadily, though sometimes
faltering
i walk that thin line
some call sanity:
Colored lights
dance before my eyes
while on my shoulder
stands an imp,
Oh, he's quite harmless
actually
the most he ever
bothers me
is when he urinates
on my friends
draperies,
but that's okay
really, it is.
i merely scold him
and send him out to
play
in fact,
if i had my choice
between a child,
or Harvey,
my imp,
i do believe
that I would
choose Harvey
for who would want
a child
that urinated
on
friends draperies?
throughout the land
are dying for the cause
of freedom
lord have mercy on us all.
All you Americans
gather 'round.
All you Russians
gather 'round.
All you Asians
gather 'round.
All you mankind
gather 'round and bear the arms
of resistance.
Lift up, brothers,
sisters of the land.
Lift up your voices, your
hatreds, your joys
lift up your sorrows
your spirit of man
and decry
revolution
for the time is now
companions of the land
to reclaim our souls
to reclaim our spirit
aye, our spirit of man.
Heads high, brethren
the march this time
an arduous task
is long indeed.
Centuries, brothers
centuries, sisters
of fascist suppression
have led us to this point
to this edge
we must not let it pass
nay, let it slip
from our grasp
for the time, companions,
is now
to eliminate the cancerous
growth of racism
eliminate the cancerous
growth of starvation
of hunger
of deprivation
of monetary and spiritual
suppression
i call to you
my brethren
kindred souls of the land
to stand in unity and
declare
revolution.
Heads high, brethren
the march this time,
an arduous task
is long indeed.
Hundreds of us dead
thousands of us dying
lives, wasting away
while intellectuals discuss Camus
Politicians cavort as fools
and the dream
of earthly unity falls to the
wayside
and hundreds more are dead
and thousands more are dying
and fools, bloody, fucking fools
we have no need for intellectuals
no need for politicians
nor bankers
nor oil lords
brethren of the land
i embrace you
the guns are roaring
we have no right to remain silent
we must shout revolution
we must shout it throughout
the land
we must reclaim our destinies
we must liberate
the spirit of man.
I embrace you
the guns are roaring
we have no right to remain silent.
three views in an essential order to be found in
three views in no essential order to be found in
three views: in an essential order that state
three views in a state that order
three views that may state order that
three views that order
three views
are in a state of being
order
that are in
three views of worthy
order is in a view that
is worthy that
is a view that is worthy that is
three-worthy views that
no one wanted to hear
anyway.
the body electric
before i breathe
my last breath of air
i'll feast my eyes on
passionate visions
and blind my heart
with beauty
bare,
I'll search for formless
scripts of sages
dwell on tea leaves
taste the air
i'll swim a mountain
run a river
kiss an old hag
stroke her hair.
I'll look at laughter
as a point well taken
dance madly backwards
with no partner there.
I'll begin in the carving
of my tombstone eclectic
and singing my body
electric
with flair.
your images before
you write it down,
the words, that is
because you might
have misspelled
One in your mind.
Oops.
Dance
sister
under the cafe's
neon
brightness
dance
sister
dance
till the night air's breath
blows fresh
your upraised skirts
and dance
sister
dance
under the cafe's
neon
brightness
dance your dance of
ecstasy
your dance of
satori
your bejeweled slave dance
of hope
and devotion
and cry
sister
cry to your lord
under the cafe's
neon
brightness
cry to your savior
cry to your messiah
your gentle
lord
yes
cry
sister
cry while you dance
for your salvation
till night airs breath
blows fresh
your upraised skirts
and dance
sister
dance
sweet mother of life
dance
your dance of devotion
dance
your dance of surrender
dance
under the cafe's
neon brightness
young woman of desire
for sorrow
is such a waste of time
indeed,
Orwell was it
you
or i
that believed love
to be a fascist?
I began your year
with lungs
filled
with fluid.
I entered
your domain
with body
heavy
with heat
with pain.
I survived
the stone
that blocked
my body
survived
the tubes
run
through my skin
where once,
twice
i took upon myself
to inject.
Orwell,
you were not
a god
Nor were you
a lesser
god
you
were a man.
A man
who could write.
In May
of your year
i lost
a brother.
i lost him
final
to a piece
of metal.
i lost him
final
in your year.
We gathered
under your sky
gathered to leave
his body
final
in the ground.
I muttered
chosen words
not of yours
not of your god
but of mine
and of mine alone.
Friends understood
family
i'm still not sure
but the words
were valid
as were yours
as was
his
death.
Orwell,
you never hinted
in your words
i would lose
one
that i loved.
Orwell,
you were
undoubtedly
a bastard.
In August
of your year
i lost use
of my legs.
crippled
superman
reduced to
crawling
infant
in order
to move
an inch
realized
it was words
nothing more
nothing less
that you wrote
in your book
and only your book.
I crawled
Orwell
I crawled
for months.
Orwell,
I came closer
to an understanding
of your words.
In December
of your year
i no longer
crawled
i walked
slowly
always slowly
but never did I
crawl.
Understanding
your words
came upon me
towards the last
minutes
of your year,
I leapt
off the floor.
Came crashing
down
towards it.
Felt the pain
deep
through my legs.
Wept
openly
knowing that at last
your year was over
and you
were not a god
but a man.
Mere
Mere
Man,
with a vision.
dawning
upon us
phoenix rising
from the
flames
ashes
of our ancestors' past
will a trumpet
be blown for glory
or will the day
pass by
as uneventful
as the birth
of a child?
is really quite an
interesting thing
to hear
for as you
hear it
being read
hear the vocali
zation
of the words
being read
you begin
to appreciate
the beauty
of language
the sound of words
syllables
as they rise
fall
carrying you with them
as the poet
works the words
weaving a symphony
of sound
breathing his magic to you
rejoicing
in the sheer
pleasure
and enjoyment
of hearing a word
being spoke
and rejoicing
in the pleasure
the poet obtains
from speaking the words
for you.
a little girl
in woods at night
while babies cried
in city sewers
longing for mothers
who've gone and left them.
But no one writes
of babies in sewers
only big bad wolf's
eating little girls
in woods at night
such a pity
such a pity.
If two children
angered at each other
were to build
arsenals of rocks
with which to show
the other
that he is better,
stronger
more powerful than the other
Now, wouldn't we laugh
at that.
With winter days now almost over
spring soon shall come around
and hobos like yourself and i
will soon be leaving town.
So pass that bottle
one last time
been nice knowin' you
so long
We both know spring days
mean a travelin'
i must be moving on.