Playful
June 15, 2009
Music makes atmosphere
As playful vocals spin outward
Chasing ears and catching smiles
The soulful symphony of one
Extends to all who pass
(Written while listening to Kuku perform on the pier at Old Town Alexandria, VA)
Old man in the alley
May 6, 2009
The old man staggers along, hurting in ways unseen by any but himself. He mutters streams of profanities under his breath, mixed with phrases like “better than this”, and “not who I am”. Screaming into the dark alley, he smashes his glass judge against the bricks of the narrow passage. Even in this action he knows all too well that the next day – when things are a little too much, when a certain friend fails to show up, when no one is watching – the bottle will be resurrected.
“ENOUGH!” he yells the well-worn refrain. He shouted it not to his inner darkness or to that of the alley, as so often in the past. This time the old man shouted to the darkness that is found in the shadow of a cathedral. A darkness which shouted back. Not words, but a pain even worse than before. His entire chest seemed to collapse inward with grief and he fell backwards helplessly. It felt as if someone were shoving a rugged four by four into his chest, and the weight was unbearable. He imagined clawing at the foot of the roughly processed tree, but his fingers were useless against such penetration. Realizing the futility of his efforts, he released a sigh of defeat. As the old man softly vocalized his impotence against the tree now planted in his chest, his body heaved forward, tearing a new flesh from the old. The new man emerged with such force that he went immediately from his back to his knees.
“Why? Why now?” he questioned in heaving sobs. But this was not the time for answers, it was the time for change. A change longed for, yet not fulfilled. As he raised his head from the asphalt he saw his hands in the light of the new day. Hands transformed to those of a youth. Yet behind him he could still hear pitiful whimperings and the sickening sound of tired fists pounding in protest against the splintered post.
