THE LONG NEON NIGHT one of my all time faves

 Play song while reading the poem..

then listen again   and again and again.........

City Of Tortured Souls

by Mark and The Material Objects

Voo · City Of Tortured Souls

 song by my friend Mark that inspired this write.....

bone shaking, dynamite song with the greatest 

scream I've ever heard in rock.......

 and this is Mark..
the screamer, composer and singer of the song

...

The Long Neon Night

Lights

Blink.... 

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Red,

Then 

Yellow,

Red,

Then 

Yellow.

Hissing neon

Crackling

In the midnight

Hitting me in the face

Between lightning bolts

And the drum roll

Of deep, black thunder.

Can't shut it out

It peeks there

Through the curtains

One inch short of closing

Taunting me with advertisements

Of a better life

Found somewhere down below

In a happy hour bar.

This bed 

Is my hell.

This bed

Is my sanctuary.

I can't leave it

It won't let me.

See how it holds me

In it's dirty sheets?

It's comforter

That gives no comfort?

It's pillows scented

With a thousand other heads?

Over and over

I have this 

Dream

Every night

From dusk till dawn

The screaming rising

From sun deprived streets

Up, up to my window

Desolate voices calling

Pleading, asking for things

I cannot give them

And do not want to hear.

Then your face appears

And I exalt 

In momentary joy

As you hover there

Bathed in red neon waters

Beckoning to me

From the top of another

Mildewed motel.

You're always smiling

At least, until 

The fake yellow neon sun

Shows you for what you are.

Down the hall to the left

There's a guy always

Playing the blues

On his guitar

The walls tremble with it

The rodents sing harmony

And the residents curse

And bang on the ceiling

In rhythm to the song

For a moment or two

There's silence.......

And the song begins again.

I no longer know

Which is the dream

And which is my life

I don't know 

How long I've lain here

When I checked in

Or if I'll check out

I don't know

If you ever truly loved me

Or if I made you up

Like some madman's apparition.

Flashes

Of waking perception 

Make me catch my breath

Sit upright,

And reach out to the empty void

That stretches around the room

Down the hall

And back to me

Carrying nothing

But snippets

Of the blues man's song

And mourning

From the dying day.

Then...

I sleep

Again.

Hear the screams,

Feel the fear,

Touch the terror,

Taste the tangible,

Smell the soured milk smell

Of love that lived

And withered like a mushroom

In a corner

Of a room

Under a bed

In a thirty story building

On a street that's always crying

In a city of

Tortured souls.

Blink....

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Red

Then

Yellow

Red

Then 

Yellow

Blink.

Blink.

Blink. 

  ©by Voo, words, images

and Mark, music, face

Feb 20, 08 midnight