AT LAST

At Last

Nestled in
Our solitude
Like baby birds in downy nest
We croon to one another's tune
And sing our solaced hearts to rest.

Too many nights on rain-hued streets
Too many days in sunless cloud
We crept alone like keyless thieves
And cried inside but not out loud.

Seeking for a silver lining
Searching for a bowl to fill
Looking for a life, untarnished
And love received, believed and real.

For in the dark woods of the memory
Was there we lost the taste of good
And wandered, lonely, like homeless gypsies
Begging love like it was food.

Until we stumbled
On one another
Until we fell in desperate grasp
In empty arms that bade us welcome
And made for us a home at last.

And there's no need for consolation
Regret, or time to mourn the lack
We lost our lives on haunted highways
And love has given our lives back.

And it is here
We'll dwell forever
To savor all the joy we've found
Like birds that sail on winds eternal
Our feet no more, to touch the ground.

©by Voo

Feb 23, 13

10:18 p.m.

SADNESS SEEM TO RUN ON FOREVER

Sadness Seem To Run On Forever



I gots them ole blues, baby, she said
Ain't nuthin nobody can do 'bout it
Just a part o' life, that's all
Rainy days and lyin' men friends
They brang on the blues, I reckon.

What you doin' settin out here cryin?
Purty young girl like you
Oughta be out dancin' and shakin'
What the good Lord gave ya
'Stead, you settin here in tha dark.

Chile, I knows all about "heartbroke"
I done wrote the book on "heartbroke"
Deed I did and the sequel, too! hee hee
Why, my heart been broke so many times
You can see all the way to China through the cracks.

Ain't no sense cryin' over no man, honey, she said

Tomorrow you'll just meet anuther 'un

And he'll promise ya'll the moon

And give you a lil ole piece of fool's gold

And be done gone on down the road.

You listen to your Grandmama now, you hear?
Dry them eyes and listen to somebody what knows
God made us womenfolk stronger than them mountains
Deeper even than them lowest valleys, surely He did
'Cause He know what kind of pain we gonna endure.

Ain't nuthin no more precious than a little baby girl
Nuthin! And if that no good low down man of you'rn
Ain't got sense enough to know that, then forget 'im!
Somebody somewheres in this world gonna find ya
And gonna love ya and be good to ya, you hear me?

Lordy, listen to that rain, will ya! Don't it sound sad?
Like the sky is cryin', don't it?
Well, I reckon even the sky gotta cry sometimes
Ever thang in this world gotta moan and weep, I guess
Joy just be like a phase but sadness seem to run on forever.

Come mere, baby, let me rock you a lil bit
I know I ain't what you wants to be a holdin you right now
But my arms, they know how to comfort somebody hurtin'
Ain't nuthin healin' like a hug, is it? 
No sireee, like a good ole hug.....hee hee
And I put my arms around my Grandmama and she cried, too.

© by Voo
Oct 26, 07
10:55 p.m.

THIRTEEN PAPER AIRPLANES

Thirteen Paper Airplanes




Thirteen paper airplanes later
I realized that boredom can kill
And I rounded them all up
From their landings in high and low destinations
And crashed them all into the fireplace.


What is about the weekend
That makes you feel like
Life is passing you by
Like you're missing out on some great something
That can only happen on a Saturday?


Saturdays used to be a time
For cartoons and serials and cereals
In big bowls full of milk and sugar
And stained pajamas and sleepy mamas
And all was right with the world when the t.v. was on.


Not any more.....now,  I can't stand the t.v.
With it's death-o-matic never ending gore
It's sound effects so ear-catching
It makes you want to pummel someone
Just to see if you can re-create that sound.


Talking heads spewing tele-prompted script
Offering opinion and counsel, advice and contempt
Cruel humor and sanctimonious noddings
That put you to sleep
Until the pre-arranged melee breaks loose.


The radio is no better
You hear the same tweaked songs
Over and over until you know them by heart
And you sing along until you figure out
That they're all the same song, just a different tune.


Sex sells. Oh, yeah?
Well, who wants sex that can be bought
For crying out loud? Isn't that dirty sex
That makes both the seller and the buyer dirty
Even if it is just a pornographic song?


So, why am I ranting and raving
On this beautiful, sunny Saturday?
Why am I thinking of these things
That make me upset in a deeply shallow way?
You tell me.


I think it's because
I'm alone in a world full of lonely people
Trying to find meaning in a meaningless morass
Of news, blues and Blue-toothed crazy people
Talking to themselves as they walk through K-Mart.


Maybe I should go to K-Mart myself
And buy some pretty colored papers
Colors like reds and golds and greens
Bring them home, get out the design book
And make more glorious airplanes.


Yawn. God, I've got to get a life!
Got one nobody is using?
One that's already been used up to the full
And discarded because it was just too exciting?
I'll take it. Long as it didn't belong to Cleopatra.

I hate snakes.

©by Voo
May 23, 09
3:11 p.m.

OBSERVANCE OF JOY

Observance of Joy

I stood in the quiet of the oncoming evening

And watched her in the garden, humming

Her hands dirty with the rich, black soil

Her blue dress, stained and ripped at the hem

And I loved her so I thought my heart would burst

Flowers surrounded her, the result of many hours

Vegetables, ripe and ready to be eaten, waited

Birds were shooed away and bugs, exterminated

All the while humming that lovely, unidentifiable tune

And I loved her so I thought my heart would sing

I had walked past her on my journey home

The workaday woes heavy on my mind

The incoming, outgoing, out of proportion paperwork

Still to be dealt with, still to be paid, lying on the desk

And I had passed her without glance or second thought

As I neared the door to hearth and home, I turned

Abruptly as if an unseen hand had turned me thus

And I watched her obliviously working on my dinner

Over my shoulder, quietly, in stunned awareness

And I loved her so much I thought my heart would break.

©By Voo
July 8, 07

for Sterling

WONDERING AT THE WINDOW..................collab w/Ray Gallon

Wondering  at the Window

Where is he, I wonder

And feel such an emptiness

I can barely bear it.

Was it only yesterday

That he left the rose

Upon my doorstep and fled?

Was it only the day before

That I slammed the door

There in his startled face?

What a fool I was

What a complete and utter fool

For I cannot remember the reason.

He told me he'd never let me go

He told me he'd drown in the rain

And burn in the sun.

He told me he'd stand outside the window

Until the stars fell down

And all the flowers cried.

But I just laughed

And pulled the blinds

And shut out his tearful eyes.

Now it is morning

And the sky is soft and serene

But there's a storm inside of me.

Where is he, I wonder

With my hand upon the sill

Where is my love and does he love me still?

©by Voo

Feb 28, 2017

3:06 a.m.

(painting by Ray Gallon

poem by Voo)