I WENT DOWN DEAD AND CAME UP HALF ALIVE

                                    

 

 .....Vapor by Aleah...great song

                       adds so much to this experience....

I Went Down Dead
And Came Back half Alive

backstory.............

(Meeting you 

Was like the end of the blues

At the end of the lonely

At the end of the rainbow

On a Friday night in Memphis

Before the King died.)

There you were

In black leather and hair

Looking, pretending

Like you had not a care.....

And there I was standing

In my leather and lace

My heart like a time bomb

And my life on my face......

Devil in your heart

Devil in your mind

Devil in your intentions

So mistaken for kind.

I was a kid in a candy store

With no money to spend

And you were dark chocolate

Double-coated in sin.

In the shade of the Peabody

The ducks paraded on by

As your lips touched my fingers

Soft as clouds in the sky.

I was enamored by romance

I was dazzled by dust

You convinced me you loved me

We both know it was lust.

There was something inside me

That bid something in you

That then slithered up to me

Hiding lies from the true.

A white horse and white carriage
Rode us through all the rain
My arms pricked with red roses
That ignored all the pain.

To the junk yards of Memphis

With their rusted out cars

We ran singing the blues songs

That came streaming from bars.

In the back of a Thunderbird

With the storm on the roof

You said you wanted me so much

And then gave me the proof.

In the dawn we walked back

In the mist and the fog

To the calls of the whippoorwills

And the growls of a dog.

Our arms ‘twined up together

Our heads heavy with sleep

Our bodies emptied of yearning

And my heart digging deep.

“Till tomorrow.” you whispered

Kissed my cheek and was gone

And I stood in the shadows

So amazed and alone.

Falling later on my bed

The sun burgled inside

Like a thief stealing memories

There I laughed, then I cried.

          And I laughed through the noon time

And I laughed all the day

And I laughed till the darkness

Took the sunshine away.

Then I ran down to Downtown

And I looked for you there

To  the lobby of the Hotel,

To Beale Street and the Square.

I was breathless and anxious

Full of tension and fear

That you’d just been a vision

That my heart had brought here.

So I sat on an iron bench

All bereft and perturbed

Till a black motorcycle

Purred it’s way to the curb.

And your black glove, it beckoned

And I ran to your side

Threw my arms around your waist

As we roared off to ride.

Through the streets and the starlight

To the river of mud

Past the city and country

With such fire in our blood.

Our hair blown back like ribbons

In the sweet Memphis breeze

And we melded together

Like the bark and the trees.

To the grass on a hill top

‘Neath the moonlight so bright

There we clung like two dreamers

Holding on to the night.

And for days I just sleepwalked

As I waited for dark

And your beautiful brown eyes

Full of danger and spark.

So alive in your presence

Like I’d not been before

Just a dead woman walking

Through a mausoleum door.

Looking for something living

That I never had found

On the earth, in the heavens

In the sea, on the ground.

Till that night brought you to me

Out of vapor and hope

And then bound me forever

With a cruel velvet rope.

And your soft voice calls to me

Though I don’t see your face

I have searched every where

And have found not a trace.

But I feel you beside me

And behind and within

Like the caress of a raindrop

And a cold winter wind.

Love, you found me in Memphis

On that wet city street

As you rescued the roses

That had dropped at my feet.

And you smiled as you sang me

 “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

Brought me joy and such misery

When you dropped from my sight.

I  don’t know what I’ve done

I don’t know what I said

I was dead when you met me

Now I’m only half dead.

Haunting me, you remain

In my heart and my mind

Where I still see your face

Though my eyes have gone blind.

To the pain and the pleasure

To the sun and the rain

Every night I go searching

Till I find you again.

end story……………….

(Losing you

Was like gasping for breath

At the end of a nightmare

At the end of the night

And lonely long nights in Memphis

After the King died.) 

By Voo

© April 8, 2012

9:28 p.m.

                                              .............R.I.P. Cousin E............see you on 
                                                 the other side..........
                               

EVERY REMNANT

Every Remnant

(Leonard Cohen-esque)

Stumbling, rumbling, mumbling

I fell

Like week old bread crumbs

From a widower’s hand.

Down in the park

Near dark, with sparks

Of daylight lingering

The night whispered over my shoulder.

There was nothing there

To tip me, trip me, rip me

But shadows sitting on empty benches

But fall I did and ripped in two.

Ripped in two

Apart from you

Became one again

Instead of two.

Somewhere in the distance

From some high rise ghetto dream

Came a trumpet, moaning low

Naming my pain without knowing my name.

Summing, succumbing and numbing

That pain with fire filled gin

I lay back in the night and cried like a baby

With no one to hold me and rock me to sleep.

When daybreak broke

I raised myself

And braced myself

And faced myself.

But all that was there

Was just the memory of you

The symmetry of you

That existed no more.

Love in the ashes

Of a fire that burned with a thousand flames

Is still no more than ash

From a burned out match.

Winds that race and run

And chase and gun

Their engines, have the power

To blow away that ash and every speck

And every remnant of that love.

And blow it did

And blow it does

Blew my hat into the gutter

And my heart down to dark despair.

Blaming you and damning you

And craving you and loving you

I stumbled back to city streets

All wet with rain

And streaked with pain

To pick up the pieces of my life again.

And the trumpet drones

And the trumpet groans

And the trumpet moans

The trumpet that is my soul….

©by Voo

December 1, 2012

10:01 p.m.

for my darling Leonard

SHARP PINK NAILS

Sharp Pink Nails


Raking my sharp pink nails down my own shoulders
Shoulders that once you referred to as fragile
But shoulders that I know as strong enough to bear
The weight of the world and more
I thought of the way your kiss used to make me melt
Like honey and would burn me all the way down my belly
Like that German liquor you plied me with on our first date
I never understood you. That was your favorite thing to say
Never is a strong word but absolutely descriptive 
Of the truth of my understanding of you
How could I? You revealed nothing but scripted fantasy
You gave nothing but what would serve you best
You loved no one but yourself...............................
Thinking that the nail on my forefinger looked like a dagger
I ran it across my wrist, imagining what it would be like
To cut it deep and let it run with cleansing blood
Washing away your memory and the fact that
Ever since you left
I can't seem to feel anymore.


©By Voo
Dec 25, 2004
 5 p.m.

REVOLVE LIKE THE MOON a collab by Voo and Terry the Madd Poet

 

Spinning The Wheel by George Michael

instrumental......start now......

Revolve

(Like The Moon Does)

Me

He revolves around me

Dancing a little silky two step

Sing-song-ing a scrap of lyric

He found on a stoop somewhere

After midnight when the winos were asleep.

That boy always singing! Always dancing!

Makes you feel good to be alive

To be around him on a dreary day

Revolve, girl! he tells me, smiling

Revolve! Like the moon does!

Him

And as the earth does!

This is where the birth was.

As you take your 360 degree turn,

I am watching. And so I shall too.....REVOLVE...

We formulate...

the figure eight.

lighting our footprints.

this is pure pleasure to me.

hungry for a never ending story.

But never worry.....We're ..... REVOLVING!

Me

And then he grins

And the world lights up with his joy

We lock arms and run through the intersection

Car horns blowing like trumpets

People screaming curses

That sound to our ears like blessings.

Run up to the hill

And the abandoned club house

Where the old folks say

You can still hear Louie Armstrong

Belting out his happy blues

In a smoky whisper.

Him

ON THE HILL..

TIME STANDS STILL

All except the pitter patter

of our footsteps

creating the melody of dancing poetry.

oh, what a feel, of genuine truth

as we revolve still...

longevity lives

Atop that hill.

Me

Then he turns to me

And says, See that moon?

It's already shining in your eyes

That's where I want to live forever

And I say, On the moon?

And he laughs, No, girl, in your eyes!

And he revolves around me

Dancing, singing

Holding his heart out in his hand

Until I become so dizzy

That I fall straight into his beckoning orbit

And without realizing.....

Into the mad thing called Love. 

Us

©By Voo 

and Terry, the Madd Poet

©June 22