collab

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

AND I SEZ, BABY








And I Sez, Baby…………….


So I’m settin’ in ma pickup truck
Tha fancy new ‘un I picked up last Sundy
Off an unattended lot
Eatin’ a hot Mary Calendar’s Turkey Pot Pie
Fresh outta tha microwave
That I done run a long cord from to the carport
Of a house that’s dark
Cause the owners done gone to town fer a bit
And my taste buds are a lovin’ it
And I’m a lookin’ for the salt shaker
Shaped like a crowin’ rooster
When I looks over at my baby
And I sez, Baby, what say we hit tha road
And ease on down to N’awlins
And go dancin’ on Burbon Street
And git our fortunes tole?
I thank I see us a gas can a'settin' over thar
By tha shed. I betcha it's full.
Whatchoo say, Baby?

And Baby, she sez,
(Stretched out somewheres
Between tha seat and tha steering wheel
With her feet out tha window
And her long red hair almost in my pie,
She’s a swattin’ mosquitoes
And wrigglin like a crawdad in a crawdad hole)
And she sez: Now, Rascal.……
We don’t have ta go nowheres like Burbon Street
To do no dancin’
Y’know we gots a whole bottle a’ Jim Beam
Up under tha seat……..
And I kin tell ya right now whut your fortune is
And that is that, you ain’t got no fortune
Cause you done spent it all
On that stupid Mar-ee Call-an-dar Pot Pie
Back yonder at that grocery store!

And she sets up and puts her face out tha winder
And turns her back to me and sighs
And I go on and finish my store bought pie
And takes me a big drank a’ grape Kool-aid
(That we done made in a Ziplock bag)
I wipes my mouth with tha back of my hand,
Throw tha pie carton and tha spork out in tha bushes
And I taps her on tha shoulder and I sez:

Hell, Baby, what you want from me?
Don’t I provide you with a roof and a shelter?
Don’t I steal or kill enough fer us to eat on
When we’s hongry?
Don’t I love you enough fer twelve men?
Don’t I sing you to sleep ever night
And keep tha mosquitoes off ye part of tha time?
Don’t I give you back massages while you drive?
Don’t I take ya places and show ya thangs
And give ya an excitin’ life?
What more do you want from me, woman?
I mean…… Hell Far, Baby!

And she’s quiet-like fer a spell
So I go on and pull tha lectrical cord
Out the outlet and roll it up and put it away
And put tha Kool-aid in tha ice chest
With tha orange popsicles and tha cheese and baloney
(Dadgum, a man gits tired a cheese and baloney all tha time!
Sometimes he wants a good hot dinner
Like Turkey Pot Pie er somethin, for cryin’ out loud!)
I make sure no body’s lookin’ and I hightail it across tha road
And swipe that red gas can which turns out ta be full
And I put it under tha tarp with tha microwave
And tha television and various and sundry other necessities
And gits back in tha truck.

Let’s git on outta here while tha gittin’s good, I sez
And she starts tha truck and we vamoose down that dirt road
Doin’ forty mile a hour till we hit tha county line
And kin breathe a little easier…………
Finally, she slows down and turns ta me and sez:
Look, Rascal, look, lord knows I love ye and everthang
But sakes alive, man, I’m a grown woman and I have needs!
I needs me a nest and a place ta call mine and everthang
I can’t be a livin’ in no ole truck tha rest of my life!
You hear what I’m sayin?

And I nod ma head and look out tha winder
And I sez: Yeah, I hear ya, girl, I hear ya
I just don’t know whut to tell ya right now
Seeing as how I am financially humiliated at tha moment
And ain’t got no fortune as you has already pointed out ta me
Just as clear and plain as tha nose on my face,
But I promise ya, I will find a way ta work thangs out
Just as soon as I kin find a way ta work thangs out!
Meantime, let’s us just head on down ta Louisiana
And see what the Good Lord has in store fer us thar
And I will see whut me and Him can come up with. Alright?
And she sez, Alright and we head on down tha road.

She drives all night while I sleep
And then tha next day I sleep all day while she drives
And between tha two of us
We gits all tha way down into Cajun country
Where we stop and hunt craw fish and squirrel and camp out and barbecue
And have us a dandy high ole time
Dancing to Zydeco music on tha radio
And drankin’ Jim Beam and grape Kool-Aid
(But not together, lordy, no, not together!)
And I look at her a smilin’ in tha sunshine
And gettin’ tipsy on Beam
And I gits me an idea.

Tha next three days I let her sleep
While I drive
(Which I don’t like to do
Cause I ain’t got no driver’s license)
(And no permit, neither)
But I figure nobody does down in tha bayou country
Lord only knows. I don’t know
But I keeps my eyes open and my head clear
And I prays fer guidance…………….

Bright and early on Thursday mornin’
Baby wakes up cause she been real tired
From our big night on tha town
And she stretches and yawns
Like a yeller cat a wakin’ in tha sunlight
And she looks around and she looks around
And rubs her purty eyes and frowns
And she sez: Rascal, where are we?!
And I’m a standin’ there by tha side of tha bed
Just a smilin’ and a grinnin’
Happy as a hound dog with supper up a tree
And I look down at her
And I sez: Welcome home, Baby Bird
I done got you a permanent nest!!

And she’s so excited and happy
And takes off a runnin’ round tha whole house
Lookin’ into thangs and openin’ doors
And a squealin and a hollerin’ to beat all heck
Then she goes to tha kitchen
And looks at tha sink full a dirty dishes
And looks in tha closet full a ball caps and overalls
And sees Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans
Throwed up all behind tha couch
And a autographed picture of Doug Kershaw
Up on tha wall over tha tv set
And she comes over and stands thar, hands on her hips
Lookin’ at me like she ain’t never seen me before
And she sez: Rascal, whut in tha Sam Hill have you done?!

I got you a home, Baby! I stammer out, all bumfuzzled
My lips a’ quiverin’ like a little ole baby’s
I made all yore dreams come true
Just like you asked me ta do! I done done it!
Me and you’s can settle down now
And have ourselves that big famly yur hankerin’ fer
And we can do all tha thangs you said you wanted ta do
But right now, Baby, we gots to go………
Y’all git on back in tha bed now
And I’ll take care a everthang, you’ll see!
And I tucks her in and tells her ta hush
And I go outside and close tha door
And gits in ma truck that is hitched up to tha trailer house
And I pull us off tha shady creek bank
And out up onto tha highway a headin’ back towards Arkansas.

And that is how
I ended up a deevorced man
Wanted only by the po-lice
With no wife and no future
Just a pickup truck full a microwaves and television sets,
Three ice chests full of Mary Calendar’s pies,
A hound dog I picked up somewheres ta keep me compny
And a fairly nice trailer house full a somebody 
Else's stuff
That I had hitched up to tha back of tha pickup
Down in Louisiana, just this side of N’awlins
'Bout six month ago in tha middle of tha night
Right after I had took my baby to Burbon Street
And let her git her fortune tole…….


Ain’t no need fer me ta tell you fellers
That that thar fortune from that ole fortune teller
With her shiny gold tooth and her big empty hand
Was not no where in my favor
No siree.

Dadgummit!!
Hell Far and Damnation!!!!






©by Voo
Dec 9, 2012
8:06 p.m.










Chris Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey (Audio)

AND A CANDLE BURNS AT MIDNIGHT




And a Candle Burns At Midnight


And a candle burns at midnight as she pours a glass of wine
Watching westward from the window, praying Heaven for a sign
All the letters go unanswered and her calls are not returned
And her heart is slowly breaking, hating him still as she yearns.

Now the rain is gently falling, now the thunder’s rolling in
And she wonders where he’s at now as she’d wondered where he’d been
All the late night window watching, all the late night candle light
Drinking white wine, longing for him, in the middle of the night.

Lightning strikes and hits the hillside, hits the branches of a tree
The clock chimes another hour as her prayers turn to pleas
Thunder roars and fills the white house with it’s noisy rumbling slam
And the rain blows in the window but she doesn’t give a damn.

Raindrops running down her face then like the teardrops from her eyes
Like he’s touching her with his fingers and she stands there and she sighs
Just imagining his strong hands and the kisses he bestowed
Till the night that he stopped kissing for no reason that she knows.


Coming in sometimes at daybreak with the smell of strange perfume
Bringing nothing but his thunder and his pain into the room
Giving none of what he gave her when the white house first went up
Burning candles by the hours, drinking white wine by the cup.

Making endless, mindless love so achingly so sweet and good
Hardly making time for breathing, barely taking time for food
Then one night she waited for him by the window all night long
And when he came, was not the same and the white house wasn’t home.

He left at midnight in a rainfall that turned to hurricane strength gale
Took her sweet heart, took her heaven and left her in the arms of hell
And the months have passed so slowly yet she still loves and she yearns
Drinking white wine at the window while the midnight candle burns.






©by Voo
Jan 25, 2005
midnight

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

THE GREEN GREEN DREAM OF THE GUITAR an urban swamp legend that I created




Junkyard Blues by Rat Rod
slide guitar Cajun music
play while reading


                 





The Green Green Dream of the Guitar


       
So I'm driving down this lost highway
In my decades-old black car
With my suitcase sharing the back seat space
With my treasured green guitar

A map opened to Louisiana
On the floor there at my right
As I thought about the strange phone call
That awoke me around midnight

A paying gig, a three night stand
And the pay was really good
They wondered if I could come and play
And I said I thought I could

The bills were high and my rent was due
And the boss had let me go
There was no need to let me stay
For there was no work, you know?

So I packed my bags and I headed south
Though my heart was full of strife
Excited by the prospects looming
Because music was my life!

Playing since the age of ten
I dreamed of going far
But all I'd gained in fifteen years
Was this car and that guitar

And the guitar was a beauty
Shiny silky green so fine
And the sound that came from the two of us
Could blow a grown man's mind

I didn't have a manager
I couldn't afford P. R.
I got my gigs by word of mouth
As I chased that silver star

So, who had called, I didn't know
Truth told, I didn't care
Some tiny bar in the deep deep south
Was waiting for me there

Cold beer and pretty women
Danced cross my poor boy's mind
And I trembled, thinking about it all
And wondering what I'd find

Along 'bout noon on a lonely road
With no cars or bars in sight
I put down the top, pulled out the map
To see if I'd read it right

The air was crisp, the sky was blue
There was honey on the wind
And a kind of feeling came over me
Like I'd been caressed by sin

Alarmed, I turned the ignition key
But the car, it wouldn't start
And no matter how I cursed or prayed
There was no life in her heart

So I grabbed my guitar from the back seat
And headed down the road
Took the fork that turned to left
Though my soul cried to forebode

I walked for what then seemed like days
But I knew that couldn't be
Down roads and paths and country lanes
Following something I couldn't see

Through fields so green, they hurt my eyes
Past creeks and brooks and streams
All colored like bright emerald jewels
Found only in your dreams

Somewhere off there in the distance
I heard a woman's voice
Singing tender lullabies
And I went, I had no choice

And as I walked, played my guitar
To that melody so sweet
That put a wildness in my blood
And dancing in my feet

I followed till the sun went down
Into that dark green west
Into a forest of whispering trees
With longing in my breast

And then the song came to an end
And I heard a lover's sighs
And there she sat and there I fell
With beauty in my eyes

Up in a tree, like fairies do
A girl so pure and rare
Sat on a limb just looking down
While my heart stopped to stare

"I waited for you." is all she said
As I rushed toward the tree
But she put out her hand and said
"Play your green guitar for me."

And as I played, I fell in love
Looking at her light
Playing as the sun sank low
With promise of the night

She sang to me of long ago
Of passion and of fire
And as she sang, my heart became
Filled with her desire.

"Come!" she shouted and laughing, fled
Jumping to the ground
And off she ran through lush green grass
And her footsteps made no sound

I followed, calling, "Wait for me!"
But her feet, they would not slow
And she took me deeper into the dark
To a place I did not know

To marshes and to swamp lands
To thick and foreign vines
To roots of old, like living things
With mouths and eyes and minds

To bird and tree and flower
Like none I'd ever seen
To a realm of song and nightmare
In a world of emerald green

And as the darkness grew, I felt
Her touch upon my arm
"Fear not," she softly said to me
"I will not do you harm."

Her essence, candles in the dark,
Her smile, the moon above,
Her lips like honey in the comb,
Her eyes like liquid love

With urgency I've never felt
With hunger like a knife
I grabbed her up in arms of steel
Like a dead man would his life

Kisses sweet as morning rain
I poured upon her lips
Thirsting for the taste of love
That till then, I'd only sips

And I fell in rapture, falling
Through a haze and maze of thought
Love chased me down forbidden roads
And I knew that I'd been caught

My fingers in her long dark hair,
My mouth against her skin,
I knew if this was love and war
That surely, she would win

Then through the gnarled and ancient trees
I heard a growling roar
And when I opened up my eyes
My love was there no more

My green guitar could not be found
As frantically I searched
Wondering if her father'd seen
Her purity besmirched.

I tried to find a path to walk
As night fell harder still
Feeling I had lost my heart
And worse than that, my will

The quiet was shattered by the sounds
Of crow and frog and beast
Gleaming green now in the bog
And suddenly they ceased

I stood in silence, waiting then
For my love to appear
Waiting to feel that rush of joy
But finding only fear

"Where are you?" I called to her
"I cannot see the path."
And in the distance I heard her sigh
And then I heard her laugh

"Come, my love!" she beckoned me
And I stumbled toward the sound
Falling in the deep dark water
And through the night, and down

Awful things with shining eyes
They brushed against my face
Caught me in their cold dead arms
And held me in that place

Then up I went and fought and sought
The air, the sky, the light
Peering through the greenish glow
To see the hellish sight

My love, a thing not of this world
Without her lovely charms
Holding my sweet green guitar
In her green ghoulish arms

She smiled with razored teeth and laughed
Holding up her prize
Looked at me struggling in the swamp
With no light in her eyes

I do not know what happened next
For my knees and mind went weak
And to this day, I do not know
And the truth I will not seek

I found myself back in my car
On the highway going south
With a mighty hole torn in my soul
And a bad taste in my mouth

I shook for hours, I could not stop
Till I pulled into the bar
Where no one had ever heard of me
Or my missing green guitar









© by Voo Shining Stone
May 5, 2010





Dead Man theme song
by Neil Young
goes really well with this story.....



Cadillac in the Swamp

by Smokehouse



Thursday, August 15, 2019

ALREADY THERE a prose poem full of odds and ends





Already There



Walking through life
We stumble sometimes
Upon unlocked doors......

And we hesitate, wondering
If we should open that door
That is standing there ajar, beckoning
For us to take a chance.

There may be danger lurking there,
There may be terrifying consequences,
Or there may be something wonderful
We never know.

And some of us will never know
Because we are too afraid to take that chance
And so we flinch and jerk back our hands,
Leave the door ajar for someone else to open.

And someone else does bravely open that door
And discovers all sorts of fantastic things waiting inside:
A new job, a home, the love of a lifetime,
The answer to a prayer, our prayer, but we were too afraid.

Afraid to try because we are scarred by rejection,
Crushed by hurt and traumatized by terror
Emotional wounds covered by scar tissue and flimsy bandages
That never healed us, only covered up our pain so no one could see it.

But we always knew it was there inside us 
Just waiting to be triggered by the next bullet,
The next blade, the next unkind word
And we've traded our kindness for anger and hidden our love in hate.

Knowing that that's not who we are or even want to be
We're just trapped in a cell of emotion,
Fallen down a well full of broken-ness
And imprisoned in pain that we don't know how to heal.

God didn't make us like that.............

He made us in His image and His image is love,
His heart is love and His thoughts are of love,
His kingdom is love and His bounty is love
And love is what we're all afraid of the most.

So we disrupt His plans and go running away
From every open door, every road map that falls on our path,
Every circumstance He has worked on for years 
To bless us and fix us and turn us around.

And I, am more guilty of that running than most 
Fleeing when no one pursues, no threat is discerned
No evidence is presented and no danger seems imminent
Running and running when I should give myself up.

What is it about surrender that terrifies our soul?
Why hold onto pride when it comes before every fall?
Why do we stare down and back away from a blessing?
A blessing that can heal us and bring our hope back again?

I once stumbled over a rainbow and found hidden treasures 
So many my back and my arms couldn't bear
And I fell in a well full of love never knowing
That the love I fell into was already there.

Already there, waiting for me to find it
Already there but my eyes could not see
It was already there just beyond the unlocked door
Waiting to give itself unto me.

And I tasted love and touched it's hand
I heard it's sweet voice softly say
"You've finally found the thing you wanted."
And I just screamed and ran away.

Look in my eyes, my searching friend
Into eyes of sorrow that rued my choice
I threw away my long sought joy
That called to me with tender voice.

For fear of hurt and fear of losing
I threw away the promise of
All of my dreams coming to pass
No longer pursuing, but running from love.

The irony is not lost on me
Believe me, friend, I see the jest
In what I'm saying and warning you
Love's student I was, but not the best.

But now I know and now I share
With all who'll listen and heed my call
Love hurts sometimes and love heals the hurting
So don't run from it's touch or fear the fall.

It's frightening to fall when you don't know what's waiting
And we've all reached to hearts that proved they didn't care
But when you fall in true love, love will be there to catch you
You can't fall into something that's not already there.


©By Voo
August 15, 2019
10:15 p.m.
copyrighted








Fallin by Michael Grimm
..