"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms



"Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey sequence of bumping into's and tumblings apart."
~ Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The Barstool Prophet



The barstool prophet
Looks down the long dark road
At all the empty glasses
All the forgotten names
Listening to words not spoken
Feeling what is not given

Moses with his staff and broken speech
Elijah calling down fire and hiding in his cave

laughter ~ deserts ~ loneliness
friends of prophets

Noah plants a vineyard
Ruth uncovers her lovers’ feet
The scarlet cord of the whore dangles for us all
salvation out of Jericho

Jesus turns sewer water to Roman wine
While Magdalene finds comfort in the carpenters arms

pain drowns in the flood
blood waters the garden of anguish
emptiness fills with a tender touch

Broken beaten abandoned
Raise the cup
Drink deeply the healing tonic
Spill the wine

David write another psalm
To soothe aching souls

Absalom
Absalom
Absalom

The barstool prophet buys another round
The hangover proves you're still alive


New songs for old hearts
Resurrected from cold tiled bathroom floors
To dance and leap
in
Rebellion against resentful gazes from windows on high
In Michal and her sisters’ eyes

All the stolen Judas kisses
In back alley dive bars
Can't turn around the broken promises

The barstool prophet turns to the girl on his left
at the Red Sea Tavern
David's old friend Abishag

He says baby, "my bones are getting colder each night - winter is coming soon"
Be my promised land
Take my hand
Be my muse
One more drink
For the fallen and misunderstood
In captivity tonight
Who write graffiti on wailing walls
"I'll love you forever...
But forever hasn't happened yet..."


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