Who woulda thought the half-life
jive-life single-live would be this
and more. Not what it’s cracked up to be
The door knocking the phone ringing
with insistent visitors who want to
comfort and the console the half dead you,
the half-dead me, and if you’re not dead
yet well, here’s a lover to
suck your life-force, your elan-vital,
your light, your cosmic and not so cosmic
energy, your Virgo purity and
impurity. To take it all and run
while you lie on the bed or sit
at the desk half-stunned
always knowing that it would come to this
This end, where you are now.
Your only friend a small white pill
that promises relief in twenty minutes
from This Domestic Bliss. You’re a writer,
a virgin, a whore, a sinner, not a saint
and though you’ve tried to
walk the road and head toward the
Light you find yourself Always,
But Always, shrouded in darkness.
A hairshirt, a cloak you
want to throw off.
You: eyes like mirrors, and see-through
skin; a small fragile thing that breaks
with every break of day.
thanks for listening | these are part of a selection of poems called "cries from a socialist land."
sadi ranson-polizzotti (for video of these, click this link and select Video and Film
Article comments
1 - Shark
- Variations on a Theme by Sadi -
Who woulda thought
that life would be fishing
with no bait,
meaning -- a hookless string,
the attraction --
my shadow over still water?
Who woulda thought
the prey would be startled
by my excitement,
my inexperience,
my passionate longing to feel the pull
of your wet weight against my gravity?
I could pull you in.
I could haul your fragile bulk ashore.
I could hoist you in a photograph,
a memory of the trip we took.
But I would be lying.
I would stretch the ruler
until a dolphin with damaged radar
becomes the entire point of the story.
I would say I saved you --
And go home empty-handed.
* *
by Shark
2 - sade
that is freakin' brilliant and i adore it... and an honor. i'd like to bost on my own site as wel, if that's okay. i'm really impressd with this as well, Shark.
we're collaborating here which is great... amazing. beautifully written and i like it more than mine... really ..
xo
s.
3 - Shark
Thanks, Sadi! I really enjoy using another's work as a point of departure. It's an interesting example of the way creativity works, don't you think?
4 - sade
heya :
yes, absolutley ~ it's an excellent way to collatate and that point of departure as you say is always interesting and can go on forever in smoe ways because it was already for me a point of departure from someone else who based on someone else and then we could trace all the way back about several decades or fifty or 100 years to the originator most likely, if such a thing exists - or person, rather,..
but yes.. i enjoy your versions very very much; more than my own and they make a nice set. i'll hook 'em up.
chees ~~ s.