Tim Schaefer's Blog, page 25

THIS MADNESS

d'Verse Poets Pub






In the light of morning
I bleed

Sucking it up
learning to be lonely
ruminating over the reasons
 why settling for crumbs
is unacceptable

You stay away
I stay away

Though you'll check in
now and then on Thursdays
to discuss my arrogance

We're both as tough as nails
you said 
with a kind of
vengeance
with a kind of delight
for the only thing you truly love
may be a good fight

The the truth is
I've never known
what to think about you

Your if is as explosive
as your when is hopeless
some chemical imbalance
that pings us from split-second heaven
to the nether regions of hell

and this madness of
trying to alternately  hide
and reveal myself
makes me your chameleon kin
our true colors
buried somewhere deep within 

You can't love something
if you can't remember it
and she doesn't remember it
or them
or you
save for the immediacy 
of your face to face presence

It's in the genes
they say
but you don't want to peer
into the horizon
to get a glimpse
of where that  may lead
and cling fast to the moment

The game clock
scarcely noticed in the heat of battle
runs down


And while it ends
with a whimper 
and not a bang
I know that you will be
the eternal head scratch for me

The lesson gleaned
for jackasses
being 
never choose someone
too much
like 
you

INCOGNITO

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

at least he was sayin' it 
to the guy's face
ya know
at least the guy
knew where he was comin' from

hell

the only people 
(women)
who ever blindsided me 
an' ran me clean off the road
were the ones 
who had professed
their undying love
just the day before 

EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: 2013

EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
TUCSON, ARIZONA               
NOVEMBER 3, 2013


'twas the Day Of The Dead
and I was outta my head

took a few shots
and then went to bed

d'Verse Poets Pub


(Check out the last video and that brave little "papoose") 

FIXIN' TO FINISH

d'Verse Poets Pub

Anyhow
the main thing is
to keep busy
otherwise too much time
to sit around an' think of how
you screwed yer life up
irretrievably
an' all those folks
out on the road
hunkered down over the wheel
with murder in their eyes
tryin' to get somewhere
in a frightful hurry
just to keep busy
just to keep those images at bay
just to keep on keepin' on
got a bad score on that
bitch of an obstacle course 
Life 101
an' it ain't gonna get no better now
with the finish line in sight
but it takes some 
cojones
Charlie Brown
not to grab your football
and go home
nah
screw it
maybe you don't deserve
to be here
with the polite company
but damned if you ain't
damned if you ain't
maybe get a better score
next time around
but fixin' to finish
anyway
fixin' to finish
fixin' to finish
just keep sloggin'
givin 'em the finger
right up high and pretty
out your side window
lay offa that horn
lest y'all wanna wait a few more
seconds
just for spite
ha ha
ease back
turn up yer radio
we'll all get there 
soon enough
Stupid

TOGETHER AT LAST

d"Verse Poets Pub

I'll take you over here
at the self-checkout
she said
I said okay
if you do it 
cuz I don't know how
to work it
never had the patience
to fool with the damn thing
and as we were standing there
this brother walks up
though you may prefer 
African-American
but that would be presumptuous
you don't know where the dude is from
could be African-British
or African-French
or African-African
I prefer brother 
like Whoopi Goldberg said
I'm not African-American
I'm just American
(maybe one day we'll grow up and get past
the disingenuous PC crap)
anyway
he asks the lady
who happens to be Hispanic
if they have any couscous 
and she wrinkles her nose
and says "koos koos"
what's that?
and the guy is at a loss to explain
having never encountered a supermarket employee
who didn't know what couscous was
and I say well it's a grain
and he says yeah that's it
and she is still saying
never heard of koos koos before
and I say do you have an ethnic foods section?
looking at the brother and hoping it's okay
to use the word ethnic
in front of him
and she says that would be aisle four
and he looks relieved
yeah 
well 
 never been to the middle-east
but I know what couscous is
having been around the block
 a time or three
 just gotta wonder about her
but maybe she will go home and tell her family
about the new word she learned today
and maybe they will look up its origin
and maybe they will even try it
and maybe
just maybe
the butterfly effect of that
will engender a little more understanding
among us
and bring the world together at last




  

SO GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!

d'Verse Poets Pub

It's very clear
Obamacare is here to stay
not for a year
but ever and a day

In time Newt Gingrich may stumble
Rush Limbaugh may crumble
they only bawl and bray
but...

Obamacare is here

Obamacare is here

Obamacare is here 

to stay-eeeeeeeeee

(With apologies to George and Ira Gershwin, authors of "Love Is Here To Stay.")

RANT # 547

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads
So
 you see
now that Pandora's box
has been unlocked
and she has flipped her lid
all the little nasties who've been unleashed
can never be corralled again 
and they will do their dirty work
over and over and over again

All the wailing and gnashing of teeth
or passing some legislation
that  has none
will solve nothing
cuz you can't take away our toys now
and some 
will always choose
not to play nice

An AK-47 
IS a weapon of mass destruction
but you were too busy
screwing around 
and searching for them 
in some other land
to take notice

Ah
what to say
what to say
it's just the price you pay

Go ahead and say
it's not the weapon
it's the madman
but how many drive-by knifings
do you think would occur
if that was all that the loonies
had at their disposal?

Don't even go there
that's a vision of utopia
and what we have is dystopia
(and a touch of dyspepsia)
and it's 
never
never
never
going to go away

As the lame
politicians
try to placate both sides
and the bodies pile up
inside the school
or at the mall
we will learn to live with it
learn to adapt
just be sure to kiss
your kids
and tell them you love  them
when you send them off in the morning

Technology will always be
that double-edged sword

Live by it
die by it

THE SPELL

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads










We held out such hope for the man
in the beginning
but he has fallen under the spell
like all the others

We need to kill you
to save you

Doesn't get the crucial  point
that yeah 
it might be better to die
instantaneously from a missile strike
than the horrific effects of gas
but in the end you have still annihilated them
the innocents
who happened to be in harm's way
no different 
or better
in the long run
than the other side

We held out such hope for the man
but power corrupts
and it's no more than a global
chess game
to any of them

Taking out Osama
was meaningless
'cause you can't kill an ideal
all it does is create
another martyr
(but it looks so good on the resume)

It goes on
and on
and on
for those who have come
under its spell

The sandbox bully
grows up to play
in a bigger arena
and his victim vows
to get even one day

I held out such hope for the man
but all you have to do
is look into his eyes
so plain to see
that he's just like all the rest
who gaze at the world 
through the murky veil 
of maya 

HIGH OLD TIME

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads
In a campground
somewhere in Utah
(memory fades)
setting up my tent
some older folks
occupying the adjacent space
with a big  RV
looked like a couple 
of married couples
and "Mother"
likely in her eighties
along for the ride
sitting around
boozin' it up and
havin' a high old time
convivial conversation
and laughing
so much laughing
ringing through the pines

Their own private
Margaritaville

And I thought good for them
they're happy, man
while simultaneously remembering
some statistic about alcohol abuse
being rampant among the senior population
and I thought
well 
who has a better reason
ya know
don't need to explain that
don't need to explain it at all
suffice it to say
that for a few hours
maybe they were able to forget
or even forgive

Watching the cold stars emerge
it was time to turn in

Then sometime during the night
must have been about 2 a.m.
there was a commotion
over in the RV
and someone said
"Mother fell"
and disoriented voices repeated it

Mother fell

Prolly trying to make her way to the head 
in the dark
but you could tell it wasn't good

And then the ambulance was on its way
to come and collect her
their idyllic forest getaway
soon to be a rude awakening
of glaring emergency room lights
that nice rosy glow
of a few hours back
now faded
like a long ago dream
of happily ever after

POOP SOUP

Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads










ONE

I see...
a home where the buffalo roamno more
I see...
a land stainedby the bloodof conquest
I see...
a gypsy palm readerspitting on your hand--you spit in her face
I see...
you at the theatrewith your head buriedin your iPhonefor most of the moviebut anyone can seeit's really up your butt
I see...
you incurring substantial debtfor the purchase of material itemsthat the recipient will neither welcomenor appreciateand that is called The Holidays
I see...
You being trampled to deathat a large department storeon Black Friday

TWO
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...I wore white after Labor Dayit was kind of an off-whiteso I thought it might be alrightno one in my ghettoseemed to care
Such pretensewhen our prehensile tailsare not that far removed
clackety-clackdon't look back
And now Ladies and gentlewomenhere to sing a medley of his most DEPRESSING hits,the ever maudlin... JOSH GROBAN!
(song playing)
Announcer: We interrupt this song to bring you a news flash...a young woman, listening to our station, has just jumped off her 16th story balcony!

happysadhappysadhappy happysad sadhappyhappyhappysadsadsadthe world is bi-polar
(That's north and south, for you geography majors!)
hum dee dumya lousy bum
1st man: Hello, my name is Fu Chow.2nd man: Pleased to meet you. My name is Egg Foo Yong.1st man: Yes, I have heard of you...people say that you are a good Egg.

And now, the new craze that's sweeping the nation...SAINT VITUS DANCE!
Round and aroundand around and aroundand around we go
Take your anti-depressants,America, but don't forget the increasedrisk of suicide...
EXCUSE ME but hasn't anyone noticedthat's the exact OPPOSITEof the intended effect?

Looking for the quick fixhas put us in quite a fix
(Spit on the drug addictwhile deluding yourselfthat your chain smokingisn't the exact same thing)

You're listening to Radio KSUK...all Josh Groban--ALL the time...that's right, America, we're JOSHING you 24 hours a day!
(song playing)
We interrupt this song to bring you a special news bulletin...no basketball players were charged with killing any hookers today...

And you wonder why you have A.D.D. America, when there's a commercial
break
every five minutes

Capitalism could have workedwere it not for theinherentincessantneed for MORE MORE MOREbuilt into the human psyche
So go ahead and anoint your sports teamsas WORLD championswhen no outside teams participated...
You will always be the Earththat the sun revolves arounduntil it draws close enoughto consume you in its fire

THIS MIND LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK