Friday, February 4, 2011

Late Nite Meandering.

Folks,

 The following does not scan for meter nor rhyme. Still it is close enuf to a finished product, timely to my sentiments, to put forth. After some polishing, I trust my good friends in The Hooligan Family, will know what to do with this nonsense.

S

Rattlesnake Wine © Solomon 2011
Free, my girl, let us be standing 
on the top of the world together
seeing the future in the shapes of clouds
where we share a cup of rattlesnake wine
Nothing seems so very easy 
yes, water tastes like rattlesnake wine
but, winter is not so hard to go today
as may have been, but now not for forever
My beloved, you’re dealing stolen lighting 
cutting the cards with silver hands
throwing all caution to the diamond winds
where it all comes around and turns again
Calamity and distraction
silken chains of satisfaction
the sacred cows and gilded calves
where everything is for not for certain
Flawless beauty born and torn in half
but, all that’s lost is again regained
as perfect love that dies and still remains
yes, still, nothing ever remains
Hey, savage beauty, tell me how and why
tell me where the fire dwells
how the golden flowing river stills
Tell me that you love me still.
We are seeking fortunes writ upon the sky
a future perhaps writ upon on the heavens
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, to the sky
where crazy angels are throwing laughing bones

Everything is so very quiet at this moment
the water tastes like rattlesnake wine
summer is now not so very brief
as may have been once, but not for you
My beloved, you selling stolen lighting 
throwing the dice with loaded hands
throwing caution to the diamond wind
and love to love and all to lose
Hey, savage beauty, tell me how and why
tell me where the fire dwells
how the golden flowing river stills
the crazy angels throwing laughing bones
Angels seeking fortunes writ upon the sky
looking to the future up not explained
seeking the way to play their next hand…

let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, to the sky.



A Message to My Fellow Citizens…

Folks,

I was all set to post about some techie stuff, but life happens. I heard the news today, oh-boy…

I am an American boy,  grown up in the '60s. It is interesting and inspiring, also troubling to see the deal going down in Egypt. I feel the resonance of some events in our history in the USA. A couple of them are surprising, even to myself.

Of course, my nation's founders had some experience with firing a tyrant, then soldering together a fragile democracy brimming with very opinionated folks of conflicting philosophies, different walks of life and station in society. Somehow, we went on to a place, two centuries later, to fire two of our own Presidents in short order, stop a horrible war, and threw a great party. Another was not so good.

The weird parallel that I see between the initial protest in Egypt is to the Woodstock Festival. The third biggest city on our continent, at the time, was a three day hoot for peace and music. That was Woodstock. It was entirely self organized by a bunch of mainly middle class kids without day jobs, no food nor even toilets at hand. Much fun had all, and nobody got hurt. Sounds like day one and two of the events in Cairo, but those good folks on those streets added a call for justice to the music.

But, the comparison continues. Those Woodstock kids went home and kept the party going, tho along a different path, and they did so with their moms at their side. We filled the streets in the old cities (old by American standards) and faced down two lunatics with atom bombs. It took about fours years from Woodstock to running Johnson, then that depressive maniac Nixon to ground; that is not a long time on the tide of history. Along that path, we stopped a war.

Then, there is Woodstock's terrible alter ego, Altamont. Here again is a preceding echo of the trouble in Cairo. Hired thugs, the Hell's Angels, came on the scene to "keep order". Those Angels, mainly veterans who did service to their nation in 'Nam, but many of them kick-ass criminals, trained killers by their service, were not a bona fide bulwark against chaos. Peace and love and healthy politics dissolved into murder.

Peace and polity fell swiftly into chaos and killing at that gig. The killing got done in the name of keeping order. Even hippies can screw up in such regard. Worse, what we do to our children by sending them to war was richly demonstrated right here on our own turf in December of '69.

Egypt, in the past two days, has seen its little Pharaoh, that fat little punk, Mubarack send out into the peaceful demonstration of Human fidelity his own hired thugs. They wield their sticks and throw their bombs. They make a fine mess of the party. The greatest pity, is that they torture their own who have been spared the sorry wages of war until they came to the streets for jobs, peace and justice.

Think about it, and what you might want to do in speaking to your neighbors, wherever you happen to be on this pale blue dot in the Void. 

S