Thousand Yard Stare

Hendrix once asked,
In all solemn seriousness,
"Are you experienced?"
A question that's been asked
A thousand times before
In a thousand different tongues
Are you experienced?
Well, I am
Goddamn it!
I am!

I sat at the bar
My back to the game
Enjoying the virgin taste
Of a scotch on the rocks
Mad babble around me
Greasy double dealing
That softened my stomach
Yet stiffened my resolve
To be man enough
For this hot gust of life
Then voices behind
Flaring resentfully
I spun just in time
The hot metal barrel
Placed lovingly to brow
The trigger twitched back
Time slowed to eternity
All here and all now
A shower of misused intellect
Splashed off the wall

Afraid in the dark
Entranced by the screen
Indelibly linked
To the boy at my side
The film that we watched
Folded in on itself
Dick's forbidding Valis
Assuming control
Bombarding reflection
Of a nightmarish truth
In the end we departed
Heartsick and somber
Sobered for life
Indelibly scarred

He borrowed his name
From Teilhard de Chardin
Shared his philosophical
Sensitive bent
His eyes bright and handsome
His laughter contagious
Cohen's bird on a wire
In the prime of his youth
They found him one night
Naked and drained
Extinct in an alley
Rusty nail in his arm

So please, gentle friends
Don't ask me again,
Are you experienced?
You can see that I am
With just three tiny drops
In the bottomless well
That is anyone's life
Not for nothing, you know
That all of us share
This thousand yard stare

Reviews

[Mizo4]

brilliant poem, clever imagery, interesting concept, violent images in a good way.

[David Rutter]

Thank you so much for looking at and commenting on my work.