"Old Cowboy Hat"

I get in your head
like a cocaine rose
like summer night air
I want to tell you
there are distances here
you're loved
pretty and pink
the color of newborn flesh
now
healthy

I used to love your sharp edges
heart pounding
hard from
all that vodka
soaking up
what you didn't want
something metallic
in our mouths
when we kissed
and star smoke fucked our brains out

I dwindle now
dawdle like a top
no longer spinning
the long long road
lays out
before me
like a frigid arm
tracking
blue medians
lifeless

I want to wear
your new skin
snake-shed this s**t
and flush it
my water world
spinning away
from two hearts
defused
and one 

severed spine

thrown down
discs
scattered
like pool balls
on the floor
all except the 8
rolling up
into
a broken
light bulb

Author's Note

Reviews

[Larry Dyson]

Was sitting on the floor in houston texas in the student union at Uof H in 1967 listening to Allen ginsberg read his poetry out loud and discuss the times ..way before it was cool or supported...interesting person..was like a Richie Havens who wrote instead of Singing..

[Steven]

Man, awesome. I like how you put it.

[barton smock]

like a frigid arm
tracking
blue medians
lifeless

(lifeless, being after blue medians instead of before, is well placed)

and that last stanza, but others have gone there already.

[Steven]

Cheers

[Cole Hayley]

You know I'm a huge fan of you, so again, breathtaking.

[Steven]

Cheers

[Circe]

really wonderful imagery... it's intense and wild.. affectionate, knowing.. I can't dissect all the goodness in this poem, it just has to be felt altogether... just such a thrill to read.... your reading was more tempered than the one in my head.. I like how you take your time and let the words unfold naturally.

[Steven]

Yeah I like the recording at the end, so I don't set the tone in stone. Thanks for the read :)

[Victoria Elizabeth]

very good! keep it up

[Pax Analog]

Gritty affecting piece about passionate edges found & lost. Your poem evokes lost moments, suggesting a collapsed souffle. And all that "s" alliteration anchored by "snake-shed this s**t" is effective (what is it about the "s" sound?). The haunting detritus of the highlight reel moved on is a microcosm of our entire "little lives, rounded w/a sleep." Vividly wrought!

[Steven]

Bitchin review, as always, Pax. Maybe it's that it is the only sound we share with snakes. And, one of my favorite lines you've quoted. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[That_Girl]

Thick smoke wafts through my bedroom from the fire you created with this poem. ;) Wonderful job... smooth and sultry.... and on fire. I love it.

[Steven]

oo, wafts, that's a good word. Thanks ;)

[That_Girl]

;)

[Baby Ricochet]

I really like this piece. It's quite erotic. I don't write erotic very well. Actually I don't think I've ever written an erotic piece. I have written a few about f*****g but thet weren't what you would call "Erotic." Erotic has a jene ci qua (I know that's not spelt right) to it I don't seem to have. Funny I can do all day long but erotic, you've got that talent my friend. Keep up the hot writing.

[Steven]

Thanks buddy!

[Baby Ricochet]

NP bro

[Ees]

I don't know what a cocaine rose is, but you have me convinced that it is something fascinating and wonderful that would creep in and rattle around my brain.

love this line: "and star smoke fucked our brains out"

and by the way, I can taste metalic mouths as I read this. well done, you have me feeling and imagining the words that you have written here.

"all except the 8
rolling up
into
a broken
light bulb"- AMAZING!!!

Wonderful poem. I LOVE this!

[Steven]

Thanks E!

[Steven]

Your voice speaks volume, and I dunno if you had the wine already when recorded lol, beautiful beautiful though... I'm in awe...

E.L.

[Steven]

Yeeeeah, a little ;). lol, thanks EL

:) well it sounds sexy, you should do that more often ha!

[Steven]

K ;)

:P hey I was just kidding.... ok... loved your write :) be good ;)

[Steven]

lol, I know.. Thanks, ditto!

*_*