Thursday, July 31, 2008

Home

Beneath the candlelight that dances with the rain, the storm, the shadows are the only company left. The electricity flickered shut more than twenty four hours ago, my Ipod not charged, the cellular phone near its death.

There’s comfort with only the wind and its gestures, the rain and its pitter patter on the roof, no soul around, no alcohol to be intoxicated with, no drug to be high on, just a quasi primitive, hollow boned existence. The darkness that envelopes the street spills through my window, trying to eat away the remaining light left, but the brave candle keeps holding, and I’m guessing it would keep holding on until morning, five or six hours away – same as the exact time for dreams to travel and occur underneath the back of our heads to the forefront of the lobes of our brain. But for now, I only sit inside, with, beside, under the near dark of pitch black, thinking and swaying with the thoughts that ravage me and the land of waking sleep.

I think of you.

How are you? I think. Do you still have your ailing health? A soft knock at my window pane by shadowy fingers prove me otherwise.

You’re there, trying to take me away into the dark, baiting me with promises of cigarettes and toys and love and blood. That slick black hair, blacker than the night without electricity, drenched to its pores, hanging down to your shoulders, are longer since I last saw them, since I forgotten them, a long time ago.

“Tu privire drăguţ,” I say.

“Tu privire sănătate, nu mai mult rat sînge?” you ask, “Dacă you’re nu venire, a putea I cel puţin intră?”

Ah, that is just classic. Straight from textbook definitions. That is so you. But you’re forgetting something.

I try to search for your eyes and gaze straight into them when I say this, because I won’t utter any words, and gazes work best for hours like these (it’s in the manual, look it up) – I shake my head. No.

Even cloaked in blackness, I see you’re unsurprised. Only disappointed. A frown ready to be a scowl is etched on that young, ageless, mouth.

Sinking back to my chair, an uncomfortable couch with its metal body almost protruding through its cushion flesh, only the brave candle as guide, I dig the ashtray for a half smoked cigarette. Time has gone slower, judging by how the wax melts to its glass holder, forming a soft, hot puddle on the wooden floor: five hours until morning. I’m growing hungry but I light my cigarette instead, then I look at you, still with a scowl ready to be a frown, ‘sif you’re ready to cut your teeth. Are you?

“A face Eu am la spre drag al tău pitiful carcass spate casă? Sau voi I unic bring al tău cap?” you say with much gusto, with much anger, with much spite between letters and words and sentences and spit.

You’re getting good at that, netting thoughts, this city with dark alleys and darker souls train us well. But you’re forgetting something. And you still ask too many questions that try too hard to be ironic.

I wait for a moment to answer, savoring the drama of the low light, ambience, and the howling wind. The storm is drawing to a close but it’s still as furious as you.

“Cum eşti mergi la a face that , cu prayers? UN thousand Our Tată? UN moară Hail Maria? UN notă de plată Glory A fis?” I say to you with a triumphant smirk, adding, “This isn’t confession tînăr fată. You’re departe away de la biserică.”

“Ce kind de viaţă eşti tu viu? Don’t tu ai orice şampon? Feasting on mai mic things şi a aduce cadou as cursor?” you shoot back. This, much to my amusement, sounds rehearsed. Oh how many times have I heard this before?

“Tu trebiue have chemare. Sau tu a putut have text mesaj eu. I folos un mobile telefon acum. It has un aparat de fotografiat şi un expandable memorie pentru muzică şi tablou. Tu know trying la spre a păstra sus cu art.hot. timp,” I calmly answer.

You instead put your hands on your waist. Your curves could send any man blind and sinful just by mere thought. You do look better since almost being poisoned by our tainted livestock back in the homeland.

How sad it is for it to be moonless tonight. A bit of moonlight would have been nice. To see you clearly, not shrouded by lack of electrical power, may make my decision to stay, harder. I indeed missed you.

But instead we have this storm to sit through. And darkness. Low light. Brave candles. Four hours and a half. Just like the old days.

“I domnişoară tu de asemenea. A face pe plac la a veni casă.” Your stance softening, your eyes sincere and pleading. This is the first statement you utter, not a question, a statement.

“Numai darling I sînt casă.”

“Şi I’m exterior un goddamn fereastră."

Four stories up, nearer to the dark and cloudy sky, nearer to the crying Mother Earth, the rain, it won’t wash away our sins, or the sins of the world. Nor your curse, my gift, through bloodlines.

“Energie casă. Fly away. I’m nu venire spate,” I strain to tell you this. I bite my lower lip and draw blood.

“Vladimir, I dragoste tu, numai you’re un bastard şi traitor.” This stings but I roll with the punches.

“Nadja, meu darling fiică, I know. Aceasta este tot de ce I’m nu venire spate cu tu.”

But you’re already gone, letting the wind carry you back to our dear Romania. And I am left here alone with my brave candle, my storm, my four story home.

Three more hours until morning. I’m hoping the storm would let the sun peek through its menace.

I would like to see it again after all these centuries.

.062208.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Wicked Game

R.I.P. Lester (December 13, 1948 - April 30, 1982) and Hunter (July 18, 1937 - February 20, 2005). We need more of you to regain our excuses to ride the colors of pinwheels.

This is non-fiction, a cautionary tale.

Two junkies in a symbiotic relationship, hooked on each other, hooked on meth and pain killers and other vices yet to be named. Their gateway, each other. Stuck lil' guinea piggies. Their names only muttered to mask the track marks, "Jack and Jill."

They went up the hill, fetching from the sources pails of acid -- joints being passed around while walking up the steep, grassy knoll. They have plans to ensure their delinquencies and masterful inadequacies.

Everything seemed mechanical, detached, sleepy; fluorescent eating away at the buzz. A country that survived Stalin could survive a little dope.

Every taste
Every specter
Every nectar
Every spectacle

Every little ounce of breath -- its the drugs that do the talking. The shakes and molehills, dilated pupils, service part worshippers, the left living in a hot sardine tin can... there's one rule: no one can fall in love. It ruins business, and distracts the patrons and saints and hogwashed brown nosers.

Its the drugs. It always was. And you want, you need, it all. Do you even read stats at all? Or are you too busy being butt fucked by well hung towers of religious enterprise? Either way kiddo, you choose a side.

They came tumbling down. And its often debated. Keep the engineer, feed him burgers and fries -- or if in England -- bangers and mash. Oh did you forget the words that you scraped? Sweet, sweet downfall and doom and gloom and cheery melodies of "you wouldn't know it." They came tumbling down.

Which was expected, if I should say so myself.
Either way kiddo, you choose a side.

.070508.

Untitled #2

He was telling stories of ghosts in pirate ships, that's all he does. Circling with the fog, his heart skips. "This has happened before, hasn't it?" It wasn't really a question. He sees it as circles, but its really cycles that go around, around, around. He spits and his blood rips through the yarn of passing time, and age old science of content, a geranium patch held up by cops and robbers.

She's pissed. She doesn't like it when the larks get to clingy. It fills the bus stop and the bus. that fleeting feeling when you service the sun all your life, she fells like that. But she keeps to herself, all the nagging inside her head. "You never are around, you never were, you never are," the whisper of the rain was telling her in small pitter patter against the window, the bus ride home. Home never feels like home anymore, home never feels cozy, it was all work to keep it together.

They crossed paths. Eggboy vs. Cocolulu is the background music, like it was a scene from everyone's favorite indie movie. Running off, running off, running off. Come to realize this movie is pretentious, just buy the soundtrack.

He tells her the story of the mariner that seen the ghost ship, a slight revamp to his earlier stories that keep repeating. She just shrugs and walks. The spirit undeterred, he continues jogging near her fast paced feet, continuing his stories filled with apologies.

"You're not helping any cause. Just wait for the resolving clocks," she said when she stopped in front of her stoop.

"Oh, that is just gold. You and your cute nose," he blurts out. Maybe it was time to back away and just sit around the bus stop and wait for his home to come over.

Although, he doesn't want to.

So he just stands there clutching himself, circling with the fog, as she enters her door with loose grips of menace. He sits down in the middle of the road, around this time no one drives, he's safe. maybe.

She cooks herself a TV dinner. He sits there outside in the cold. She washes her dishes. He sits there outside in the cold. She abuses wine. He sits there outside in the cold. She whispers against the static of the television. He sits there outside in the cold. She brushes her teeth, dresses up in pajamas, turns off the TV, nods off to sleep.

He sits there outside in the cold. Alone. But safe. Maybe.

Maybe he needs to work on his stories.

When she got up in the morning and was greeted by yet another day of being there, she didn't even feel any chipper than the last day. The radio announces today would be another cold day, one for the record books. The patches of geranium at her garden didn't want to bloom either, the day would go downhill, assuming. The machination bites her tongue. She spits and her blood rips through the yarn of passing time.

Sober.

Once she stepped out of her door, he sees him there, sitting in the middle of the road. the most tired look on those eyes greeted her.

"I have a different story this time around, about a cute teddy bear on heroin."

And a tired smile matching his tired eyes creeps on her face.

.082007.