ONCE A BOY
There once was a boy who lived on a boat
The boy was small and the boat was not
Upon a sea of strange waters sailed the two
The boy and the boat until one day the boy forgot
That the boat would float and he would not.
SHE HAD FAME
No one knew her name
This simple woman who walked alone
In the rain and sun, she walked alone
On Sarasota’s streets, she walked alone
And no one knew her name
She walked in light and in the dark
She walked in sun and in the rain
But one knew her name, but she had fame
As she walked barefoot and alone
She had local fame as she walked alone
This woman who had no name
In a dress that was a hand-down
From a local church charity store
Where they didn’t know her name
In the rain and sun on Sarasota’s streets
She walked until death closed her eyes
One night when the rain fell along her way
And the wind drove others off the streets
She was there when death claimed no name
And no one was there as she fell on her path
And there she lay until the break of day
This woman without a name
But death came, found her with its cold hand
A wet bundle in the rain found with a cold hand
And claimed her without knowing her name
This woman who walked alone without a name.
NIGHTFALL, THE LOVERS’ DANCE
I recall the night when the rain came
And settled in bringing a coolness to the room
Where two lovers met and never were the same
In an apartment in downtown Sarasota
Where they danced to a scratchy record on a player
While drinking stale beer in a dim light
From the only bulb left working
And somewhere in the world a wall was being torn down
Somewhere a child was being born
Water dripping from pipes to the foundation two floors below
Somehow they found each other and in a simple embrace
Shared the last cigarette in a crushed pack tossed to the floor
While singing a song neither knew.
© 2018 Poet in the Rain: Gordon Kuhn
The Never Meeting of Lovers
I never met you in the past
I’ll not meet you in the future
I won’t meet you today
Such is life; such is the nature of our souls
But we can sing together
We can sing about our love
If we ever meet and should casually hold hands
While remembering that we had one day met
And hope the memory of meeting one day in the future
Will forever last in song, one written by you and me
Written in the wonder of meeting
As you in my bed would be offered a gentle greeting
While the world outside our door will swing and sway
To the sound of our song written just today
And I’ll sing a song I wrote just for you
While we dance our way into the memory of today
As your holding my hand in yours will surely nurture
My desire for closeness and kisses that will forever in memory stay
And we can sing together of a sweet and gentle love
I never met you in the past
I’ll not meet you in the future
We’ll not meet today
But how can I ever forget you or this song
Somehow we’ll go on as I alone will stay
In my memory of you in our fleet meeting
Such is life; such is the nature of our souls.
Copyright 5.17.18 Gordon Kuhn, All rights
Retouch: I Recall.
It’s two o’clock in the morning
And I recall her lying nearby me
In the dark sweating there from our lovemaking
We came together in the long ago
Two lonely bar drunk new best friends
In a town so very far from here
It’s two o’clock in the morning
And I can smell her hair even now with its light perfume
As it was crushed up by my face
Curls so wet, soft and fragrant in the nighttime air
As she drew close in the dim light from a street light
At the corner where rain spattered on the cracked concrete
By the post near the ruts in the road
And the trash lying in the gutter nearby
A soft contented purr coming from deep within her
And we laid there sweating in the dark
Not knowing each other and yet in some way we did
Someway we were kin from mothers never met
Aglow from lovemaking in the middle of the night
And outside we could hear the cars on the rain-swept street
There was no air conditioning in that apartment
One bedroom, a kitchen, and old couch in the front room
And we never knew what we’d find in the hall in the morning
When we opened the door to the world
And we’d step over some drunk lost on his way home
But it’s just two o’clock in the morning
And we hear the stumbling, cursing coming from down the hall
As someone tries a key in the wrong door and then noisily slips to the floor
Too drunk to walk further and sleep claims another lost soul
And I recall the sweetness of her lying nearby
In the dark sweating and so tired we were wrapped together
Exhausted from our lovemaking with only the moon looking on
Peaking in from the window with the cracked glass and weathered frame
And the floor near the bed beneath the open window was wet from the rain
And the moon shining into the room at 2 o’clock in the morning
Was the only witness to our love as we lay there together in the moonlit dark
Too tired to talk, too tired to sleep, and out of beer
A crushed cigarette pack lying in the corner near an empty can
But I recall how we loved that night
And then parted as friends
Each going our separate ways
But I recall that night — I wonder, does she? — Wherever she is?
Does she ever recall at two o’clock in the morning how we loved
How we loved thru that thunder and lightning packed summer storm
And we laid in our passion covered with sweat and out of beer gone hot
As the refrigerator in that apartment didn’t work
But it didn’t matter, not in the passion we shared
And the beer was gone and the cigarette pack was empty on the floor
Bed sheets pulled free and lying in a heap about us
Our bodies naked and gleaming with the wet of love making
In the moonlit dark of night with a street light shining lightly in
Does she recall?
It was two o’clock in the morning and I loved her
Whoever she was — sadly I don’t recall her name.
Copyright Gordon Kuhn
Rehearsing
Another morning has come to greet the sun
Chasing the night away as coffee brews on the stove
A cup with spoon to swirl the cream in to blend the clouds away
As I sit and think of questions that I cannot even form
I wonder about the woman down the street who lives alone
In a home being foreclosed on even as the year has come full circle
Her son is college stuff and flunking out as he goes to class
Neighborhood children run barefoot laughing as they pass
At my comment of concern for nails and rocks and wiggly worms while
The Church of the Holy Hypodermic will ring its chimes
At dawn, lunch, and dinner time, a mile away as I listen and decide
That the ringing bells are as lonely in their song
As is the old man in the darkened corner house
Alone, staring at a wall, waiting in silence for his time to die. 2/18/2015
In the Dark Copyright 2018 Gordon Kuhn, all rights reserved
Like a dog in heat he was single minded in his searching
While he roamed the empty spaces nearby ocean waves that crashed upon the shore
The sea fog coated the land and hid him from the safety nearby
Weakly hunting a place to lay his pain racked head
The cheap wine had gotten to his mind and left him stunned and all for dead
Lying in the dark on a rotted floor of an old shack he found by the ocean’s side
Before he fell into a cruel and empty sleep
Enlightenment curled up around him like a coating of smoke
From a fire burning deep within his soul
While others unseen around him in shadows kept hidden
They also slept the deep and troubled sleep, in open air, hiding from the sun
In a cave of despair they all slept where no one can see within memories thin veil.
Walking with a Dead Butterfly
Come fly away now gentle butterfly
Open your wings and capture a breath of wind
Set sail and say goodbye to the world below
Let not your heart in pain deny
Your right to sail the summer sky
For you are special, my valiant friend
You’ve come so far in life in so few days
And changed your coat of moldy gray
To joyfully spread rainbow colors in patterns rich
While sharing your beauty in wild, tumultuous flight
So short your life has come and gone
Come dance with me as I watch you twist and spin
Until your energy has been spent and you start to fail and fall
As you struggle with the pending doorway of death
No matter where you could have landed in the end
You somehow fell to earth beside the path
That I was silently walking there upon.
Ragdoll Chronicles 01.25.18
“Throw him down the chute!” The five merged on Chase who was trying to get out what appeared to be the front door but it was in fact a door to nowhere. The storm he had ventured through and from which he had sought refuge by entering the restaurant was not visible through the glass——actually, nothing was. The door was locked and on the other side of the glass it was just like a giant fog had settled in blocking everything out from view.
Just as they were about to grab Chase, a mist formed in the room and when they all turned to see what was the cause they found a massive crow that stood as tall and as broad as any of them present.
“What the hell?” the raccoon shouted. “Where did that come from?”
The crow looked around himself. “Where is the pond? Where is the glen?” He stepped towards the others who were backing up to avoid contact with the bird’s sharp beak.
“Who are you?” the mouse asked while trying to hide behind the orangutan.
“Priestly,” the crow replied stiffening up quite regally. “And who might you be?”
“This has to be Runa’s doing,” the brown bear said looking around the room nervously. “We need to get clear of this or we will be sucked into this mess as well.”
“I say we toss both of them down the chute,” suggested the mouse trying his best to not be seen by the crow. “We need to get shut of this before the inspectors arrive.”
“Inspectors?” the crow asked surveying the room while stepping closer to the five who were doing their best to find an avenue of escape, but the crow, as large as it was, blocked them and held them there with the boy shoved up against the wall behind them.
“Let me go,” the boy shouted, but his voice was muffled as he was slightly compressed behind the brown bear who was pushing the mouse forward almost as an offering. The mouse, of course, was squealing with complaint and trying to get back behind everyone including Chase.
It was then that Priestly discovered a part of the ribbons that had been Nouveau were wrapped around his left leg—and, he heard a muffled voice. As a matter of fact, they all heard it but couldn’t make out what was being said and so they all dismissed it until the mouse took note that wherever Priestly walked the ribbon that was wrapped around his leg extended back to the point on the floor where he had appeared and it then disappeared into a slowly forming pool of water there on the floor.
NOTE THESE ENTRIES ARE THE DRAFT OF A BOOK I AM WRITING AND THERE WILL BE ERRORS.
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Ragdoll Chronicles 1.13.18 @ 0515 © Gordon Kuhn All rights reserved.
“Get away from the pond,” both Starter and Cawkin shouted while waving their wings and hopping up and down. But it was too late. One stepped up and placed a foot in the water, quite accidentally actually, but accidentally sometimes doesn’t matter and in this case it did not.
“What?” the crow called back.
“Get away from the pond,” the pair again shouted. But it was too late. They could do nothing but watch as the other crow at the pond melted away in the mist rising from the waters at its feet.
“She has him,” Cawkin said.
“Can’t we do something?” Started began to flap his wings and move forward anticipating a run to the where the disappearance had taken place.
“No. We have no idea where she might have taken him and besides, that’s just her way of teasing to come closer.
“But what about Nouveau? They found rags over there.”
“It’s a trap. She is showing us the rags to get us over there. She has him too.”
“But where?”
“God knows. I don’t.”
“Can we go after him?”
Cawkin looked at Starter for a very long moment of silence. “We can but….”
~
Robert made a dash to his car through the stinging rain. However, he had to stop short of the vehicle because as he approached it he discovered it actually was floating several feet in the air and at each attempt to grab hold of a door handle the car just moved higher. Finally, he set off on foot in the direction of the small local lake where he and Chase were planning on going fishing later that day.
Chase had a good lead on his father as he had already walked several blocks pursued by a strong wind that pushed him forward. Every time he stopped and thought about turning back he was slammed with gusts that knocked him down. Behind him was a wall of rain that was coming ever closer. Then, ahead, he saw the lights of a small restaurant and he ran for it hoping to get inside and out of the weather.
As he stepped into the lighted diner he was suddenly aware that he had never been there before and, actually, he had never known of this place but the smell of cooking hamburgers lured him further in. At first, it appeared to be like any other small restaurant. There were several booths and a small counter with five stools. But Chase sensed that something was odd about the place and then he saw that the people seated at the counter weren’t what you would expect. Four looked like very large animals with one human seated there and all were eating breakfast.
The opening of the door and the rush of wind and rain that accompanied Chase had drew the attention of the five and they all turned to look at him.
“Ah, look what we have here,” the man said pointing at Chase. “A human child.”
“A child? A boy child?” a very large brown bear seated at the end of the counter spun on his stool and asked staring in disbelief.
“No. Really?” a small creature resembling a white mouse seated next to the man spoke in a very low voice and looked to others for an answer. “It cannot be here. We must make it leave.”
Next to the mouse was a raccoon appearing creature and to his right sat an orangutan with bright red and long fur. The two grunted agreement. The racc00n picked up a piece of toast from its plate and, holding it between his hands, offered it to Chase, “Come boy, are you hungry? If so, eat and then, by the blessed ground hog, please leave.”
“No sir,” Chase replied softly. “I’m not hungry. I — I came in from the rain.”
“Well then,” joined in the large brown bear seated at the end of the counter, “why are you here. This is a restaurant. And, rain? You say, you came in from the rain? I don’t see any rain.”
“Uh huh,” Chase said glancing around, “it’s the strangest restaurant I have ever been in. And look at me, I’m dripping wet.”
“From what?” asked the brown bear. “Did you stand in your shower with your clothes on and then come here?”
“No.”
“What’s that?” asked the mouse. “I couldn’t hear what he said.” He shook his head.
The orangutan snickered.
“Did you pour water over yourself?”
“No, it’s raining outside.”
“Outside, where outside? I see no outside.” The brown bear questioned.
“What?” asked the mouse. “Oh damn, I can’t hear either one. He turned to the raccoon as if to ask for help.
“Turn you hearing aids on you dope,” said the raccoon and slapped the mouse on the back of the head.
“I have them on,” the mouse protested rubbing the back of his head.
“Well, turn the volume up.”
“It is up.”
“Here,” the raccoon said, “let me see them.” He jerked one out of the mouse’s ear.
“Ouch,” complained the mouse. “Don’t just jerk them out. They are costly and if the queen even knew I had them I would pay dearly, perhaps even with my life.”
“Oh, for Thor’s sake, do you have to bring up the queen?” The orangutan knocked over his cup of coffee spilling the hot liquid all over the counter and his newspaper.
The brown bear raised its hand, “What’s that?”
“What?” said the mouse.
“I hear bells ringing.”
“I hear nothing,” said the mouse.
“Of course you don’t you idiot, you didn’t have any batteries in the hearing aids,” the raccoon told angrily.
“They are growing louder,” the brown bear stood up and looked around for the source.
“It’s getting closer,” the man said. “It must be the queen or her guard.
“GET RID OF THE BOY!” They all said at once.
“How,” the orangutan asked.
“Throw him down the chute!” the man said grabbing at Chase.
“YES,” the others all agreed. “Throw him down the chute!”
