the most poetic time in my life is when i found my friend ...

he made a mistake, i am sure of it, he leaned back looking to the stars as he was thinking about it,.. then passed out,.. wham,.. just like that, game over.

Show more

my experience as poetic as i could make it, it was a challenge for a narrative poem, i have a horrible habit of making my poems long and sometimes exasperating, i tried to follow some sort of semblance of "the cremation of sam mcgee" i tried to follow up with a positive note,.. but man,.. how do you do that on a poem like this?

THE LEASED LEASH ON LIFE (re-released)

a fantastically warm sunny day, 10

a tepid 70's for mid december, 10

yet sort of clammy in an addled way.10

foreboding the day i would remember. 10

episoding today in a way that would weigh,12

on me like a floating burning, flying ember.12

the day that i can't get out of my mind.10

the day i observed satan's contract signed.10

*****

the sun was high noon in the sky, finished my coffee, ready to embark,18

on the dogs daily walk, banzai! although the day seemed deeply grim and stark.18

darting up and ahead she blazed, over the hill chasing a hare.16

i was starting up, coffee crazed, like jack and jill, i made it there. 16

as i slowly crested the mound, there, sits in the washes ravine,16

under the thorny mesquite found, randalls tired dusty machine.16

cocked my head, inquiring to myself, what the heck?12

presaged dread backfiring, uh oh, i had better check.12

*****

i yelled with no avail, no sound from the end of the trail.14

no movement on my hail around, a dim beat in my heart.14

the dog looks in, like stale art, her tail stands, stiff as a doornail,16

no glasses brands my braille view, a fuzzy no detail flowchart,16

greens, browns, flesh tones and orangey red, i walk the colored trees 14

over crunchy limbs and rounded rocks. dog stands with unease,14

questioning while looking at me, then i see randall dead.14

strangling and dangling dead from a limb, looking blind with dread, 14

faded desire, a rubbernecked hung vandal with bent knees.14

through briared brush, i lost my handle, exhaling a wheeze.14

******

a vision i cannot unsee, his eyes bloodshot, cold like the ground. 16

looking down at his feet an ashen cigarette i found,14

pipe filled with hashish on the couch, burned into my memory14

his dog leash holding the keys to his ATV, tied to the tree,16

acrimony swimming with unease, slowly churns my stomach's brim, 16

my rooted fury burned hot, deep, down inside. while yelling at him, 16

telling him, i was going to kill him, as my fists were clenched tight 14.

my heart wrenched, my mouth went dry, observing details despite,14

his stance, hanging by a literal thread, a dance bedim of fright.16

the frozen chance at life misled by satan's sad hymn sung last night 16

*****

the thread had dug deeply, his swollen neck, bruised black and blue,14

an empty tin of pills on the couch, his knees slack and bent,14

half pint of vodka capped and sitting on the chair, i knew.14

he wasn't done with his depression, he leaned back to vent,14

that loop around his neck, deaths cortege pleading away.14

looking at the stars, little specks sinking as he passed out.14

slowly leaning back too far, blood to his brain went astray.14

that array going black, flooding the fading mind with doubt.14

*****

that leash tightened more, weak knees gave their last wheeze.14

hellhounds starving for a dying souls last acquiescence.14

his face whitened, death's grasp drying his river of essence.16

ideation fulfilled by crushing despair, please satans trustees,16

damnation by a thrilled high won't repair the fading light 14

reality threw his life away, to the hungry dogs.14

the mortality of fatality, life's chain is off the cogs.16

fate's brutality eats ego with torrid teeth of anthracite.16

*****

oh how my mind gazed at the horror of the empty eyes.14

of randall, view glazed with poor choices and his deceptive lies 14

satan sought the act to dictate killing his existence.14

putting his distraught debate ahead of fate's persistence.14

throwing caution to the breeze, only to fall at his feet, 14

a growing colossian wheezed, his liquor laden retreat.14

fading life's sweet diseased mind, found the tangibility.14

of death's embrace, seized, welcoming bound suitability.14

****

the suit of death, easily donned, just slip it on, a fitting prize.16

wrapped up and costumed, you're conned into demise by lifes lies,14

with a zombie bride, groomed you are, life dead, a solitude finis.16

abercrombie necktied, doomed wedding wife too prude to kiss.14

his limp body dangling dead, with keys to his home and ATV.16

just above his head,the strangling life leash of gullibility,16

sucking the belief, he had jurisdiction over his life lease.16

plucking the relief of bad affliction of deceptive strife's peace.16

*****

a fantastically warm sunny day, 10

a tepid 70's for mid december, 10

yet sort of clammy in an addled way.10

chaptering the day i would remember. 10

captoring today in a way that would weigh,12

on me like a floating burning, gliding ember.12

the day that i can't get out of my mind.10

the day i observed satan's contract signed.10

*****

distraught though i was, i had to walk home to tell the wife, 14

about the horrible, deplorable sight, of randalls demise.16

the doubt of his valuation, living his damnation of strife,16

knowing his unsure fixation of satan's wise murderous lies,16

baffled, departing the scene, if only he would have spoken to me, 16

talking to myself, i walk past his cold heartless broken machine.16

walking by oneself, my abstract entity's heartbroken journey.16

shaking my head , i knock on the renters door quietly.14

*****

conveying the tragedy, i learned, he came to my house first.15

to speak to me, quietly he yearned, knocking on my door.15

my heart sank, he trusted me to drown his suicidal thirst 15

me, watching satan's lies on the telly, shocking, to the core.15

knock knock knocking at my door,sound drowned by a movie of war.15

tick tock timed uproar, blocking his muted search for a succor.15

lousy louse like i felt, choking my cry, had to tell the spouse 15

my eyes began to welt up with tears, facing the chore to rouse.15

*****

it was a loud shriek at first followed by a rise of latent cries,16

telling of randalls demise, keeping it short, to the blatant theme.16

picking up the phone calling the cops of my exercise surprise.16

reported missing last night, perhaps he's just blowing off some steam,16

after an ensuing fight, he left , what's the locale, please advise,16

within minutes and a short dusty stop, i lead a uniformed team,16

to my cohort, the orangey red pop of color is where he lies.16

aborting my police escort, i hear yelling, it's her, downstream, 16

distorted, running up the wash is his girl with tears in her eyes.16

"it can't be real, he can't be dead, where is he?" consoling her scream 16

****

directing to the thickety orangey red in which he was dressed.16

wiggly and rickety from the run, quickly she turned her blame,16

distorted and blubbering, she was, tearfully beating my chest.16

thwarted hands of rubber, bouncing off my bust, her hands aflame.16

with anger and pain, denouncing my name, the trusting she possessed.16

painless though it was, little blobs of flesh, her tiny thrusting hands came,16

time after time, sputtering tears from her eyes, crying and distressed,16

pushing me away, muttering fears, she ran to the scene of shame.16

****

tasting the salty tears on my lips, upon me she cast her blame,16

as though i had hung him myself, the executioner, my name.16

she ran toward the glum arena of crime, i felt guilty as sin,16

as though it were my fault, all her paradigm anger held within.16

i could have saved him, all it took was walking to the window gapped,16

always open for the cats, i shook, my cold heart of shame untapped.16

a strapped memory always burning in my mind, like uncapped dread,16

trapped there, a candle in the back of my head, seeing randall dead.16

****

detached lone denial, the limelight of my fatal lies aglow,16

an unknown foretold conclusion, making us all afraid to grow,16

to envision bold confusion, our lives, hanging by a soul thread.16

the fate we all know, lies at the reapers hand, yet remains unread,16

our story of impending demise, life led by the seeds we sow. 16

the prize, ascending to heaven or hell, we surmise as we grow,16

expending every breath addicted, we inch closer to the end.16

how will our memory be afflicted, how will our life transcend?16

*****

a fantastically warm sunny day, 10

a tepid 70's for mid december, 10

yet sort of clammy in an addled way.10

altering the day i would remember. 10

faltering today in a way that would weigh,12

on me like a floating burning, drifting ember.12

foul play that i can't get out of my mind.10

the day i observed satan's contract signed.10

copyright 2/14/2020 todd anderson

Show less