Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Freak Show - by Robert Woods


I wrote this awhile back and Jess & Tim came up with the animation, and the animation is GREAT! But I'm not all that impressed with my vocals. Never did get a chance to rework it before Jess had finished the animation... I guess it came out okay. The poem has been rewritten some since Jess' contributions. Original draft of this poem was written in 2008. I always come back to it and make a change here and there. I think it's one of my favorites. So, thanks to Jess and Tim for their work on this project.


Welcome To… the Freak Show

Hi-de-hey, hi-de-ho!
Welcome, friends...
to the freak show.

Shuffling footsteps
down the hall
come one, come all
the end is near
where breathing labors
like a vacuum cleaner
running out of suction!
All those horrible years
spent a munchin' kitty fur,
globs of wadded dental floss.
All those tears lost,
spent weeping withered leaves
to grieve for bleak December.
All those fears
piling up:
mourning cobwebs
and cigarette butts
fornicating on the rug.

"Heya, Heya!" cries the barker
from the sideshow tent,
"See the amazing frog boy
pickled in a jar!"

And here he is… pissed yellow
for all eternity to schijt upon.

How our blue-stain collared
fingers mock him,
skeptic sneers, cruel jeers
torment his lifeless body,
petrified for resurrection
in the soiled pocket flap
of heaven's evening coat.

So, better kiss me quickly, deary,
while my tarnished lips
remember how your
warm, wet tongue
once brought to life
my decaying smile...

But she'll have none of that.
For she’s too busy now
her hands a burying the dead,
her tapered fingers
screaming lily white, red
fire tears carving
crimson rivers 'cross
her swollen angel face.

Our graveyard spirit spits
too much these days,
drinks too much
these moments in,
stands far too close
to grief soaked sparrows
who’s only sin was searching
for a simple truth or two,
a simple though that might
comfort all of us who lie,
who die naked in the winter snow.

We shall sleep, no more.
No more may we sing
for better or for butter or
for weather kinder
than the mother who
delivered us on the nunnery steps
with the curdled cream
the milkman left last night.

But the willow may weep,
may bow it's green-weary head,
sniffling improper oaths
as the horsemen trample past
the wailing ghosts;
they won’t leave but bitter curses
on the few of us still lasting.

Too demanding we have been,
circumcised from sweet nature's treat
at such an early age... no longer
do we recognize the bourbon scented breath
of poor old father as he staggers to the
smoky-mirrored barroom in the sky.

Then shall we surely meet our makers,
slovenly, brutal gods who ram themselves
deep down within our youthful throats
then lick their sores like wounded dogs
and disappear into the fog.

They never loved us, not at all.
rrw 2008 (rewrites o6-27-12)


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