Zod wrote:

> On Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 10:25:17 PM UTC-4, W-Dockery wrote:
>> General-Zod wrote:
>>
>> > Will Dockery wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Desolation Summer
>>
>> >> Last Spring
>> >> I waited downstairs
>> >> on the
>> >> empty street below.
>>
>> >> After waiting a while
>> >> I tossed a penny
>> >> up to her window
>> >> but still she didn't show.
>>
>> >> A thought came to me then
>> >> it told me to walk away.
>>
>> >> I didn't need to
>> >> live through
>> >> that year again once through 1975 was plenty.
>>
>> >> So I sit here in my hovel
>> >> and I wear
>> >> the required mask.
>>
>> >> I know that
>> >> we shall live again
>> >> this too shall pass.
>>
>> >> Starting on this poem
>> >> I pick for a topic.
>>
>> >> A year
>> >> almost as odd
>> >> as this one.
>> >> Filled with humor
>> >> tension and fear.
>>
>> >> It taxed my patience
>> >> wondering what
>> >> would come next.
>>
>> >> One day after another
>> >> none better
>> >> and never the best.
>>
>> >> It was 1975
>> >> all that adolescent angst.
>>
>> >> As I read "Howl"
>> >> and "Planet News"
>> >> in my new abode
>> >> a tent in the back yard.
>>
>> >> Spring came and went
>> >> dark and brooding
>> >> with a jester facade.
>>
>> >> We were getting our kicks
>> >> way out in the sticks.
>>
>> >> I was popping little white pills
>> >> and focused
>> >> on the white lines
>> >> of River Road.
>>
>> >> Taxi driving
>> >> a few freaks
>> >> out to the rocks
>> >> of Mulberry Creek.
>>
>> >> Jump cut to Summer
>> >> for me it was
>> >> Highway 61 Revisited
>> >> and Metal Machine Music
>> >> and "a lot of soul," he said.
>>
>> >> Making my way through
>> >> Jack Kerouac
>> >> what few titles
>> >> I could find that year.
>>
>> >> Summer vacation was on
>> >> I was now
>> >> in the practice room
>> >> of a band named Blue Heat.
>>
>> >> I was writing lyrics
>> >> where the light was
>> >> by the window.
>>
>> >> And there on that
>> >> Desolate weekend
>> >> in a shack outside La Grange
>> >> we recorded
>> >> a few more songs.
>>
>> >> Where was Heather
>> >> she who
>> >> we fought over so?
>>
>> >> She'd evaded us all
>> >> and was long gone.
>>
>> >> We traded a few letters
>> >> me in La Grange
>> >> she in Dothan.
>>
>> >> Swore we'd never forget
>> >> that lasted until mid-Summer.
>>
>> >> I came back to the city
>> >> and was swept up
>> >> in a rapid fire
>> >> series of situations.
>>
>> >> When there seemed
>> >> no other choice
>> >> but to follow
>> >> that political machine.
>>
>> >> I was not surprised
>> >> we'd meet again among the pines.
>>
>> >> I sat at the piano
>> >> and pecked out the tune
>> >> about an old man
>> >> who lived one yard over.
>>
>> >> The Island Girl named Shirley
>> >> she was new in town
>> >> her father now stationed
>> >> at Fort Benning.
>>
>> >> We made eye contact
>> >> and both knew
>> >> at first sight
>> >> we wanted to experiment.
>>
>> >> She was fast
>> >> and used a New York twang
>> >> we clicked fast.
>>
>> >> My father had given me
>> >> an electric blue
>> >> 1969 Plymouth Satellite
>> >> she jumped in with me
>> >> for a ride.
>>
>> >> I kicked the radio up loud
>> >> kicked in third gear
>> >> and listened
>> >> as she sang along
>> >> with the tunes.
>>
>> >> In many ways
>> >> there never was another
>> >> dark night of the soul.
>>
>> >> Quite like 1975
>> >> turned out to me
>> >> for both Shirley and me.
>>
>> >> It taxed
>> >> my spirit and soul
>> >> the negative events
>> >> of that year.
>>
>> >> Events that kept unfolding
>> >> ending so much
>> >> I had held dear.
>>
>> >> Sickness and violence
>> >> in that strange new age.
>>
>> >> I was buzzing along
>> >> Buena Vista Road
>> >> just past the Spiderweb
>> >> and cut in line too close.
>>
>> >> Racism was real
>> >> I could see it
>> >> from my rear view
>> >> I could see the rage.
>>
>> >> Rusty Volt shaking his fist
>> >> an ass whipping for me
>> >> from a football jock
>> >> I was suddenly on his list.
>>
>> >> Hung a right onto
>> >> Lindsay Creek Bypass.
>>
>> >> Time for some Steve McQueen
>> >> night moves.
>>
>> >> Rope a dope driving
>> >> down the highway.
>>
>> >> Shirley was laughing
>> >> but it was no joke.
>>
>> >> My slick moves
>> >> in traffic
>> >> even I had to laugh
>> >> at those.
>>
>> >> I was young and brash
>> >> and I spotted his car at times.
>>
>> >> But I knew
>> >> the backstreets
>> >> better than him.
>>
>> >> It taxed my imagination
>> >> to see such a negative scene.
>>
>> >> It happened so fast
>> >> without foreshadowing.
>>
>> >> We all made our way
>> >> through that dim
>> >> yet blazing year.
>>
>> >> The best we could
>> >> any way that we could.
>>
>> >> Living like an animal
>> >> perhaps
>> >> like Mother Nature planned
>> >> even giving up my name.
>>
>> >> My father was angry
>> >> to the point that
>> >> he was stalking me.
>>
>> >> I had broken the code
>> >> and he'd broken
>> >> my confidence in him.
>>
>> >> I had stopped
>> >> by the house
>> >> Shirley was with me.
>>
>> >> What was I thinking
>> >> that everything was rhetorical?
>>
>> >> My father was next door
>> >> sitting with Robert
>> >> on the front porch.
>>
>> >> I glanced as I passed by
>> >> saw his cold blue stare.
>>
>> >> Then came the weeks
>> >> of intense
>> >> bitter disappointment
>> >> with everything and everyone
>> >> I had trusted.
>>
>> >> Both sides were
>> >> against us
>> >> and Shirley folded
>> >> and her father put her
>> >> into another school.
>>
>> >> I became withdrawn
>> >> strumming
>> >> "House of the Rising Sun"
>> >> for hours without even singing.
>>
>> >> Rusty Volt caught me
>> >> in the parking lot
>> >> weeks later
>> >> one day after school
>>
>> >> After the bottom fell out
>> >> and I
>> >> had conceded defeat.
>>
>> >> But much to my surprise Rusty had changed.
>> >> Rather than fighting
>> >> he asked
>> >> if I had a joint to smoke.
>>
>> >> The war was over
>> >> both personal
>> >> and in the 'Nam
>> >> just in time
>> >> in both cases.
>>
>> >> Murder is a crime
>> >> The Clash set that straight
>> >> forty years ago...
>> >> "Know your rights... all three of them."
>>
>> >> But all that
>> >> was still to come
>> >> in grim and greasy November.
>>
>> >> Traffic on Cusetta Road
>> >> was backed up
>> >> like some funeral procession.
>>
>> >> I slowly drove
>> >> as the rain fell
>> >> so all alone
>> >> again.
>>
>> >> Madness and decay
>> >> as reality slips away.
>>
>> >> If I had proof
>> >> it was a hoax
>> >> then I might have
>> >> joined him on the line.
>>
>> >> But I learned
>> >> a long time ago
>> >> alliances
>> >> can be fleeting.
>>
>> >> Those who stand
>> >> for abstract ideas
>> >> may sometimes fall
>> >> for anything.
>>
>> >> -Will Dockery (July 19 2020)
>>
>> >> ----
>> >> From the Shadowville Mythos poetry blog:
>> >> https://shadowville-mythos.blogspot.com/2021/04/desolation-summer.html
>>
>>
>> > Another one of best...!
>> Thanks again for reading and commenting.

> Hi there.... you are most welcome....!!

Good morning my friend, hope you and Mike are having a nice day so far.