All New American Soft Shoe
Blowing in red wine winds
I hurl through the gates of reaper shadow park
zipper bit queens on trampolines
fishnet weened in rat a tat, tik tok timebomb dreams
sashay over
bums sown to tumbleweed pillows
like tightly wound glow worms squirming
in fondue fondle-lit rippled tangerine streams
fireflies hoist the flags of revolutionary skirts
sea winds lifting seam torn sailor shirts
endless mirth abounds
soft skin, lost as a prarie dog in a bar in
saintly night sin sanddrifts
rumple skin-eyes perched on a gold lit branch
sprinkling holy water to drunken queens in
highrat lowrent rambling shacks
as hyatt beam towers like
phony smile grapes draped
against
heart pounding skies
lurch in yonderlands
queen serves spiked green tea
dig dog eyes lays some rubber
Robert E. Lee statue morphing into James Daniel Gardiner
dark tried on some light for the night
Harriet Tubman, Medgar Evers, never ever dreamed of
rue de Rosa Parks
Tulsa ’29 the big crash
green screen dreams
dim ball dim bim bom bays
Jimmy Rodgers, spinning a spinaker
mad tea cup swirl
thrown to the grass skirt bar
Juke box puking
Kate Smith and her patriotic wonderdogs
skip to Chuck Berry
rolling ace pins down promise land lanes
John Brown scaling armory walls
takes out the morning dew
who’s got time to worry about burning mama
while the madbugs howl at the window
strawberry wine
my buddha tongue dribbles
chattering zen teeth, soma dome hubba bubba holy robe
lands square at the check out counter..
but what about till then…
just a pang waiting to dance the morning rain
beautiful sadness, lace up ephemeral peace shoestrings
swing the park and drive- into starstruck
boulevards, where effervescent holy lightning
makes way for a new sunrise
Shutters Flailing
Shutters flailing viral winds
Mind’s eye flashing gold
Designs of maladroit wine boats
Rocking shipshake harbors
On my droopy red curtains
Sweet Suzy Muse never forgets my address
Drops off provisions
Flipping bad luck coins
Like hot cakes griddle bound
To the sunrise…
Leapfrog fantasies
Kind of blue nights
Late winter Paris..till
Sunup
Mother earth freaking,
Miracle balm on our last sundown legs
Used to trip on window pane
Now it’s tryptophane
Sleep away this nightmare, nevertheless
Ship ahoy, mates!
Mambo’s Blues
Sad Spanish strains on
Night street
All dissent quiet
Church mice sleeping
Humans creeping
Petrified forests
Papers run you around
Papers to walk the dog
Police looting city blocks
Forgotten masquerade masks soaking in
God forsaken puddles
Gloves, skeleton mud runners
Double fried kisses, canned peaches and mist
Stare from
Weathered shelves
Embraces on hold till a
Magic clock-strike twelve
Poets creak, Paris pastors reach,
in abandoned plunging
hollow cold-ice streams
With great introspection
Masses ponder the great dissection
Easter bunnies screw in tournesol sheds
The bum rap meds, no one to touch his hand
Lab rats grin as the mother
of all vaccines warms to the
Resounding orchestral death march
We stay together Keep our love
Hide in the never heard of
Knit our threads, bake our breads
Sing our songs, read Walt all night long
Nurses, doctor helping hands
Stave off the storm with clothespins
Nature heals, as the wheels roll off the highway
Rest like tires in a wilted roadside graveyards
Milo’s Red-Hot Tavern
merry go round stopped
warm syrup heroin
dripping off amber-lit fingertips
mid-day sunlight
blowing taps, frozen
tunnel of love
the strongman and bearded lady
cow to the dark winds
train of ideas
cloud swept flyaways
rubbing bellies, slow together
entwined hot fire branches
dreamshake kaleidoscope
closed eyes, travel to the other side
I awaken in a rust-boot chair
smiling jowls of an ageless-aging fool
saluting the beach blanket bongo bingo breach
R Ride
i died last night
swept away in some dirty shack, dark sea storm
faces and places shipwrecked pasts
crashing into my night waves
i feel good when i go there
tonight
bottle of sweet red wine, or king louie’s can-can oil
ma earth giving humanity sharp right hook
fog smacked world, fuck it
dr sargebait dropping medicine bombs
on pretty docile dolls,, sweet swab queencakes
eskimos laying out welcome mats
sea polar bears took a wrong turn
swig my way to the night burgundy shores
well-lit wharf rats,fudge sundae carnivals
past the sword swallower dens,
speed of night, rebirth in a moment
a quasar
… ride
Poet and musician, Michael D. Amitin travelled the roads of the American West from California- east through the smoky burgs and train depot diners of Western Colorado, where he lived before moving to Paris, France. Recently named International Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2021, Amitin’s poems have been published in California Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, North of Oxford, PoetryontheLake, Love Love Magazine, Litterateur, and others. A current collaboration with Parisian photographer Julie Peiffer has given rise to the “Riverlights” project. and can be found at Riverlights.art
