Sing to Me

The singing armadillo and the rat child were nowhere to be found, and Bernie was in a rage. How could two of the most profitable freaks in his side show just walk away, especially since he locked them in their cages at night? No, it wasn't humane, but Bernie was anything but humane. He was a foul feeble man with no heart and an appetite for fried chick peas. And now, as he drove around the streets of Hobbs, New Mexico in his beat up old pickup cradling a sawed-off shotgun in his lap, he was nursing a mean streak bent on violence and vengeance. After all, it was he who had saved the rat child from the orphanage in Tijuana (well, maybe abducted was more appropriate) but still, the strange little being would never have been adopted and likely had lived a horrible life until a premature death caused by the advancing symptoms of its disease. And that damned armadillo. No, it didn't actually sing, but the noise it emitted when a faint electrical current passed through its body was somewhat melodious and people would pay to hear it, as stupid as that might seem. Up ahead, Bernie saw the flashing lights of a police car, and using his criminal instincts to their fullest, slipped his shotgun under the seat of the pickup. As he rolled by the scene, he saw the rat child's body crumpled in an insignificant heap and the armadillo crouched on top, it's teeth bared to prevent anyone, including the patrolman with the drawn pistol, from bringing further harm to his dear and loyal friend. Bernie started to roll down the window to offer his help when the sound of the patrolman's pistol rang out. With no hope of recovering any of his investment, Bernie swore and pressed the accelerator down, heading back to his Traveling Circus of Curiosities and Monstrosities, Featuring the Remarkable Rat Child.

Of course, the sign would need to be revised.

overheard

Dog would fit in a teacup. It was the Heinz 57 of dogs - all the breeds of dog in the world was in it. Darn dog was chewin' the tires off the lawn mower.

o the ozark mountian daredevils

When the man comes to you
tells you what you always knew was comin'
you feel it came twice as fast
you always thought the world would last way past you
but now you find, there's nothing left around you
Spaceship Orion's there, waiting to part the air above you
waiting to take you
waiting to place you
in a world exactly different
from the one you leave behind
if you find it then you're lucky
but it still won't be the same
it can't be like home
it can't feel like home
'til you're there

w hy th e ra g e , s o n

It seemed as though the Prozac, the Effexor, the Paxil, the Zoloft, the diet & exercise, the whiskey, the flower extracts, the deep breathing, the cold showers, the tears, the talking, the pleading, the so on, and the so forth had not quite solved the deeply inherent issue inside the bio-chemical imbalanced mentally erratic brain of one Disco Wantanabe, who, for as long as he could remember, thought things would turn out differently.

Turkey Sandwich

`

pigeons in sky

a man with short legged pants
scurries by

a dog grabs
for an old crust of bread

the human on the leash
looks bored

trains in the background
sound forlorn

under bridge shadows
merged with blacktop
footsteps fall

slow day

lunch time
evolves