Missing Inaction
Summer
empties both barrels
--scattershot--
sunsplit concrete in
an empty driveway's knot;
radiator wind through
the locust's cast case;
empty rattles in and out
of threadbare lace.
Distant blur sky
dusts molting trees
with a fading away, a wasting disease,
the septic progress
of a powerless-walker;
empty like this
makes you
miss your stalker.
~July 2013
55 empty heat-deserted streets for the g-man
Random Musical Accompaniment
Photo: © joyannjones 2013
i dont miss my stalker at all...smiles. love the rhythm and rhyme of this...radiator wind, ha great description...summer just kinda meanders...waiting for a bit of cactus weed to blow through...smiles.
ReplyDeleteYeah well, except for you--it could *never* get that empty. ;_)
DeleteAre you describing summer or modern society? :)
ReplyDeleteNo matter, this is an excellent poem – it captures restless tension wonderfully. Desperate need that some how spawns nothing but emptiness. People so bored and lacking in imagination, they go out and do dumb things.
As Warren Zevon sang, "I'd rather feel bad, than feel nothin' at all". That feeling you're describing here, it ain't that pretty at all.
ReplyDeleteMistress of the Hedge and Unknown,
ReplyDeleteYou pinpoint what only an Oklahoma Summer can make one feel . And you do it in Rhyme Time!!!
Just another shining example of the magnificent talent that blesses the Friday Funfest.
Loved your oppressing 55
Thank You for playing, thank you for your loyal support, and have a Kick Ass Week End
Oh, this was as hollow and achy as an empty rain barrel, hedgewitch, hankering for some spit. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteYou totally nailed the mood in this one...it does feel empty, hollow....and hot! The high noon of summer.
ReplyDeleteEmpty rattles in and out... love that. I have never been to OK, but have read "The Worst Hard Time" a book that I still think about today. Have you read it?
ReplyDeleteIf and when you get a chance - HOW do you get a video on your sidebar? I have tried to add the gadget "Video Bar" but it won't let me select ONE. It is so frustrating as I want to highlight a few "newer" bands that are so cool... If it is too complicated, don't worry about it. :)
Thanks Margaret No haven't read it, but Grapes of Wrath paints a pretty clear picture. ;_)
DeleteAFA the vids--there is a gadget blogger has called HTML/JAVA --it's just a box into which you paste HTML code. (It's in Design>Layout>add a gadget>"HTML/JavaScript
Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog")
That's all I do--from youtube, use their embed code under share, just copy it and paste it into the gadget box after you've added it to your sidebar.
(Sometimes you have to change the size if your sidebar is extra narrow like mine--just check youtube's custom size box under embed and enter 350. Then copy the new code it auto-generates)
It sounds complicated, like all things computer, but is really easy, or I couldn't do it. ;_)
Off to try this. THANK YOU!!
DeleteWell ... I've never been to heaven, but I've been to Oklahoma ~~ in August! You describe the landscape well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'd visit my grandmother in Victorville, a small burb burning in the high desert on the road from LA to Vegas - this. That last line feels like roadrash after a spill.
ReplyDeleteSweltering nothingness. A great write.
ReplyDeleteThere's a great sense of humor here in the midst of that radiator wind - a dry wit as it were - very funny, really well done with the rhyme and form. I especially like the pure description here - it is simply so accurate as well as poetic - the sunsplit concrete is a lovely line following the double barrels and it not only carries out the metaphor in terms of the physical splitting--I also get that feeling of when one's vision is a blurring in the sun.
ReplyDeleteVery well done. I probably shouldn't tell you that we had two wool blankets last night up here in the mountains in New York and I really wished we'd added the down coverlet. It was hotter than usual last week though, even here, and very hot in NYC. k.
Thanks, k. I like doing these 55's because (like any tight form)they really make me work at clarity and balance--this as you can probably tell, started from just the last two lines, which were an ironic reflection--glad some of the humor comes through. Humor makes the bleak less barren and more tolerable---actually probably makes anything more tolerable. Hope your Friday goes well.
DeleteMolting trees! Funny! Empty IS empty, eh? & light enough to blow away.
ReplyDeleteI know that desolation. Thanks.
Great play on words in your title, and it is an effective lead in to your description of those kinds of summer days, when heat begins to affect the brain. Your 55s always have a strong focal point, and power of delivery. I note your addition of rhyming elements which makes this a very elegant piece.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kerry--your insight and kind words are always much appreciated. I've enjoyed the 55's you've done so far very much.
Delete"radiator wind." That is so vivid and precise.
ReplyDeleteOh, what great images, and the last line is gold! Though, I'm with Brian, I don't miss my stalker much at all! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat summer! Great descriptions.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to apply for the job.
ReplyDeleteIt's an unpaid position. Volunteer work, as it were. The hours are flexible, though.
DeleteThankfully I have the beach to go to! Sometimes complete strangers actually smile at each other - I know, crazy....
ReplyDeleteThe beach is just like that. The old gods laugh there, or something.
Delete