Small Town
The river courses through hardscrabble town
Where dancing angels work tendons against bone
Oblivious to the gangsters behind the shrubs
They prance on carpets of eiderdown and clover
Peeping toms with bulging eyeballs lurk
Adrift in a swamp of make believe
Their pounding hearts and filthy trousers
Their passions worn upon their sleeves…
Subtle Madness Come
A dancing calypso waltz
Under dewy evergreens
Love lost once will be found again
For the one who gives
Boiled down to bleached bone
Synthesized to the elemental
Simplified into but a nutshell
Neatly packaged in a small box
Dropped into the well of understanding
Drawn into a net of logic
Paralyzed by the incessant dream…
The angels flew overhead
And kept watch on the children
Their movements were gauged and charted
Their feelings were registered and tabulated
But oh for the lonely ones
How the road seems to go on and on
How the future always looks to be better
Until the next day comes and there’s nothing there
Those gentle stirrings of the supple soothing heart
Gave way to war and strokes of madness…
We breathe the summer air in so deeply
We feel it like the lances of the gods
The tests are wrought with traps and chimeras
A dreamer’s gaze to catch the moonbeam
And found a precious bed of down
Cursed by gods and men in madness
Brought around for delicious romp
Find the pearls in heaps of dung
I cast my line for sweet repose
And drown in subtle madness come…
Voices
Well there’s an undercurrent
At times an undertow
Beneath the surface the matrix
A lurking monster waiting
The thrill of the hunt of the kill
Be careful to tread softly
The highway you walk has been traveled before
For through the years of man’s wanderings
There has always been the need
For the eye the ear the voice
There is humor there is debauchery
There is love also
One can’t lose sight of the job
The eye the ear the voice…
They Make Wine
How does the beauty cast charm inspiring
Could be the lips and hint of danger
Could be the hips could be the hair
Cast belief beyond need
Find the real in the rose
Complacent in attitude
Intuitive in judgment
Reflective in madness
Dogged in damnation
Ragged with introspection
To capture something fleeting
To hold it in your hand…
The sea sinks ships and spawns great typhoons
The sky is dark in stormy crisis
And still you’ll see birds in flight
Gods are not subject to whimsy
They have sure agenda and make wine…
The Saddam Bush
There’s a crisis in the land of the martyred ones
Oil’s oozing up from sands baked by blazing sun
The asp lies coiled beneath a bed of fronds
While the east and west restructure their bonds…
The Long Road
It’s never as good as it looks
It’s never as bad as it seems
It’s never as glorious as sunrise
It’s never as sweet as lilac
What a long road it is
Where it leads is anyone’s guess
Just hang on for dear life
Hope not to fall to the side on curves
Or crash through the windshield at dead stop
Or fall back discouraged if rear-ended
There is no turning back
Once tasting flesh of the mango
Keep perspective alive and well
Cast that wary eye
Be more careful of the path
Signposts are everywhere
Markers exist as clues…
The Light Within
It’s as real as the love
Of a mother for her child
It’s as pure as the waters wild
Love is real and shines it’s light
For all with open eyes
We learn by wading in the pool
Then resting on the shore
We read each line page by page
But fail to see between the lines
And fail to see the light within…
The cross the pelican and the rose
The dream the dark the blade on edge
The lunatic the heretic the madman the skeptic
The soothsayer the priest and the gypsy
Boiling internal fires of doubt
The moth skirts the flames
The fiend the lamb the wolf in wait
Ah but how words fail so miserably…
The stubble the angst the stump fields
The dancing neutrinos inside your head
The prince and the scholar asleep in their rooms
The misfit and the dreamer cast eternal
Sport becomes the daily diversion
From what is real with import
The crisis real and unfathomable in scope
Blind ambition tied to deepest desires…
The Curtain
The curtain hides movements
Cloaks the relationships
Smothers the significant
Drags our demons forth
Captures the heart of the beast
Flinging truth in our face
Breaking even the strongest
But before the flames
The rooted stand fast
Refusing the temptations
Temptress come in all forms
Once awalk on the path
There is no turning back
The hounds keep company of the moon
To howl in the walpurgis night
Their masters only delude themselves
No beast be master of another
In nature we walk side by side
We step into the fire
Or we sit by it and learn
And gaze into the flames
Love falls from the heavens
We are awash in the rains
And how to speak of illusion
When you want something badly enough
Ye shall have sans self…
The Cloak of Mystery
So you ask whatever happened to peace and justice
If you read the history books you’ll see that
Peace is the exception
Whatever happened to peace and justice
It exists only in the hearts and minds of the few…
Millions wake to corn flakes and TV
The masses dance to their MTV
Not to forget those who find in drugs
The gods they always wanted to know
Oh sweet catharses mellow mushrooms…
Wandering through this fairy tale
To hell with the crazy motherfuckers
Grounded in meadows of daffodil dreams
And the splendor of childbirth
The drama of living has wound me in knots…
She wears the cloak of mystery
And dances with the ghost of faust
You hear her banjo plucking songs
And see her in her darkest moods
Some boys follow like dogs in heat…
So you think you’re hot shit
Cause you taught the bird to talk
And you think you’re a wit
Cause you taught the dog a trick…
And you think you’re a genius
Cause you’ve got perfect pitch
And you think you’re so special
Cause your banknotes grow each day…
You’re assured a place in heaven
If you’re home tonight by seven
Puffed up like a water balloon
Gorged with vanity’s sweet excess…
For prayer and song and a life so long
And cruel the hands the keeper waves
Taught from birth great social skills
Wearing puff fish silted beard…
Living in the new dark age
Where null and void the chosen rage
Where being bad is all the fad
When morning comes the paperwork waits…
The Card Game
I’m not sure it matters
How you play the cards
What’s important is that you play
There is posing
There is madness
A turning within
Some things are kept secret
Some things are a mystery
Some things we just don’t speak of
The turning within can lead to paradise
But it can also lead to ruin
Beware of soothsayers
Beware of false history
Beware of wild dogs
If you have a torch
Carry it proudly
Illuminate the squalor
Capture the essence of being
With delicate furious maddening song
A capsule in which all history
All feeling hurt and passion flows…
I heard it said in many a place
Seek and ye shall find
Some know left from right
Some avoid all detours
And stay on their chosen path
Traipsing through the walkways
Catapulted off the bedrock
Into the fires of hell
The shape of things to come
So mesmerized by TV and fashion
Oblivious to it all
Beseech the gods for rest
Glide in the grandest mistress of waters
Tempestuous stream of flowing dreams
Each frame clicking as automatons pass
The wild escapade of man’s folly
It’s bizarre at once and yet so commonplace…
The Biker
Woe to the badass in leather chaps
The chain driving his horse is about to fail
Fragments fly here and there through the air
Fuel tank punctures spine takes shrapnel
The highway jumps to meet his flesh
And make a brand new thin red line…
He’s seen glory been down and dirty
Fought tooth and nail in the poolhalls
But on this lonely stretch of asphalt
All hopes diminish for prosperous future
He’d lived and loved and known ecstasy
And finally found peace on highway 63…
Streetscape
God is a comic genius
The old town lay beneath thick smoke
I scanned the street for signs of life
Can’t feed the family can’t feed the cat
I’ll kill the bastards with a baseball bat
The man on the street tried to understand
Just why he should offer a helping hand
It’s dog eat dog as a general rule
And that applies to you know who
The past is gone like the early dawn
Rain moves in out from the west
On the one hand it’s a beautiful day
But sure as here and now there’s a
Storm on the way
On the one hand it’s a beautiful world
Hit the skids in Houston
Lost it all at cards
What happened to war
Where are the soldiers
Who are the resistors
Is the holster empty
And the barrel rusted
Have the calluses turned soft
While silenced voices wrapped up
In cozy blankets of
Suburban safety and security
I’m letting my imagination run wild
To the unknown
Wanna live in harmony with the rest of the goats
The pasture’s bare cause we’ve over grazed
The keeper seems to have long ago passed away
It’s dirty battle from morning to night
The nights are filled with nightmare and dread
The stars in the sky used to serve to give hope
Each new moon shone on the western slope
This bed is warm and the stomach happy
Still there’s the mystery of all these dreams…
Sans Love
With such purpose walk men
To keep their gears in mesh
But their machines do damage deep
The price to pay is past
For all technology’s advance
The soul of man came last…
Sans love even the titans fall
Sans love small children will cry…
Time in passing opens doors
Prophets of doom and horror
Become messengers of love
From dungeons dark and dank
Escape the peaceful doves…
Power To Survive
Madness lurks beneath the surface
Waiting for chance
To strangle slash and break
The strongest who come forth…
It’s tragic and it’s comic
It’s somewhere in between
The dance becomes the crawling snake
The death the peaceful sleep…
Point and Click
The virtues of patriotic fervor pale
When doused in the flames of compassion and love
Nationalistic pride doesn’t mean that much
When considering the family of man…
We’re all in the same boat for better for worse
There’s no way out but there is a way beyond
We keep on bailing and then we tread water
Hoping to experience some human bond…
Herd intoxication brings us to the crest
The big boys point their guns and fire at will
The targets seem to shift like the desert sands
Does it really matter who you want to kill…
Black white brown or yellow somewhere in between
Doesn’t matter when it’s time to pay the bill
There’s plenty to go around on this planet…
Point and click point and shoot
Show the dude the heel of your boot
Step inside or walk away
Hope tomorrow’s a better day
Competitive spirit’s alive in the ether
Bury the bastards who won’t submit
Control and manipulation’s alive and kicking
The planet keeps on hoping for a rest from it all…
One Wish One Reward
I wished upon a starry night to know a god of love
My fight was done the feet were soaked eyes hurt from the sun
Though yet a man my knees were soft my conscience dwelt in fear
Like swollen gourd my pride lay still the frost come to burst
Rare heart of mine so full of song screamed out for lighted path
Oh god of gods oh god of men come tear me from this curse…
Musings
The last time I saw you
You were standing on a street corner
Grappling with the rain
Elderly keeper of time
Kindly and toothless grin
Balance so shaky but sure
Worn from years on the road
Old man with not much to say
Does your face wrinkle up
When you laugh a lot…
Bunk me down with a diamondback
Spit polish my boots by the morning light
Been searching long been taking time
Got saddle rash and a neck like leather
A tenuous grasp of reality
And a sloppy sense of virtue
The drifter wears the uniform
First choice Spokane second choice Cheyenne
Catch me if you fuckers can…
Where did the homeland disappear to
Who cut down the oak forests
Who ripped up the hemlock wood
What souls were here when the buffalo grazed
Who followed and with peace is blessed
The followers carry their banners proudly
They suffer the cold winds of the gawkers
And suffer gladly the whip of the rowdy
Were peace on earth the goal of man
All laws and rules could easily bend…
So sometimes we trip and even break a limb
Sometimes we stumble sometimes we fall
Sometimes we’re tricked sometimes we’re clumsy
We tripped on a rock and cracked our heads
We fell in quarries of granite doubt
My lover holds me close not to worry she says
The farther you fall the greater the prize…
Sometimes we’re angry sometimes we’re enraged
Sometimes we’re bored other times amazed
We crawled up the mountain and saw the reflection
I’m not so erratic as to think it was god
I punch the time clock don’t wanna get docked
I stagger to my desk to take the day’s first request
Stanley good morning could you search out a file
I know you’re behind but please pretty please
You’re my only sunshine on this dreary day
We’re so lucky here that you know your way…
Middle East Sands
It’s a classic scenario
Little boy gets all puffed up
Doped on martyrdom and mayhem
It’s time to rectify things he utters
This sad situation of sheikdoms…
The gilded palace trembles before the god
Across the desert roll armored columns
From foot soldiers and Arabian stallions
Magically transformed into belching tanks
Words don’t do justice but bullets speak loudly…
And oil rests in subterranean vaults
Then courses through the network of veins
Of the little boy all puffed up with pride
The prophets were very clear in their musings
They knew much and chose their words carefully…
These events are timed in strict accordance
To wondrously plotted logical scenarios
You’ve got to hit bottom my son
If you want to picnic on the peak
Where eagles roost and make perch…
Knowing the abyss helps you avoid the falls…
The common threads that tie man to man
Pulled taut in times of war and madness
Man makes war against woman
Woman makes war against man…
On the sands of middle east fiefdoms
Beware said the prophets and soothsayers
History is a wondrous teacher
Be careful when you reach to touch
The flames are ever within reach…
Many Questions
So much sadness walking these streets
So many stifling vapors filling the air
Careening vehicles of despair in the morning
Making mad rush to the temple of glass and steel…
The original archetypical office worker
Born in a cave sometime in the distant past
He or she kept track of pigments and bone
So much to experience so much to become…
So many cats seated comfortably in their rockers
So much sadness in this metropolis hellhole
Yeah there is beauty and excitement abundant
But we still must rise for the day’s dirty work…
To feed the child to feed the spouse and self
And yearning for something undefined but real
Reaching for and touching what is bizarre
The cosmos spins and fills our heads with madness…
And we can fall only so far before the pause
And then to climb right back out for more applause
We need capital we need resources we need wine
We seek that fine balance between animal and man…
Just a Normal Earthling Day
All you need of tragedy heartache and misery
Yours if you visit planet earth
Endless tests and trials to boot
All the guns you can shoot
Pestilence and famine for mirth
But don’t forget to write home once in a while
And try to hang on to that winning smile…
All the insensitivity you can imagine
Yours if you buy a ticket now
Carte blanche injustice as well
To cause your heart to swell
Don’t worry it’s no sacred cow
And don’t forget to jot down a verse or two
It won’t hurt to feel just a little blue…
All the petty bickering will make you laugh and cry
You’ll surely be astounded if you go
It’s a bottomless pit of angst
And awaits your arrival
Imagine your astonishment when you
Gaze upon the fruited plains
The flowing milk and honey’s sure to
Bring you to your knees
And think how rewarding it’ll be
To see people who are actually homeless…
All aboard!
Horror Show
Don’t care for the money-grubbing power-crazy slave-traders
Dealers in the flesh blood and souls of the softly spoken ones…
We’re cursed by the wheel spinning profit taking missile merchant
Monsters born to tighten nooses round the necks of the people…
We’ve been tricked stabbed kicked to the ground by venom-spitting robbers
Born of fetus smashing brain digesting child molesting mothers…
Trained to crush our spirits drain our bodies use our time for selfish gain
While they twist our spines to fit their needs to feed their frenzied…
Misguided hellish featured self-centered offspring
Who needs horror shows on film? When they exist in reality?
The greenback-driven viper-toothed sword slashing pimps
Wandering kingdoms of starving freezing dying hordes…
Her Love
Her love is like a double edged sword
It cuts and carves and heals
She’s the quiet brook become the rapid
She is the dawn become the dusk
She is the meadow become the rift
And her anger tears me asunder
Yet in my forlorn wanting her always
Her love is release and stranglehold
Her love casts charms and damns fools
Precious to me like no other…
Enigmatic Drifter
Change in his pocket and a blade in his boot
A hat on his head with a snakeskin band
The road is rough and the sun burns hot
Still it’ll do as the promised land…
He won’t ride in on the back of an ass
And he won’t appear in your darkest dreams
He won’t swoop down from the western sky
And he won’t be party to your schemes…
Scars on his fingers and a scab on his cheek
A bird’s nest riding atop his brain
This life is paved with comic twists
Dare forget it and you’ll go insane…
He won’t be waving a banner and cross
And he won’t be sitting on a golden throne
He won’t send sinners right off to hell
He’s like no one you’ve ever known…
He won’t hold council in the Vatican
Though he might praise paupers and popes
He’ll curse the way man’s ruined this land
While cutting down the hangman’s ropes…
He’s surely as human as the rest of us
He laughs and cries and feels anger too
He isn’t perfect and surely never was
He’s sometimes confused about what to do…
Doors and Walkways
With historical perspective doors open
Doors normally closed but to few
Balance in one’s mind so essential
That one might be attune to the subtle…
Within the matrix flow rich streams
Filled with the curious and absurd
Much hinted at yet carefully obscured
Not without great effort does one perceive…
For both within and without stand guards
Watchful and silent yet gentle and kind
The humorous obvious the tragic self-evident
Men believe what they want to believe…
Sailing off into the damning seas
Some recover to return to safe harbor
Others are found at the bottom of the sea
Men believe what they want to believe…
A reasoned approach balanced with feeling
Acute understanding of cause and effect
Leads to canyons of majestic truths
And in dreams the signs and guiding lights…
Dichotomies
There’s nothing abnormal in being misunderstood
It’s the way of men and the downfall of fools
The beaches are littered with starfish and shells
And so many plans fallen or gone astray…
So many highways left to ruin and sagebrush
I long to lay in your arms this night of fallen calm
For every star shining there’s a part of me in you
And a part of you tied to this levitatious soul…
There’s no tragedy in the sufferer’s burden
In fact it’s a blessing to feel so completely
And to see and hear what others might not
If charmed it’s given one must be cursed…
Lest we forget soon how mortal man rests
In splendor so special and wrought with angst
In darkness there is light there is shade of grey
Take the fruit of the equatorial jungle in hand…
Feed or fling them at your deepest fear
Drop from thick canopy to shoulders of man-apes
Moaning glorious profusion of passion for god
Tried tested taught tripped on piano wire schemes…
Whether of men or gods or somewhere in between
It remains to no one to know or even to grasp
A delicious extreme in the endless mind of man
Driven to despair or holy house within…
Brought to doorways reserved for the least and few
Where the yearning of hearts in hollow and hurt
Fall and rise with the tide of the moon
For love to weep lust wander and swoon…
Deep In Snow Cave High
With spunk and flirt long sideways glance
Voided solid ground for wobbling vertigo
Some luscious flavor from the deep japan flow
She called to me with a whistle toot
Snared in rabbit wire sloshing through deepest snow
Caught a shot of the moon smiling through oak woods
Pirate memory arid thought of day to come
Kippers fill my tins hardtack drowns my thirst
Saw a rabid dog waiting by the log for hares
Snow dome frozen by the light of this night’s moon
Heard the critters in their dialogue
Watched through portal running dog go hungry
Restless is the game pursuit
My mother’s knitted socks keeping ankles warm to toes
Postpone my prayers till I’ve seen the chase abandoned
Rest easy deep repose on sugar pine and holly
Memories child and thoughts dread surely pass quick time
Melodies lull me off to sleepy time by hickory fire
In dreams an owl swoops close to shoulder
While howling hooting wings beating wildly
Don’t cast no dirty glances son beware
Be sure to know your footing well…
Cynic’s Lament
Tempt me with cake baby isn’t it cruel
I’ve been standing outside in the rain
I’m green or I’m blue but I’m no one’s fool
These feelings are likely to wane…
Open your purse and the dollars drop out
I’ve been poor since the day I left home
I’m queerer than strange and is what it’s about
My only possession’s a worn out comb…
For sure there’s a trick under saffron blouse
A glint in your radiant eyes
I feel like a king but without a house
A snake without a place to coil…
The scarab the pelican the rose and the cross
The ship’s run aground on the rocky shoal
All hope is lost all sanity forsaken…
Confused Child
So a child was born with ten marks against it
And given to know nothing of faith and gods
Not only in ignorance this child grew of age
But with complete faith in nothing but the world he saw
No zen masters no fire and brimstone
No touch from the hand of the righteous and faithful…
Each day brought trial and great misfortune
This child saw the needy spat on and taunted
He saw the less fortunate brought to their knees
His own feelings were there as instruction
But never did he suspect a thing
The wars were fought daily and brought him pain…
He couldn’t understand the meaning of it all
And sought to find answers to basic questions
Is there a reason is there an answer
Is there a god and what the hell for
Would god make threats would god make war
Would god block the way through the golden door…
Wouldn’t god want to hide in the bushes
And watch with interest the folly of man
That god’s no slouch that god’s no fool
God knows the game and is the master
The circus master in control of his lions
The tamer of beasts the archetypal manager…
Biblical Sense
I fancy to know you in the biblical sense
But when we’re together you seem so tense
A line’s been drawn I’m forbidden to cross
To all involved it’s a terrible loss
Sleek and powerful lean and efficient
A graceful figure cut in jade
Been playing with words and hatching schemes
Flinging ideas from left to right
The probable as opposed to the absurd
The relative darkness inherent in light
I’m green with envy of your intelligence
But when we’re together you seem so tense…
I fancy to know you in the biblical sense
I’ve walked this far think I’ll stick around
Well there’s darkness in the light
Everybody’s got some bones in the basement
And the gals out on the rodeo riverboat
Poured up some juju while dropping hints
No one’s seen the housecat or the old grey rat
Well the fire’s in glacial palace walkway
In the basement in the closet in the attic
Don’t sit there teetering on the fence
When we’re together you seem so tense…
Copyright © 2023 by CP Butchvarov