Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

Blog from Outpost Four

Stasis was what
we were
promised–prelude to plentitude,
Fistful or orange
Sunrise and pain pills.
Afternoon shadows ripped
away
nipped, snipped just above

where they grew,
since some Elder supposedly
knew a way to collar them
short, vectors
and vacuums, giant scissors sluiced
by hydraulics like the amber juice
from some dessert
baking, a crunchy cobbler snarkily
curdled, ladled

with Creamsicles and mud pie
onto court jester bootie floats
of scones
from Reykjavik.

Haters gonna lie,
said one of our
best bakers, sending puffs
of flour suddenly
Airborne
like clouds of censer smoke from
the dusting-off
palms of a Pope.
Palms of a Pope or lowly arch
priest, at the very
least we can all
agree
we were sold a sack
of lies?
One of those purple
Crown Royal things
with the black silk strings
that chokes
the tops,
and Neil Young showing up
In a helicopter saying
like, the show never stops
nor will we fade
away, which is only
what they pay him
to say,
every second day of August.
year after year, and still all
our gains
have been
modest, let’s please just be
honest, oui? Those jowls of Neil
Young like a french Canadian
Nixon, suddenly so
Incongruent, window
sills closing, Steven Stills
climbing
a fragrant haystack
in the back forty
making frilled cut offs
from long old 501 jeans,
watching the face of Neil
change
by gradients on a totem,
singing everybody look
what’s goin’
down,
–not exactly sugar
mountain here, nuh unnh, check back
next year, we were promised
balsa wood gliders, the barkers
and the colored
segueway into
Cinnamon Girl,
it aint happened just
yet
we’re all prepared
to abstain. See how
our rooster tail
weather vanes still
whirl.

 

Dennis Mahagin lives and writes poems in Las Vegas.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.