~drifting down that rat hole~
~he don’t want to go there alone~
~so he invents superman~
~trades women sex for drugs~
~gets the boys that way too~
~the world is his his stage is his world~
~everybody wants to see it~
~make him run~
~run away~
~die rockstar die~

~angels run away~ 
Is it only our lives slipping away or some inconceivable broken covenant made with gods come to punish us for lies told.  We struggle with our dragons, harm those nearest our hearts and homes.  Is any future worth the destruction of moment, a process whereby seeking we throw it away.

Last night he slept with her, his woman, experienced a connection of spaces, armor set aside, bartered for skin on skin, become one complete, whole again.  As he drove away, his mind retreated to a forest, to a canyon, where he heard her voice first and stared into the reflection of lightning in her eyes.

Reality is his gallows of hope, a death sentence to all inhabitants of dreams.  He said life was supposed to be fun, the puppet-master, thief of souls whose strings labeled, “dainty delights” were tripwires opening drop-doors to the dungeons of fun seekers’ hearts.

When he discovered she no longer cared, he offered himself to stand instead of the murderer, stood resolute before the firing squad, life, metal on metal, click, ready, aim.  He smiled beneath the blindfold.  Bullets cannot break a broken heart.  God damn all governors and their pardons.

No prayers aloud in this room, always, forever, the whispered lies born desperate, denied asylum.  He left his child’s eyes underneath the bed baptized in splashes of mother’s blood.  Each night alone is a fresh haunting, a crippled man in a crooked room.

The boy is afraid of chickens and spiders in the outhouse hole.  Voices laughing into his blind eye face became the home of the impossible dream where the woman would come to hold him tight against her breast, keep him safe from himself.          

Angels run away, angels run away.
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WordWulf
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Tom (WordWulf) Sterner © 

 
 
~soon after the turn of the century~
~Quodlibet won the Marija Cerjak award~
~for avant-garde/experimental writing~

~Quodlibet~
~The Hundred Bites~
~XIV~

 ~I got to bathe first because I was oldest~
~my brother bathed last~
~because he was second of eight~
~& loved the least~
~that old galvanized tub of water was cold~
~& dirty damned bad~
~by the time he was plunked in~
~he was never as clean as the rest of us~
~ah hell nobody knew why~
~lazy lyin’ good-for-nothin’ cuss~
~he was always punished first though~
~learned to take it standing up~
~leather whip belt on his bare bony ass~
~when he went to prison
~his training paid off~
~he knew how to survive & grow~
~in a house of hate~
~now he’s a damned good monster~
~experiential~

~XIV.  Community of the Damned~

~draw us a bath of muddy water~
~muted earth tones~
~name it life~
~stir in children’s laughter bubbles~
~a lifetime warrantee guaranteed~
~chromed steel handcuff~
~turn up the heat~
~amnesty for dead soldiers~
~a fistful of medals for families~
~who don’t give a damn anymore~
~left crying the nights~
~suffer us less~
~this cauldron steep~
~that we might achieve horizontal ascent~
~final resting place~
~become divided amongst a community of worms~
~with a sigh of relief~
~to belong at last~

http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©

Quodlibet was published by Howling Dog Press
 
 
~soon after the turn of the century~
~Quodlibet won the Marija Cerjak award~
~for avant-garde/experimental writing~

~Quodlibet~
~The Hundred Bites~
~XIII~
    

~early mornings~
~I would get up & walk across the road~
~half a mile or so~
~she’d have the coffee hot~
~Momma~
~having arisen before the sun~
~to feed her bawling maverick calves~
~some days I’d stand back & watch~
~listen to her talk to them~
~the critters she would rescue~
~then we’d share a cup or two~
~before a hard day of ranch work~
~in the red dirt Wyoming~
~I would trade a thousand tomorrows~
~right now~
~for one of those yesterdays with her~

~XIII.  Morning Voices/Music~

~a child playing~
~a man listening~
~ladies clinking coffee cups~
~the long leather of his weathered face~
~their graceful laughter~
~almost genteel~
~still the child’s fingers play~
~sorrow & gladness ride the man’s features~
~a lone tear slides down his cheek~
~stops to rest on the lips of his smile~
~what symphony of life this~
~such joy of morning living~
~instance of rapture simplified~
~complicity of random blessed event~

http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©
Quodlibet was published by Howling Dog Press

 
 
~soon after the turn of the century~
~Quodlibet won the Marija Cerjak award~
~for avant-garde/experimental writing~

~Quodlibet~
~The Hundred Bites~
~XII~

~given instinct & impulse~
~there is no need for prayer~
~in the wasteland~
~in the wilderness~
~condemned & godless~
~stark naked mind-scape~
~no face fits loneliness~
~so the masque is drawn~
~to paint its wearer~
~filter behavior~
~for those whose ego~
~demands they join the herd~
~the masque ain’t no~
~same thing different~


~XII.  Prisoner of Id~


~your skin fits you loose~
~like it is new~
~like it is made for someone else~
~have you lived there very long~
~is it possible you have dreamed~
~are your fingers~
~is your face~
~a very temple indeed~
~do you worship there~
~have you been a recent prisoner~
~in a house of love~
~the hunger of lost angels~
~lingers in the scars of your chains~

http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©
Quodlibet was published by Howling Dog Press

 
 
~Quodlibet~
~The Hundred Bites~
~XI~

~a man should stand up~
~& piss outside~
~whenever possible~
~enjoy private moments~
~away from societal restraints~
~claim what is his naturally~
~a root rite of birth~
~do it by himself~
~out of sight of others~
~or in the company of brothers~
~whom share his stand~
~ladies talking in the kitchen~
~steam rising in the cold outside~

~XI.  flesh & blood~

~how this man rapes me~
~she breathes~
~not against my will & yet so~
~he knows what I feel~
~which binds me of need~
~what frail stick am I~
~tied to the earth & rapt of feather~
~wings against his tongue to fly~
~eyes closed in a purple longing~
~that he might bruise my skin somehow~
~whip this flesh as spirit done~
~these blood~
~these lips offering at once~
~& denying commitment~
~spirit blessed & flesh be damned~

http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©

Quodlibet was published by Howling Dog Press
 
 
~she exists as a wisp~
~promise ~
~muse~
~a fast train rushing~
~its wind tunnel throat~
~backdoor thundering tornado~
~smoke & fire~
~unaware of his eyes ~
~what it means~
~muse~
~she dances into his sight~
~the zephyr blows her away~


~Zephyr Incidental~ 

~just beyond his hearing~
~her nuance spirit whispered~
~entranced, he paused to listen~
~as one hears angels, did he~
~close his eyes, dissolve his senses~
~allow her purchase on the tender-wall~
~that fantastic realm of being~
~deep inside & long untouched~
~wide-eyed & watchful as near-prey~
~at the approach of a new stranger~
~he was gifted & no predator she~

~whom paints clouds on the groundswell~
~invites a visage of heaven~
~into the everyday burrows of life~
~where gypsies & nomads all~
~a procession of high-stepping minstrels~
~wander the path of the last troubadour~
~his verses alive on trade-winds ~
~the limits of continents ignore~
~voices a-hum at the cradle~
~are the whispering mothers of life~
~angelic visions from the bottom of the well~

~it is difficult for flat-line thinkers~
~to imagine the circle of life~
~the undeniable & beautiful sameness~
~of shadows, cradle & grave~
~whose love owns the heart of a poet~
~may at once be blest & damned~
~a witness participant to ecstasy~
~exalted in the light of his words~
~a fall-me-down, pick-me-up dancer~
~whose idylls create & destroy~
~the otherwise past & undone~


http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©

 
 
~standing on the parapet~
~drifting~
~falling away~
~he combs his moustache~
~tries the lock on the door~
~he can’t get out~
~she can’t get in~
~he laughs at his own sex games~
~a prisoner of id~
~aware~
~startled awake~
~a leather thong about his throat~
~locomotives blasting through his mind~
~bird-speak in the outside yard of himself~
~darkness fails to quiet the night of leather wing & dervish whispers~

~The Danse/After Midnight~

Listening to a train again blowing down the tracks, his room has a window he refuses to look out of.  Do you have any idea of your timelessness, how you took his breath away in a single note of dismissal?

With pen in hand, he is strong.  He wields the slender instrument, uses it to dig holes in himself, with firm hand and quivering gait to pen mystery, bravely walk away, weeping to that monster awful shrieking whistle – God!  Damn those wandering tracks of love.

You tied a strip of rawhide around his wrist, kissed him sweetly in your poor lost house.  You smelled and looked lovely, asked him to leave so you wouldn’t have to say goodbye in the morning, in the blue morning, there to attend him, birds in the yard, creatures who speak a language he understands. 

It is the hour before midnight, a time of deep, blue/black darkness.  He is a leather wraith drifting down the road, climbing out of the muck of himself.  Established of ebon spirit, he experiences liberation, divinity, vulgarity of faith as he seizes the opportunity to finally know who he is, discover through crumbling walls of reality, the bare dangling roots of creativity, the mangled remnants of his self-worth tied inexorably to a lady lost, you, to yourself, in yourself, seeking.  He is not the knot of leather tied. 

He hears a child laugh while enjoying conversation in a room full of strangers.  This night he is claimed of shame, a man failed in the midnight hour.  He damns his tears their salty tracks, prays to deaf gods for the peace of leather dreams, faces the night alone in his icy human flesh. 

http://wordwulf.com
WordWulf
Inquiries: tracy@traceliteraryagency.com
& wordwulf@wordwulf.com
©artwork & words conceived by & property of
Tom (WordWulf) Sterner©

 

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