Cosmic Spec

Earlier today, the wind whipped the freshly fallen snow up like a wave and it crashed on the road. Schools are closed and the streets remain mostly empty. Except for the few people driving around with probably no place to go. I walked to the mailbox just as the clouds started to move away and a sun filtered through the evergreen and think of Antarctica. That's not what Antarctica is like; it is more barren, more open, more wild.  It's a place like Mars or the Moon, that feeling of awe and discovery.

I often think about what it would feel like to go to the Moon. Standing there looking at Earth the same way I stand in the yard looking at the Moon. Sure there are pictures, but it never is the same is it? Unless you see it for yourself.  I try to imagine what it would feel like stepping off a lunar vehicle. I'd like to take off a glove just to feel the vast coldness. But I also like both of my hands where they are.

In all this thinking, my mind is creating new worlds and recycling old people. When I dream at night they are there mixed together in some underground heated spring on the Mexican American border. They say that you only dream of people you have seen, even for a brief moment in passing. I would like to believe it but these are strangers. And often my dreams run like movies. I am more of a passenger. Sometimes, I am the lead. Sometimes, these dreams tumble together and it finds its way on paper.

I can't help but think of an apocalypse. There's fascination there as well. The people that survive. I like to believe I am one of those people. There's a lot of untouched universe out there and on Earth. And I remember I am just a cosmic spec.

Firebox

Fancy lipstick and Chinese knockoffs
Iron hot lust and sanctuary 
Rebel against the tide.
Eden calls and waits
But you throw confetti
Over your shoulder, make a wish and
Xerox paper hearts for boys to shred.


***
I decided to write an acrostic poem today. It's been a while.

Reboots

The other day I watched the pilot of Roswell, the reboot of the original series from the 90's, and just like the new Charmed, it was lacking any of the qualities of the original shows. Reboots, of course, are not new. I would assume producers are looking for easy money. Why not reboot Charmed and Roswell because they were popular with Gen X and older millennials so why not remake those former fans will watch with their kids.

I am left wondering, why reboot anything at all. It seems like every reboot I see is terrible. Maybe I am just nostalgic. And Hollywood needs to make money. This is why Disney makes nine million of the same series with their recent acquisition of more superheroes. You can be sure that there will be Spider 926. There are more CSI's then one can count. Everything feels the same. Of course, they are popular because the masses eat this stuff up.

Doesn't anyone want anything new anymore instead of the same old recycled crap? If you ever read Feed MT Anderson,  the main character talks about the same bland toys his little brother plays with. I haven't subscribed to cable in more than a decade because everything is always the same.

There are thousands of writers with unique stories and screenplays and are passed because no one wants to take a chance. Everyone wants the sure thing.

Anyway, aren't you all tired of the same old same old in entertainment options?

Till next time...

Jet Star Jockey by JM Scott Free in all Kindle Markets Through January 25, 2019

Hey all, Look at me sticking with a posting schedule. Just a few more months and I might have created a habit.

Anyway, Jet Star Jockey is FREE in all Kindle markets through January 25, 2019. It contains 52 poetry collages. Can you believe this book is three years old? Nor can I?



I have another project in mind, but I need to finish the giant project for my Pinterest board, One Book- 300 poems. At the rate I am going, that project won't be done for 2 years. I am hoping to bump it up once I graduate in March.

Here's a sample from Jet Star Jockey. If you grab a copy, why not leave a review. Enjoy.

New Millennium Anthropocene

Diversion is an epidemic
and confidence howls in the mist
the storm sweeps away the swing vote
umbrage over the freeway

Like a sleepwalker at recess,
I strike the honeymoon
confidence with phytoplankton.

Millions of wetlands are five-starprosperity
mercury savors the sea.

What’s the story?
The metaphor of cardinals ‘
the blackout of bread and circuses
impress the polygraph
gold never lies but transitions
in portholes from sunken ships
buried in Bethlehem.

From the decanter, I drink
the hush and decompress
while waves wash over
broken bottle sea glass.

Darkness of the Forest

Today, I went to the Seneca Nation in Salamanca, NY. To get there, we have to go through Route 219 which takes you through the Alleghany National Forest. I was hoping to elk or even a bear roam through the woods. Not lucky today.

We started back well after sunset. Bradford has a refinery and the smoke pours into the night sky. It is not as cool as the refinery in Chester where flames shoot from the tops of the stacks. The refinery is huge and they have a weird slogan? Principles? One of them is "have fun". I am not exactly sure why anyone should be having fun at a refinery. But it makes you think about before like how it was in the 60's and 70's. Except for the refinery and the Zippo factory, it seems forgotten.

The highway is smooth and mostly empty at 7:30 pm. Bradford disappears in the rear view mirror and there is nothing but blackness once the forest opens up. The Allegheny National Forest's sign has vintage yellow lettering from the 1950s with the dept of agriculture underneath on a brown background. Like stepping into another time.  The half moon barely sheds light on the road, the white and yellow lines are faded into the salt-encrusted blacktop. But the mountains are a thicker black, silhouetted against the dark, starlit sky. Small little villages that have small little signs and you forget the name of it as soon as you leave. A radio station with a white hound comes out of nowhere and vanishes into the black mountains.


Ridgeway is long forgotten and maybe at one time, it was a great town to live in. I can see the people wandering downtown Ridgeway. Most of the brick buildings are empty and hold whispers of another time. I wonder what happens to towns when they die. Do they come back to life? What if they never do? These are things I think about when I am working on my apocalyptic mini stories.

Sometimes, I love the darkness of the forest. The silence of memories, of towns, the night sky. A place hiding in the forest.

Till next time...

Bucket List

I drove around the streets of the neighborhood I didn’t live in to look for the right person. People minded their business, doing their thing. I was looking for someone special.

Finally, I saw her. She came out a brick apartment building, alone and not on her phone. She was probably about 21 or 22. Beautiful, graceful, perfect.

I rolled down my window and called to her. She approached the passenger window, bent down to look in, and asked how she could help.

Before she could run or scream, I pulled the trigger and lodged a bullet in her head.

Let's Build that Wall If...

We build a wall along EVERY single border that the United States has.

Why stop at the southern border? Aren't we just sick of the Canadians coming over to this country with ideas of healthcare and paid leave? Working over here?

And Alaska... Sarah Palin says she can see Russia from her house. If that isn't reason enough to build a wall all around Alaska, I don't know what is.

Fortify islands with 30-foot walls on the Hawaiian Beaches, Gaum, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

East coast, west coast and the Gulf of Mexico is also vulnerable. Build a giant wall along the beaches. Including Mar a Lago.

If we are going to do it, might as well do it right.

We are told that there is no money for universal health care but money can be found for a wall.

We are told the military needs equipment but there is a lot of junk we don't use.

But...

But what about the people who originally come in on work or student visas and never leave? What about the ones who come by airplane and never leave? What about the people hiding in boats and sail across the Pacific. Or those who come hiding in tractor trailers and trucks right under Border Patrol's watch?

Tell me how does a wall stop those people?

So if he wants the wall around the southern border then wall the entire country. It only makes sense.

Maybe once we are done with those walls. Each state can build their own wall.

Sounds wasteful and stupid, doesn't it? Yeah, that's the point.

Till next time...

Air Sirens and Jiffy Pop

Air sirens went off again for the fifth time this week. I’ve met others while scavenging. We don’t talk much, we trade a little and then go our separate ways. When the first bomb dropped, I was prepping
the cabin while the family stayed home.  They’re gone now.

I found a perfect package of Jiffy Pop, built a small fire in front of city hall.  Bombs dropped in the distance like exploding lightning.

So buttery, so delicious as the bomb- fire expanded eating the horizon. Screams rise and fall. But I’m here for another day, might as well enjoy it.