artwork: ralph murre
COWBOY DREAMS
by
A.D. Winans
I wake from a troubled night's sleep
My eyes burning
My
ears on fire
My
mouth glued to my gums
I
look in the mirror
At two tiny dwarfs
Sitting on my head chewing
On
bananas spitting out cornflakes
While
uttering profanities
In
an alien dialect that befuddles
The
President and his cabinet
Primping
for the election year
Promising
to cure the ills of the world
My
brain was in turmoil as the rain outside
Beat
down insistently on my eyelids which
Cowered
down below the equator of my eyebrows
Like two ripe grapes
Posing
for a simulated exercise in intercourse.
Outside
on the balcony
F, Scott Fitzgerald rubbed suggestively
Against Zelda
Who
was busy having an affair
With a cigar store Indian
Who
puffed smoke in the face of Ezra Pound
Who recited poetry to T.S. Eliot
Who
stared in amusement
At
the blurred image
Of 13 jazz musicians standing
stoop-shouldered
Against
a cardboard cutout
Of religious zealots masturbating
At the sight of the original Manager
Of religious zealots masturbating
At the sight of the original Manager
Which shatters with mushroom force
From
the barrels of toy guns
Handed
out in the streets of Riot
Town
I
take it for as long as my mind allows
Shake it from my head
With
an invisible broom
Made from leftover spider webs
Woven
out of abandoned dreams
From
the smoke filled pipe
Of
an opium lover
Who
died sprinting across
The
lawn of W.C. Fields
Rolled
over with laughter
At the sight of Charlie Chaplin
Clutching
a burlap sack
Made from lavender underwear
Sold
over the counter
By sexless fashion models
Clad in black leather
Boots
and matching caps
Stolen
from the wardrobe
Of Char and Madonna
Of Char and Madonna
Who
take pleasure
In
the back seat of a sports car
With a revved-up supercharger
Projecting
obscene image
Heaven
bound where
Societal
cowboys ride bareback
On gelded black stallions
Profess their tiredness
Of
Bob Dylan dreams
While
smothering the futility
Between
the crossed legs
Of
a smiling Buddha
~
previously published in Carmel Clowns
(Atom Mind Press)
