Embarking On Desolation Rows Titanic

He said I swear I can’t

A man stood below calling out instructions, 

not to my face but to my thoughts

she cried with an inviolable voice

A lost piercing scream, I was filled with 

fear for humanity, all species, and the earth

I know nothing

I know only a heap of broken images

Both pessimists and optimists 

have become meaningless and dead

“What shall we ever do?”

the idea of belief is also a meaningless proposition

once something is known, it becomes common

bottles sandwich papers silk handkerchiefs  

cardboard man stood below calling out 

instructionsto direct  people

all spirits melted into the air

Dissolving into meaningless 

abstract words never know 

what you are thinking 

when habits dissolve

The nymphs sadly departed

Under the brown fog, winter dawn locked up

sea-wood fed with 

copper burned green and orange

dry stone no sound of water

down we went into the mountain area

stumps of time were told upon the wall

The wind crosses the brown land unheard

What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?

I did not find the Hanged Man

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows

the dead mixing memory and desire

Footsteps shuffled on the stairs 

A man stood and called

"Hast thou not dropped seedy 

hotels and bars across 

South America and returned 

finally to your garden?"

Then the owl began to cry

The garden became overgrown

I confront myself no matter how unpleasant 

O brave new world  moving in exactly 

the opposite directions life a pain-killer

The wind crosses the brown land; unheard is the guilt, from which your indulgence set me free

The captain says, “The ship is sinking."

Do you remember “Nothing? ”

The Titanic steams on

I look at my face, and it’s quite different

It’s elegant, intelligent. “What shall I do?"

summer nights, the nymphs are departed

the bat is hearing voices 

and believes these voices

a carvéd dolphin swims in sad light

Above two lads swinging

How beauteous humankind

no ego at all therefore 

no responsibility

"That corpse you planted last year in 

your courtroom must be on the stairway. 

Owls do cry when disturbed in their beds."

I had not thought death had undone so many

I end my song in heaven

And down we went actually 

seeing and hearing these gods

a crowd flowed over London Bridge  

so many children playing on the stairs 

who dropped from heaven

The solemn temples of  

Los Alamos Ranch School

"Are you alive or not?"

Nagasaki coming August 9

no sound of water, only there is a shadow 

which attracted the special attention 

of the officials, I saw suffer

Looking into his heart, I knew nothing

Will it bloom this year?

cruelest month breeding Lilacs 

out of the dead time

all the devils are here 

get on with it, I said

I knew nothing looking into the heart of light

Hast thou not dropped from heaven?

A heap of broken images

He kept us warm covering 

Earth in forgetful snow

In vials of ivory and a man 

stood below calling out instructions

goodly creatures are here

Have you ever dreamed?

Withered stumps of time flowed into her

Titanic sails onward

I know nothing

Only my friends on Desolation Row

I prefer the mad to the sane

Irrational to rational 

Chaos to order

And to remain 

non-existent

In the illusion 

of time and space

Where we all get lost

Again and again

I thought I was over my madness 

With your baptism

In the sea, I sink "Between the Windows 

of the sea where lovley mermaids flow."

I take my seat on the Titanic

Knowing the journey will soon end 

And home will be with the fishes and mermaids.

"And no one will have to think too much about Desolation Row."

***

I Woke, realizing we are all sailing oblivious on the Titanic. We think we are sophisticated, yet we shit our bed and destroy our habitat. So advanced the human species. 

Feeling sad and lonely, I, David Penn Trinley Arndt, returned to my friends on Desolation Row. I feel at peace now and returned to bed on April 7, 2020, at 3:19 am.

May we realize we are moving the furniture on the deck of the Titanic oblivious to the iceberg. May we all awaken while there is time to change course.