All Aboard The Titanic: Destination Desolation Row

All Aboard The Titanic: 

Destination Desolation Row

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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 pessimist and optimist have become meaningless and dead

“What shall we ever do?”

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 instructions to direct people

all spirits melted into 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 in 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 and chiseled “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 two lads swinging

How beauteous humankind is

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

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?

cruellest 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

Just my friends on Desoöation 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

Thought I was over my madness 

With your baptism

In the sea I sink

"Between the Windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow."

I take my seat on the Titanic

Knowing the journey will end soon

And home will be with the fishes and mermaids.

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

***

Awoke realizing we are all sailing oblivious on the Titanic. We are so sophisticated we foul our bed and destroy our habitat. So advanced the human species. 

Feeling sad and lonely, I returned to my friends on Desolation Row. Feel at peace now and return to bed, April 7, 2020 at 3:19 am.

May we realize we are just moving the furniture on the dock of the Titanic. May we awake while there is time to change course.

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David Arndt 2022

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Artwork Graham Foster