Edge of Town

On the edge of town
Transient visitors drift
Naloxone in pocket
Idly awaiting a bus
On which to vanish

A dealer in relief
Peers from within a
Darkened
Dilapidated
Rooming house
Efficiency
Where worn blankets
Sub for curtains

Concerned only with
One transaction
Distanced
From puppeteers
Who hide behind
Gated walls
Tight security
Quietly surveilled exits

While they play
On stylish paddocks
Sipping expensive champagne
Surrounded by beauty
Built from hollowed
Lives

Souls counted as
Useless
Wasted
Unworthy

True
“Nothing Good Happens at the Edge of Town”

Just for a Moment

Just for a moment
I saw you in dreams
Alive and awake
Breathing and laughing

Regaling me with stories of your escapades
Of baseball
And spelunking
Getting covered in mud
On your dirt bike

That you had to sell
To accelerate
Toward a new life
Just for a moment

Just for a moment
I watched your videos in my dreams
Reel to reel projected
An epic featuring the two-man wheel
Giggling its way across the sand
The tale of countless hours spent with friends
Building a plywood jump
That launched only laughter
Collapse and more laughter

Just for a moment
I saw you in those goofy blue
Max Headroom glasses
Holding a mouse
The white rapper
Vested and invested
Charisma so powerful
Attracting moths to a flame
Just for a moment

Oh, that laugh
So expectant that somehow
You’d step from behind the veil
Cameras pointed
Audience aghast
It was only a dream

Just for a moment

Refuse Mediocrity

Forcing thoughts from within
Childlike pout awaits clarity
Formless and helpless
Spirit filled
Eternal wisps tease synapses
Hints of mint-scented ions
Barely perceptible

Cultivated talent
Pushes to improve
Challenges stagnation
Refuses mediocrity
Opens minds to enlightened conversation
Insists on challenge
Insists on change
Insists on cooperation
and portent and rage and
Blind faith
Supports violent improvement
Lives purposefully

©50Figment ~ All Rights Reserved.

Photo Courtesy: Caters News Agency, Martin Rietze, photographer

Wild World

I strolled through the market
Glancing at random for treasure

A summer breeze lilted
Coaxed Hollywood style
By a shoulder high
Wind maker

Lost in knick knacks
Hand-crocheted doilies
Paperback books
Brick-a-brack
Old postcards and Coca Cola memorabilia
That beckoned me
To buy

The shop keeper placed
Tea for the Tillerman
On the turntable
With a click and spin
Wild World
Drifted in waves over shelves full
Of antique toys
Old license plates
And furniture that once
Held someone else’s junk

And it’s breakin’ my heart you’re leavin’
Baby, I’m grievin’

Turned corners and wound through
Dream catchers and feather boas
Reflected from framed
Prints depicting long forgotten
Scenes in black and white

It’s hard to get by just upon a smile

Melancholy overwhelmed me
I remembered a love letter
Corny and romantic all at once

Plagiarized words
Designed to steal my heart
But it was already stolen

But just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware
Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world

*Italicized lyrics ~ Cat Stevens
©50Figment 2016 ~ Kimberly Kratz