I was in this bar, you know,
not my regular one, just a place I go to sometimes
when I’m not in the mood to go to the bar I normally go to,
you know how it is.
I was having my second beer and watching the tv,
sort of idle you know, nothing much interesting,
when in comes this man and sits on the bar stool
beside me, and I turn around to him and I say,
"Hey, I’ve seen your face, or rather I haven’t, you know,
but I know you, I just can’t recall your name at the moment.
It’s just that I’m sure I’ve seen you before or rather I haven’t."
He nodded sadly and said, "That’s normal, it happens
to most everybody I meet these days."
So I say, "I know! You’re someone on tv."
But he says, "No, I am Jesus."
So I nod my head and I say, "Of course, that explains it."
Then he ordered a beer and we started talking
of other things, like the endless winter
we were having this year, and I noticed he had a
sort of depressed look on his face.
So after a while I say to him, "Look,
I hope you don’t mind me mentioning it,
but you seem to be looking rather depressed."
And he says, "Well, it’s true, I can’t really seem
to get a grip on myself these days, you know.
But don’t take notice, it happens to
everybody some time, I guess, and I’ll be okay
in a month or so, or maybe a century,
these things take a while.
It’s only I feel rather lonely, you know,"
said Jesus, "since daddy died."
"Yes, sure," I said, "I can understand,"
and not to embarrass him I started
talking of other things, like the price of
computers going down all the time
and nobody knowing
where it would all end.
-Martin Auer
Frightened and crazy,
never knew they were human,
eat garbage,
drink acid,
howl in the streets.
In the night they run naked
under the moon
and shit on cars
and mate on the asphalt.
Some try to shoot them,
but they’re hard to get at,
and you can’t really scare them
any more
than they already are,
that’s the trouble.
-Martin Auer
He always believed he could fly, you know.
Never acted crazy or talked to himself
or anything.
Hardly ever raised his voice.
Just an ordinary guy who sold cars for a living
and loved his dog and his wife and kids
in a quiet way.
Only sometimes, when some of the guys were bragging
‘bout their hidden qualities and what they would do
when they’d get their chance,
then maybe he’d smile just a little bit
and say quietly,
"I know I can fly."
And when somebody said,
"Do you really believe that?"
he’d say, "No,
I do not believe it, I know it."
And there was this silent glow in his eye
that kept you from pursuing the point
any further.
And anyway, most of us thought
he was only joking,
that it just was his way of
telling us not to show off so much.
None of use would have ever suspected
that one day he’d try it.
On his forty fifth birthday
he stepped off a balcony
on the twenty sixth floor of
the Ramada Hotel
and spread his wings.
His flight was short
and fatal, of course,
what did you think?
But on what was left of his face
was this silent glow
that told us
he had enjoyed
every second of it.
-Martin Auer
Once I loved a spider
When I was born a fly,
A velvet-footed spider
With a gown of rainbow-dye.
She ate my wings and gloated.
She bound me with a hair.
She drove me to her parlor
Above her winding stair.
To educate young spiders
She took me all apart.
My ghost came back to haunt her,
I saw her eat my heart.
-Vachel Lindsay
You loved me for a little,
Who could not love me long;
You gave me wings of gladness
And lent my spirit song.
You loved me for an hour
But only with your eyes;
Your lips I could not capture
By storm or by surprise.
Your mouth that I remember
With a rush of sudden pain
As one remembers starlight
Or roses after rain…
Out of a world of laughter
Suddenly I am sad…
Day and night it haunts me,
The kiss I never had.
-S. K. Russel
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour fortold
Sorrow to this.
In secret we met-
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?-
With silence and tears.
-Lord Byron
If-
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run-
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!
-R. Kipling
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
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