Saturday, July 28, 2007

Empty Closet

It was lousy Chinese take-out food, the noodles old and dry, but I was famished, hungry from accidentally fasting.....I twirled the lo mein with the plastic spork, and made little piles of soy stained snakes on my plate. The fortune cookie lay in it's plastic bubble, all perfect, and most probably stale, but keeping it's secret until dessert. I don't eat fortune cookies.


But I like the sound of snapping them open. One second in the life of a giant Rice Krispie. And I like the way the words fall out, perfectly printed in blue ink, and randomly selected from a box of a 1000 other fortunes, to land in my world. "The night life is yours".....


45 minutes later I was piled in the back of an SUV, heading for the double doors. It's homecoming night, every night, their faces smiling, up and down. "Glad to see you, Nice to meet you, How's about a beer, dear?" Friends. Lined up in a lazy circle around the bar. We play musical chairs. Where you are when the music stops, nobody knows. Telephone Tag. Stories passing between us like a party reefer, eyes growing bigger each time it's told until the truth is just a glowing ember in a pile of ashes. And we all know it. Throw our heads back and laugh. We'll fix it next time the story comes along....


"The night life is yours".....
Here in this windowless Friday night world, we leave our 9 to 5's, our coats, and our ghosts at the door. And for just a few hours...

we're free.....

36 comments:

david mcmahon said...

Yep, 48 hours is good enough for me, but 72 hours would be better!

skinnylittleblonde said...

ahhhh...to be free! Gawd, if only I was I dream of Jeannie, I'd fold my arms, blink my eyes & poof! I'd be right there leaving my ghosts behind & dancing on the concrete floor!

singleton said...

David....Oh 48 hours is just the beginning, every week-end should be three days long plus a morning! Fri-Sat-Sun and Monday morning!

SLB...I know, Bewitched! Twinkle,twinkle,twinkle.....I so very much wish we could make it come true!

drips of paint said...

ahhhhhh.....musical chair, it was such a long time ago!...very sweet

watched Perfume the movie last night .... an aromatic filthy visual sensation ....wake up happy & singing this morning ... lets make it last for a bit longer.

heavy work load coming next few weeks ... cookie said

Enemy of the Republic said...

I wish to know that feeling.

Anonymous said...

Fortune cookies are fun, but I think they would more fun if they were ominous, dark foretellings or just simply negative fortunes- here are some examples:
*your mother never loved you
*a bus will soon run over you
*your lover is cheating on you- RIGHT NOW!
*someone will cut your brake-lines within 10 days
*you think you can draw, but you can't

You get the idea. I think it would be great fun.

justacoolcat said...

I don't eat them either, but love to read them and add "... in bed"

Today the food was excellent Vietnamese and the fortune was about an unexpected bill or financial information arriving today.





(in bed)

Dan said...

Wouldn't it be cool if the fortune cookie, every now and then, said "Your meal today is free. Just give this coupon to your server."

eric1313 said...

I'm starving for some carryout, now.

Sounds like you party in style, Singleton. Sounds familliar. You know how that is


Ying Yang Full Moon
E313

The circle...

with a round of cowboys
and a few words
to get the story
to catch fire
like oilfields
on a made for TV news war

complete;

we are stretching around
a ying yang full moon
we pass these stories
in tongues
like holymen seeing the light,
like snake handlers
impervious to fate
until the last bite

the circle
tonight
is still unbroken;

the circle
complete
with eyes that hold
quivering secrets
to each other's core

Eyes that know ghosts
by their nicknames
Eyes
so beautiful
the heart stops
but beats again

And this miracle
is no different
than that which
made this circle
so complete

eric1313 said...

There you go!

My secret: write at least one poem a day. Just finish one a day, even if it's not very good, finish it and get it out of the way. If it really is no good, remember it anyway, because it's parts are fine. Use them well. The words will always know exactly what to say. A new rhythym, a structure, and they will live another day.


Like how that sot of rhymed?

Carch you later, my sweet friend. You set me free.

Clink!

singleton said...

drips....I haven't even heard of this movie, but I love the name.....Perfume....and although I imagine it to be a horror story and not High School Musical, it must have been entrenching....I felt that way about Moulin Rouge....

Wishing you peace and stamina during the hard working weeks to come!

Enemy....to be free? It's a borrowed moment, we gotta grab 'em when we can....

lizard princess.... funny that you say "ominous".....sometimes in all their foo-foo and simplicity, I find the words read one way and then read another way, and depending on my mood at the moment, are interpreted as either glorious or foreboding..... I guess I like it just the way it is, all in the eyes of the beholder!

singleton said...

suchacoolcat....."in bed!" "The night life is yours"! LOL!

Dan....or maybe, even, just once if it read ..."Peace"..... I would pay heartily for that happy meal!

Eric..."Eyes that know ghosts
by their nicknames".....I know those eyes....
Clink! Your writing is a keg spewing beautiful spirits.....foaming, overflowing....
beautiful!

mindy said...

have you heard of the band book of love?? they have a song called witchcraft, which you and skinny would love!! you should check it out...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISPS6-tKs4E. the video (if this link works) is not the band, but people just dancing to it. (it's all i could find!)

Scott from Oregon said...

They don't come true if you don't eat them... stale or not...

Just wash them down with beer...

singleton said...

mindy...i so wanna check that out! I'm still recuperating from the psychedelic strike of mother nature, speakers are fried! No music streaming from the technicolor box until another payday Friday! thanks for the link and I already just like their name!

scott....yup, just wash 'em down with beer, and now, something new to add to my long list of superstitions and believeries!

eric1313 said...

we gonna party sometime or what? I miss you guys, being on the run.

Guess what? I checked out the place I was talking about. I'll be out of here in a couple weeks. I only moved in here a year ago to finish up school, but I argue with my mom's husband abiout everything. He's a mega control freak who claims I'm wasting my time--he even tries to talk mt mom oput of helping me with college, "unless he starts doing something good with the time".

Obviously, no one in my familly will read my stuff. That's upsetting (about five years ago it really was), but I'm over it now. Glad to have met you Singleton. You gave me hope in a time when I really need it. Then all you friends and sisters and everyone else, too, has given me a boost. God bless you, Sing.
Peace~Love

eric1313 said...

You just missed me, babe. But I'll clink you later.

Shit's always the same here. Gotta fly, or I'll lose my sanity.

Lola Starr said...

I love Friday and Saturday nights! I hardly even sleep during the weekends, just stay up most of the night......

singleton said...

Eric....
knock later. I'll fill the cooler and drag the swing onto the porch.... I'm mowing crop circles today and just taking a "drown me under the hose please" break from the beautiful scalding sun. Clink! To peace, love and running water!

singleton said...

karma....Oh! So the same! I don't wanta give away one moment of the week-end, it's mine, all mine, a marathon of hours! Clink! To the endless night.....And btw, I can't find your page anymore, are we only doing movies? Peace, girl!

david mcmahon said...

Okay, spare me the suspense. You don't eat fortune cookies, but you DID break it open to see what the message was ....

Right?!!!!

singleton said...

david...."the night life is yours", yup, that's what it said! And because I'm a believer, yup, it was!

Gill said...

Freedom is the one thing that is definately not overrated.
Tink! To Friday nights, may they always be something to aspire to.
xo
Blue

eric1313 said...

Sorry I missed the knock again, friend. It's hard to predict the weather around here, you know? Hell week kinda bled all over the weekend. I'll try and write something good. I was a wreck all day and night last night, until I wrote that poem. The I wrote another! One a day, that's it--unless I feel like more, that's often the case. I've written eight in a day, six a couple times, four poem days happen--but not like these have been.

That's what I love doing. This little 3 by 3 inch picture frame response box doesn't reform lines, and it doesn't capitalize automatically and it's not a giant empty sheet. If I write a poem in it, I try harder and write better, because it's kind of difficult to undo--in theory, anyway. You know me, I'll edit it if I think it can be better.

Glad to create with you, my friend. That means a lot.

p&l&
another poem! Already!



A million sister suns swirling~
a tornado of fireflies
breaking out of their cage
to dance naked in the warm forever night,
gliding through the tall grass
with the kind of abandon
that only young love in bare feet can hope to match,
a heart sprinting to the back porch
to catch a kiss--to kill all pain
of twin hearts seperated by the small hours before the dawn.

Flashes glint off of her oceanic eyes,
light from this wild chain of existence
blossoming,
burning and beconing,
lighthouses among the rocks
guiding the lost through the night.

But light doesn't last forever,
soon all hope vanishes,
leaving entropy without boundries
in its departure,
each jagged moment joined in a chain
of rusting forevers.

And just as a heart begins to blacken
and die,
as the night begins to look like a crypt
built comfortably for one,
the blazes of a million infernos
suddenly flare back into life--

flying fires, sister suns drunk and dancing close with chaos
fill the air with
their lucid patterns,
framing her silhouette
in their green and gold effigy
as she steps closer than any one
has ever been to anyone,
her heart beating with wild
fire abandon

a million burning sister stars
dance in eyes that reflect
only her love
and the light dancing naked with her
in the night moonless, star strewn night

singleton said...

Blue...Clink! To your words, girl, you pretty much so summed it up perfectly...."Freedom is the one thing that definately is not over-rated!"

Eric...A new week has dawned. And perhaps in her arms, a new peace. I read this poem like I would gobble up a Mardis Gras parade, my eyes racing ahead to see what comes next and then having to go back again and again and pick up the prizes, the surprise trinkets strewn along the way. And from the chaos, comes creation....
peace, my friend

Momentary Madness said...

Absolutely love the flow- I do I do I do!
Y;-) Paddy

Lola Starr said...

Sorry! I had to switch it to invite only for a bit and I didn't have an email addy for you! But I think I'm going to switch it back again today. It's too much trouble having it all private. :)

Me said...

You and Paige will need to get together to write an episode of A Matter of Opinion. I mean that. You both have a glorious way of painting the perfect picture.

This post was just perfect to read while listening to Bruce Springstiens song Secret Garden.

You had me at hello..

JustRun said...

I eat them and I believe them. Silly me. :)
I'm all the sudden in the mood for happy hour.

singleton said...

paddy....And the river flows......
Take me to the water......:)

karma....:) Understand! When you're ready to go Billboard again....I'll be there!

Orhan....Awwww, that is such a wonderful invite....And ummm, I'm feeling a need to go add some tunes to the playlist! Yeah, Im feeling it.....

justrun....well of course you do! We read license tags, too! And here's to happy hour, any hour!

eric1313 said...

Feel it all the way to your ballerina toes, my nightlife and lovelight friend. Your words make me smile and that is so priceless.

a million clinks and still never enough for you!



the thread was there before the beginning,
before the big bang

the thread will sew it all up
when everything comes back together
on the last day of evermore

chaos will be our colors
flying in the breeze
and the words are our fingers

let us paint not a sunset
but a mural of every day
that ever was and will ever be

the thread ties each one together;
paper dolls, snowflakes
hearts

Sunrises tell us that time creeps ever forward

but the nights are filled with our words, the thread lives on...

stories of the ghost boys and girls
from aeons past

the thread is lost
we search eyes
hearts, souls
but hope to never find it
for what is a thread?
a story, or a line of pure
prosaic ecstacy

The thread is ours to create--
the first days saw this happen
with flames and a breath from God
Now evermore's final stich
is in our hands
you go first
love

singleton said...

Eric...prophetic. I don't know what else to say. I can't find the words.

SHE said...

we need a 13th month in the year:

january

february

free time

march...

singleton said...

She...OMG! I am so smiling! I just got in a silence to silence fight with my boss, beloved, over ONE HOUR of Friday time! Because it's "free time"! And for that, it's priceless!

eric1313 said...

Oh yeah, that one was awesome.

Clink! ya, sweet friend.

Peace and love love me do!

eric1313 said...

Got my post on...

The thread was always there...