('in the drink)

Oh, I came too quickly, laughed too loudly,

*cut too-short,
*over-estimated,
*under-dressed.

No x-cusses,

‘didn’t take much ‘put me back, where I belong…(‘in the drink)
But, was With, Who, Where, and How…

I was out…(‘in the drink)

Half empty, a fools-fullI’d stood bar-stool high,

glass upturned, head hung low

Awaiting my magic, blood-coursing moment

The tingle tangle warmth through my veins,

to fill’ her up….finally.(‘In the drink)

Oh, But I was so unlike the likes of you. all.

Or so it seemed, that is, until I put me back…(‘in the drink)

But, every time/town/Tom/Dick or Harry

how many bottoms was I willing to drop?

I’d sink a little deepergoing, going, gone (‘in the drink)

Left with only pieces of a wholly, holy mess

To this, that and anyone,

just to have one

to "cheer"...
(’in the drink)

-Shelby (April ‘04)

To Refute the Oracle

“I must give you an account of my journeyings,
as if they were laborers I had overtaken to refute the oracle…”
- Plato, The Apology (Socrates on trial)

****************************************************************************

I know this much to be true
What it is we think we know most of…
Remains as It were, intrinsically untrue.

Our lack of understanding
this basic matter
of unknown fact
a vast, virtuous, void of infinite space
Contrasting any tiny spark of absolute certainty
Of what is real, who can even reason
Why we do what we do.

Ought better we be contained
With examining
the rather obvious
gaping *hole*left
as the dust crumbles, bit by bit.
in the patchworkofhuman(ity,ity,ity)bit

Observe the lack of wonder
at our own heart double-beating in time
to that of mammals and yesteryears men.

Wandering we are, lost, a in a touch of sadness,
a spell of madness, disguised as scientific revolute
a curiously primordial preoccupation, concerned with:
conquer, crush, run, outlast, outwit..outrule
tremble as we may in fear.

Pondering weather-to-whether
The weight of
man(kind)’s
ounce
is worth(y) the
measure of a mile
..One (1) which we have long forgotten to take–time &
walk, skip, meander or even saunter
on near or about(s)..

Far too concerned (we remain)
In whether (or not)
he wore
the right (or left) shoe.
to begin it….