She Was Like Pure Mercury

Exotic woman she was, she wasn’t who she said she was or pretended to be or not to be, but that was just a mere technicality...with those eyes, you didn’t really care...you just wanted to drown in the ocean that she was...you didn’t know if you could trust her but you did anyway...the nearer you got to her, the farther you seemed to be...your mind tried to tell you but the phone to your heart was out of order...the communiques weren’t getting through either...one thing for sure, she wasn’t gonna be who you wanted her to be...she was her and that was that...she was her own woman--impulsive, changing her mind on a whim, leaving you twisting in the wind, telling you yes and then no and then yes and then no again...that’s just her way...frustrating, infuriating, captivating--she had it all...and who knew you had such a forgiving nature hmm…?...the first time you saw her she was all shiny and shimmering in that quicksilver dress and was pure mercury...she was beautiful but maybe she was also poisonous but you just had to find out even if the others warned you...it was like she just walked out of a fashion magazine spilling over the dance floor with all eyes on her and wanting to be with her...you asked her to dance and she gave you a deep look and accepted...you were always a man of confidence...that was your first mistake...the spider invited you into her web...a web of promises, a web of ecstasy, a web of deception, a web of charm...a magnetic presence that attracted all...she cooed and whispered in a deep and low smoky voice that said everything, but didn’t say nothing--her voice could melt steel--and her perfume committed murder...she wasn’t the kind to give herself away but you said the hell with it and got involved with her anyway and true to form she played you like a violin--a real Carnegie Hall virtuoso getting whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it...like the night she told you she loved you passionately--then the next day she was indifferent...when you said “You told me you loved me last night”, she coldly stared ahead and said “Oh yes, but that was last night. Today is a new day.”...was she being coy...just toying with you?...basically anything she wanted, she got it and you became wrapped around her finger...she let you know in her subtle woe is me demeanor that she had a few debts she was concerned about and the good man that you are ‘took care of’ a few bills she had but it was only money...you would have done just about anything for her and she knew it...she was as intoxicating as a case of the finest German schnapps...purring like a Mercedes and you couldn’t wait to take her for a ride on the autobahn and see how fast you could go...maybe you could corral her, maybe she would change...a fool’s dream...she wasn’t going to change and if you didn’t play along, she’d find somebody else in an instant that would...eyes discreetly on the prowl for someone who might be able to provide a little bit better than her current fling...and that’s all you were...a fling, the flavor of the month, today’s fashion...she was a habit you couldn’t break even though you knew you’d probably wind up in rehab while she laughed and went off to Paris for the summer and into the arms of another lover who no doubt wouldn’t have any better luck with her than you did.

Hawaii Oh-O

It was the Monday to Fridayness of it all that was so damn depressing…

routine routinely pounding my brain into a routine day after day;

lifting boxes, totes, crates, pallets…

working in the freezer section where it was 0 degrees

chucking boxes of beef patties and french fries onto metal carts

that were unfriendly and never had nothing to say...not my idea

of what I’d be doing when I came down to the sunny south to work in…

I could of stayed home and worked in the cold...this crap was killing my spirit

my back was dead tired like somebody who stayed up all night for three nights in a row working on a book and taking Benzedrine and drinking beaucoup pots of coffee…

which I would rather been doing BTW but I had rent to pay…

I was still young, still full of dreams and empty of money…

so scheming and dreaming, I got this great idea...save some money and go to Hawaii

for surely life had to better out there; among the palms and the hula girls…

maybe catch a Don Ho show or something...catch some waves at Waikiki beach…

so I put my head down, plowed through it for awhile...I didn’t go out hardly at all

and I even cut down on my liquor intake, which I can tell you was really rough…

finally, I saved some cash and I borrowed most and off I went…

naive and full of stupid dreams and illusions…

it was pretty cool for the first couple weeks

—HULA HULA HULA bring me some more cold Kona beer

and then reality set in…Dum, Dum, Dum, DUM…..

hell, I had to find a way to pay the bills there, and the bills were higher…

I looked around for something better but here I was

moving boxes in some hot as hell warehouse...struggling to pay the bills…

I thought they might need some help at Hawaii Five-O

but Steve McGarrett was nowhere to be found and didn’t return my calls…

I was pure perfection

a ne'er-do-well in the midwest, the deep south and now in Hawaii

the only difference being now I was a ne’er-do-well with a sunburn…

I was geographically consistent...hell, I didn’t even like poi my boy...for fun, I could take a drive and see what was left of the sugar refineries that were drying up…

or I could hop on The Bus; ride around Oahu killing the day away and I did that a few days…

I should of known better what the hell?...you have to try...after a year of that, I got this

...a plane ticket and after a night of mai-tais, I came back home to two feet of snow

on the ground, but I didn’t care…

could have spent time kickin’ around Honolulu in a cheap aloha shirt

the ones where the pocket pattern don’t match the rest of the shirt

but what was the point?...I wasn’t any happier there than I was when I was home

S.S. Valencia

There was the wreck of a ship

the SS Valencia it was the name

1906 off the coast of British Columbia Canada

a steamer built in 1882 for excursions

New York City to Venezuela and back again…

sank in an area of water called

‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’...

a particularly treacherous area…

waters that captains dreaded navigating in rough weather…

on this particular night

the weather had turned rougher than rough

high wind and low visibility…

celestial observations that is

navigation by the stars impossible

...the Valencia struck a reef and then some rocks

tearing a deathly hole in the hull—

ABANDON SHIP!

seven lifeboats launched

several capsized; one lost entirely

some survived—many did not…

years a clear

reports of an old lifeboat with eight skeletons

found in a nearby sea cave…

an attempt to retrieve it

unsuccessful!…

unexplainable stories still unexplained…

those of local fishermen

reporting lifeboats were seen being rowed

on the water one fog enshrouded evening

by possible skeletons of the Valencia's victims…

lost souls disappearing into a cloud of mist

sightings of the ship

like a ghostly apparition

making its way down the coast

1933–lifeboats from the Valencia was found adrift

no skeletons aboard