Jonathan Beale- Three Poems

Sign o’ the Times

 31 March 1987

‘U turn on the telly and every other story
Is tellin' U somebody died.’

Requiescat in pace  - Prince Rogers Nelson

In the weight of the world

Under a cloud of unknowing

This keen eye drew the fiery vision:

And beat a new tongue out in

Funk, soul, psychedelic pop,
Electro, and good old 4 on 4 rock music.

This world - this perdition - grey cold

The world strangely uncompromisingly

Deconstructed - not so much as to lose

Its’ very essence –in its very being.  

The world woven of strange moralities

With the lush draw of a world in all its vices.

The attraction is too, too, much, then crisis.  

Like advised lets fall in love B4 it’s too late.

Some say a man ain't happy unless a man truly dies
Oh why?  Oh Why?  Sign o’ the Times….  Time.

Lady Cab driver

‘She carried the many, she carried few

Hear them ask - Can U take me 4 a ride?
Don't know where I'm goin' 'cuz

I don't know where I've been.’
In the shadow and mists of the night -

The need to - in motion of the motion of the world

She held the wheel with absolute intention  

“Just drive, destination not known.”   

The sweat drenched body

In the abstract mirrored eye contact

Esmerelda sees Butch - an accident

Of fate - they are in the zone -

A place where names don’t mean shit

The continent of the cab - the blur

Of neon, mirrored reflection, stop signs

The passing cries of strangers “Taxi!  Taxi!”

Their voices fade – this taxi and she is mine.

For now! 
            This is 4 the destination.  

            This is 4 when your lips meet mine.  
            This is 4 the jazz breathing the air.

            This is 4 the sheep who feed on media hype.

            This is 4 the homeless guy forgot by all except the eye.

            This is 4 for the first spring dawn.

            This is 4 the last dollar in my pocket.

            This is 4 the Red Corvette from 1958.  

            This is 4 when we have reached the top. 

            This is 4 the bullet laden teenage gangster.  

            This is 4 whoever devised Route 66.

            This is 4 and the Rolling Stones for Beggars Banquet.

            This is 4 the storm and may it soon pass.    

            This is 4 your smile and may it remain etched in my mind for all time.  

            This is 4 the moon and stars.  

            This is 4 the drunk who’s flat out of dreams and hopes

            This is 4 your God and May they stay by your side – always

    And this is 4 U!  U!  U!  U!  U!  U!  U!  & U!

After Prince

In a glimpse of a vast universe

Making our everyday life – wondrous

Some kind prophet of A New Age

An age he made his own

His words need no explanation

Help in his hands the beauty of passion

The Love and the Sex in the graffiti

Of the mesh of humanity.

In this very mettle of the breath of life

The energy, who visceral

Yet now, out, out, brief candle.