100 PAPER ELEPHANTS

100 PAPER ELEPHANTS -- c. smead

A certain memory I have from about 15 years ago.
So It must have been around '97 or so.
A few friends and I decided to trip on some acid.
... After a couple of hours at the apartment we decided
To take a drive out to some ancient river in southern New Mexico.
Just a few miles away.
The soundtrack to this crazy escapade
Was Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
We had the songs blaring and just "understood it so well".

We walked around the riverbank.
Tossing rocks into the water...
Changing their existence forever.
The sun blazed and the clouds couldn't care less
As clouds are known to do.
(you ever notice that?)
The air was so dry.
This was summer.

We each passing hour we sank further into this crazy dream.
I don't remember a LOT of details, but one thing I do remember
Is getting separated from the group.
A couple of hours later they found me.
Sitting with my back to a tree trunk
Next to a dead deer.
Talking to it about the Beatles

Written by Cecil Smead
Posted on 03-07-13

BYE SUMMER

BYE SUMMER

What did I do to lose what I've lost?
This screaming won't bring anything back
Or change fire to gold
I'll smash my face
Where the puddles break
My lies are blackened stitch
On Army Green
Ancient tumbles down city park hills
With music blasting
On my cheap portable tape player
The lyrics ripped away
By the zephyr
But, I'll always remember
The lick and scratch of that grass
Stiffened by late summer heat
And sublime depravity.

Written by Cecil Smead
Posted on 02-28-13

MY LAST WINTER COAT

MY LAST WINTER COAT

Dust clouds the glazed glass of the beachside shack.
The impaled wooden supports no longer stout.
Now their painted flecks dot the damp sand.
Random waves pull them oceanward to glitter the resident fish.
Where there once were paintings upon the slate wall now rests an ancient surfboard.
It's bronze-colored leash beats a slow tap in the April night wind.
Effete bees do a slow crawl across it's splintered ridge, troubled by nothing.
I sit on the porch and send lit matches into the dark California rain as the moon completes its dark trek.

--Cecil Smead

One of the poems from my latest book of published poetry. The book is called Always A Playground Instructor; Never A Killer.

Posted on 02-23-13

JELLYFISH

JELLYFISH

Recently we visited an aquarium. The sign said:

Jellyfish are some of the
Oldest creatures in the world.
Origins of their species date
Back 250,000,000 years.
They have no heart.
They have no spine.
They have no blood.

Maybe it's better not to have them.

-cecil
Also from my latest book.

Written by Cecil Smead
Posted on 02-23-13