Claffactory or TroBriand #2 and #1: Finale

Claffactory or TroBriand #2: A House Into A Home

                                       Sit.

                                       Sit and breath.
                                       Take it all in:
                                       The clean, white walls.
                                       The course, new carpets.
                                       Late light coming through the windows.
                                       So much more, seen and unseen.

                                       Now stand.
                                       Stand and breath.
                                       Go open the door
                                       And let the world in.

Claffactory or TroBriand #1: The Story So Far


There's the person you are
And the person you were
And the person you will be
Each part of yourself
Running to catch up to the next
      And the sound of your feet
On the stone corridors of time
    Is constant and thunderous.

Claffactory or TroBriand #3: Troodon

Claffactory or TroBriand #3: Troodon

On the day I hatched
i looked up at the sky
it was grey with ash
and somewhere deep in my mind
i knew it was all wrong.

I grew up in a world of sorrows
most the trees had died
the larger animals with them
and when I finally starved to death
i knew I was the last of my kind.

Death has a way of giving one perspective
and the anger I had felt all my life
began to fade over the millennia
i sat beyond the cycles of life and watched
and I watch still.

In the 65 million years since then
i've seen the rise of you mammals
saw the beast that would become you
and all the wonders it was capable of
i saw you make your world what it is today.

But your skies are turning grey too
and you are as helpless as i was to stop it
when your kind has breathed their last
perhaps you will come to where i am
and we can watch what comes next.

Claffactory or Trobriand #4: Red Star

Claffactory or Trobriand #4: Red Star

(The Ballad of Vladamir Komarov)

Walking up to the rocket,

The wind is so cold on your face

But your suit is filled with sweat

 And on the other side of the fence

Your best friend is yelling at you

Till two men come and send him home

There's nothing he can do

Because you: you're already dead

The boosters shake the capsule

Your teeth rattle in your helmet

But the rocket doesn't explode

So you stop praying

And you fall into orbit

But then the power cuts out

you begin to spin out of control

And you know: you're already dead

They put the Premier on the radio

And he calls you a hero

They put your wife on

But all she can do is cry

As you try to steer to earth

You curse the engineers that killed you

The parachutes never open

And when they pull you out of the crater

You were already dead.

Claffactory or TroBriand #5: Improvisational

When you wake up crying
When  you shudder and can't stop
When you're afraid to sleep
Then it's a true nightmare

I saw the death of beauty 

And the end of all roads

As two people sleeping on a bed

But the bed was a grave

And around them the past and the future

Spread out like eternal stone.

When you can't calm down

When your heart loses a beat

When you have to tell someone

Then it's a true nightmare.

Claffactory or TroBriand #7 and #6

Claffactory or TroBriand #7: Let Go

       Don't cover up the light,

               Let it shine out unobstructed.

        Don't smother the flame,

   Let it rise and flicker.

  Don't drag your feet,

         Let them take you to where you should be.

Let go.

             Let go of your moment.

Let go.

 

 

Claffactory or TroBriand # 6: Stray Cat

Night

Slips out sleek and easy

Rumbles to life in the cold

And lines begin to form

Out 

To hunt in the dark

To start the day

Routines overlap

Road

A few feet across

A few miles down

The moment of interesct

Why 

Do events like this happen?

Why

Does fate turn on someone?

I couldn't begin to tell you.

"We Are the Dead"

We are the people without escapes, without exits.  We follow the paths set before us and even the slightest deviation will bring ruin.  We drift from light to dark, reason to madness, till it all blurs together into one mass of blind sensation.  We have no duty, no obligations, no time lines, or due dates.  We have nowhere to go and all of existence to get there.  We have been cut loose from everything but ourselves.  We are the fearless, the loveless, the heartless, and the hopeless.  We have nothing to lose and nothing to show for losing.  We are the alone, the forgotten, the expendable.  When we finally pass over it will seem like such a small thing, a formality at most.   We are the dead.

The lost Claffolifactory or TroBriand

Hey everyone, this is the actual first "Claffactory or TroBriand" poem I wrote a few weeks ago.  They're meant to be read the first time starting with this one (#9) and going backwards as each one is posted.  Then after that take a week off and then read them starting from #1 and going to #9 in on continuous block. We'll talk about the meaning of the title in  "Claffactory or TroBriand #7: The Life and Times of a Wood Pile."


Claffactory or TroBriand #9: The Island Gifts

What bleeds the bloodless heart
but ash?
What thinks the thoughtless mind
...but emptyness?
Where can the hopless man hope
But in you?

Only in you.
Consume me
Envelope me
Take me away.

Claffolifactory or TroBriand #8: Peach Walls

Claffolifactory or TroBriand #8: Peach Walls

The room is dark except for the small lamp he sits under
down on the street it's night and she's crossing the road
dull light on the peach walls, smoke drifts from a cigarette
red shoes click on the pavement, above notes drift down from a radio

He takes a slow drag on the cigarette and turns down the radio
she's at the apartment door, it swings open with familiar ease
he knew she'd come back
she knew he'd be there

His ears strain to hear the faint click of the door
soft hands graze the banister of the stairs
a rough hand grips the arm of the chair in anticipation
she  looks at the old gray door like it was a mirror

She enters the room without knocking
music and smoke drift out into the hallway
eyes meet across the dark
and smiles form on the two faces.

Emerge

This is a poem I wrote for a friend a while back and never posted.  So if figured I'd put it here so if we both die there will be some record of it.  Enjoy!!!

Emerge
We feel our way along the dark
Hands searching the curvature
We touch and we probe
Till one day we find a flaw
And push to let in a small crack of light

We force our fingers through the gap
Cut our hands trying to break through
I can see our blood on the jagged edge
when I think I can’t take it anymore
I look to see you smiling in the light
And the crack gives way.

We let our eyes adjust to the new world
Of trees and birds and light
Our wounds are already healed
So I take your hand and we walk away
Never looking back at the cracked bloodied shell
That was once our everything.

Welcome to Centralia

My Centralia

The empty city and the flames below

Centralia

Friends gathered around the campfire

Centralia

The story and the storyteller and the audience

Centralia

I knew I loved her then,

Centralia

And that there was no saving us,

Centralia

And we mirrored that forgotten town

Centralia

Ruin and despair above,

Lifetimes of fire below.