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‘Hunkered down the night in the beggars’ quarter’ by Captain B
HUNKERED DOWN THE NIGHT IN THE BEGGARS’ QUARTER
Hunkered down the night in the beggars’ quarter
Only but once had to unsheath the blade but an inch
Till the glint, refracted by the fire i slept beside
Caught the eye of the would-be assailant
The would-be amputee
Lest he dared reach out to touch me
The city walls are heavily protected
Without documents out
Never again
Back in
Don’t worry, friends
We’ve thought this through
Cannot live with their hands in my purse
Their eyes always upon me
They deciding where i sleep
Where i toil
Or what the toll
When the entourage arrived
Granted express congress
With the emperor, hierophants, and magistrates
I saw that the gems, stones, tinctures, weapons from outer tribes
Were greatly desired, enough to win this caravan
Banquet, entertainment, libation, quarter, and reward
When i sized up those carrying the swords and bows
I knew right then
What i’d waited for
I haven’t been studying
A dozen foreign tongues
In my solitary cell
If not otherwise honing my sword play
Or hammering out molten steel
To earn measly coppers
For not
But one eye-to-eye interaction
With the cadre
Risked only for return
And i know enough
That if my movement isn’t swift
Or exact
Or gets me up over the rails
Of that wagon
To the empty barrel waiting for me
I will miss my ride
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘Nile revival syndicate’ by Captain B
NILE REVIVAL SYNDICATE
Nile revival syndicate
Thebes then liars
What really went down
Stand
Look left, Isis
Shift weight, look right, Osiris
Back to center
Step into it
Born Horus
What Akhenaten and Nefertiti whispered
Echoes in the flexible chamber
The moveable feast
Expands and contracts
Flows and insists then resigns
Throughout all that is
Never forgotten
But arcane
It remains
Effective for the Aten
It circles back the long cycle
It returns and renews its course
It shakes and sheds
It rises
And always is
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘The monkey’ by Captain B
THE MONKEY
i’ll just open it
to let it know
i still care
amazing stories
stumping conclusions
all part of the chaos
as a means
to an end
let me pack up tight
the last of it
to smoke
and drift
into summer
it’s going to be surf
again
it’s going to be brothers
not seen for too long
it’s going to be something
at least
in the minimum
conclusive
with my new friend
she’s a prize
but doesn’t quite
believe in me yet
she comes and goes
insert joke here…
shoelei
or shoelet?
stinky feet
must be all the concrete
under foot
this road doesn’t only fork
because it’s a tree
with many branches
hmm?
guess it’s good
i’m a monkey
and i swing
that’s for sure
though we did at least
grab that vine
a number of times
we know it from the rest
all of us
with our individual pieces
can reconstruct this tower
it’s time
to put it all back together again
then i rewound
to the point i lost it
erased that which didn’t
rewrote that which should’ve
written itself into reality
then after the lies kept coming
i identified as such
it was such a pattern
that only sought to stab my core
i realized it
and said no more
fucking hell
wash your feet
for the ever loving something of an untrue
shit
goddamn
get off your ass
and jam!
of course i do
i just said to don’t know who
in relation to what?
you ask
well, then
foreign or not
voice inside my head
as you’re part of it
you already know
who
and the candidate qualifies
yes
hurts
ain’t easy
breaking everything down everyday
my tattoos are only visible to some
just like it should be
can’t help it
can’t help anything
just the way i’m guessing
it must be
it all went right to my eye
the good one
not the right, the left
teared it
yep
watered it
but of course
it cleared some things up
so then when…
so then when it all comes crashing again
it reminds of lessons learned
lessons revisited
and the same message
reconfiguring
to be heard
with that deafening sound
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘Strabismus’ by Captain B
STRABISMUS
Strabismus
Ouch the day
Can’t see straight
Friday’d have it
No other way
The birds alit
The dogs hid
We all cursed our mothers
And wished
We’d never been born
When she found the candle
Still lit
Melted all over her favorite dish
(when was the last time
It didn’t merely serve
As decoration?)
Good morning
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘When’s Recess?’ by Captain B
When’s recess?
Girls probably don’t know
Unless told
By a brother or a friend
Hey, now, calm down
No doubt i don’t know
And could be told many things
Education, yes please, and supersize it
Anyway
Of the boys in grade school
Maybe in kindergarten it wasn’t too frowned upon
Perhaps in first grade it was still only testing the limits
But by second grade, if you walked into the bathroom
And there at the urinal was the kid who sat in the front row
Closest to the teacher (always aid in circling it around the big ear
Back through the hole. Double knot. Forget it.)
With pants and Scooby Doo underoos down around the ankles
Bare ass grinnin
You’d usually know who
To throw at first
In dodgeball
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘Brazen’ by Captain B
Brazen
Brazen
Itching
Good thing he only has his fists
His guns and knives are at home
(Well, anyone checked his damn boot?)
There at the tavern
He isn’t more than a three-minute walk
That itching, that gnawing
It hasn’t been right for a long, long time
He hasn’t won a fight anyone’s witnessed
In quite some time either
Just weeks ago
His ex-wife told me over the airwaves
Of how my once solid, brickhouse of a friend since youth
Made that way from hundreds of thousands of bricks and blocks
(Had he reached the million mark?)
Huffed and tossed around for most of his working life
Had quit eating. He’d quit working too.
We used to go out for prime rib or thick porter houses
With ale before a night of hitting the hard stuff
But he neither works nor eats any longer
He couldn’t even pick me up
She said
And that was six months ago, last we were together
The last time he brewed coffee or had breakfast in the morning she couldn’t say
Just grasp for the remains of the previous night’s bottle
If empty or out of stock, the first order of the day
Recently
He got violent with the police
When it took them ten minutes of prodding and poking
And shouting in his ear
To roust him from the coma
He’d fallen into at the cinema
He’d still had traces of the shiner
He’d received whispering all sorts of threats
And promises into the random bar patron’s ear
One or the other had saddled up next to
One or the other
You get violent with the police
You know who gets the final say
And how much that hurts
Something to think about
If the cold and discomfort of the cell and slab you’re
Less than sleeping on
Don’t turn your thoughts to those also pressing concerns
He hasn’t been right for a long time
Didn’t think he was going to make it through the winter
He himself, ex-wife, and his poor mother who has already lost two sons
Two of four
All speculated last fall
Four days ago was the spring equinox
But nobody go crossing yourself just yet
Praising miracles
Okay, warding off evil
Is another thing
It’s only noon
He’s been at the Schulz Haus since before ten
Where he waited in the still cold weather for Junior to open up
Junior’s a bit old school, a bit wild midwest
He doesn’t cut people off
But just wait for my friend to come across a face
He doesn’t recognize
Or one he despises
And someone’s getting hurt
Flip that coin
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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‘I’ll pencil you in’ by Captain B
I’LL PENCIL YOU IN
I’ll pencil you in
I said to a friend
I, just back from a mission
He didn’t get it
The expression
I wasn’t surprised
And had only heard it recently
From the erudite client
Benefactor, collector of oddities
Of this most recent mission
I explained as best i could
To this friend
That it refers to a long extinct
And rudimentary technology
And but one usage of the implement
That existed on the swamp planet
Inhabited by those scary hybrid ancestors
That mated with the scaly overlords
Who ruled so long from the shadows
Now the whole wasteland is shadow
And all the hideous degrees
Of those blasphemous things
Slither about freely
And feed on each other
And satiate thirst
With the thick toxicity
Emanating from the bogs
I was there to retrieve a book
Full of a language and expressions
Such as these
Long forgotten by us
(And not a book like you’d imagine it
This one is of matter and can be held
In both hands- i let it go
I’d explain more in person)
So, yes, long a fading memory
Only heard in tales
Kin and cousin, brothers and sisters
Who, as of course you know, long ago
Had to flee and scatter
He said, yeah whatever
That he’d keep his transport job
But that after i showered and scrubbed
Any disease or pestilence from my being
Picked up from nightmare land
He’d meet me on Karas
First round
He was buying
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro
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the wolf by Captain B
the wolf
i cross this thing
pavement
i don’t like it
i am the wolf
with caution but speed
i dart across
to enter woods again
i’ve lost the pack
but confident and able
i move on
i sense movement
and smell meat
i move on
i’m downwind
i’m stealth
it’s mine
but i wait
stroll
have a walk
in the moonlight
there is still
beyond
young pawn for my preying
i’m a demon in making
predator fells fawn
***
WHO IS CAPTAIN B?
Captain B. Seafarer. Lover of shore leave. Collector of heads. Disseminator of tales. Twitter: @NPeligeiro