MIDNIGHT DREAM


Jack Micheline
pays me a visit
takes me for a walk through the
streets of San Francisco
leading to an old hobo camp
down by the old railway yard

Jack plays harmonica
sings to the stars
does an Irish jig
with a band of gypsies

we share a cup of coffee
with the elder of the tribe
watching the moonbeams ride the
tail of Halley's Comet the
ensuing sparks lighting up the campsite
in the darkness of night

Jack reads the elder a poem
fireflies hug his skin
poems yet to be born cling
to the inferno of my mind

a grizzled hobo warms his hands
on the woodstove fire
lights up a stogie
and shares with us the
last of a small bottle of whiskey

the next morning we join
Charles Bukowski at the racetrack
the horses prancing like ballerinas
at the New York Met

Jack and Hank put a fiver down
on a long-shot
God peeks his head out
from behind a cloud
sends a message our
time is up

Satan offers refuge in the form
of an albatross
promises eternity
at Treasure Island

Woody Guthrie sings
This Land Is My Land
This Land is Your Land
Jesus stirs on the cross
sings a ballad with Bob Dylan
Robert Kennedy drops in
with saltwater tears
stays until noon
then leaves for an appointment
with Walt Whitman
at the burial ground
at Wounded Knee

a war widow weeps with grief
a whore regains her lost desire
moths court a string of lightbulbs
chasing away an army of flies
making camp at an African
gravesite guarded by the poet
Bob Kaufman

at one minute past midnight the
holy ghost appears from behind the
pearly gate
declares Jack the new Lorca
back at the campfire the
fire turns to ash the
moon retreats behind the Milky Way
Moses appears with a kettle of beans
and pork chops for everyone
a crow flies overhead eyeing
a crippled sparrow
a hummingbird sings the
national anthem the
moon commits cunnilingus
with a passing cloud bank
a pregnant virgin hiding
in the sage brush
challenges a cowboy
to a fast draw
God declares it
a draw.


A.D. WINANS



Bottled Message No. 16
"Midnight Dream" by A.D. Winans. 2007 Copyright © Mystery Island Publications. Launched: 05.29.07 by Mystery Island. All rights reserved. Photo above of A.D. Winans and Jack Micheline from the collection of A.D. Winans. Poem and photo remain the property of A.D. Winans.


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