Sunglass

Sunglass

This battered old shell
looks like a death mask.

Lucky or not I shall wear it
as I walk into Phenix City.
Though I cheated in my gambling
I wound up broke anyway.

And I come,
and I pay the zombie whores
and walking dead.

While the dark lady in sunglasses
takes the halo from his clay head.

One more trip over that bridge
to the kissing booth.
Where there's smoke
there may be fire
and this time I got burned.

I walk this beach at midnight
like a zen dharma beach bum.
And I amsaved,
and I turn.

I watch the drunken poets,
and my lawyer.

While the dark lady in sunglasses
takes the halo from his clay head.

-Will Dockery (1997)

I Met a Girl

I Met a Girl

I met a girl
she came from California.

It was in a dream
we knew each other instantly.

She was a little freckled girl
from out of
my high school past.

And she looked up at me
and talked real spacey.
I've forgotten her name
though she told it to me twice.

We talked
a really detached situation.

She said years ago
I was so shy
she thought I was gay.

At this point I kissed her
and put my finger to her hole.

And she looked up at me
and talked real spacey.
I have forgotten her name
though she told it to me twice.

I don't know why it was
that I would think of her.
I made a couple of puns
about her name that made me blush.

But her softness in tone
made me feel all right.

All I want to do
is get in contact.

-Will Dockery / May 8 1982

Little Homeless Clown

Little Homeless Clown

Sign on the door read
enter at your own risk.
Too many times now betrayed
by the Judas kiss.

Baby rode by
in a brand new pickup truck.
She waved goodbye,
blew me a kiss for luck.

So I been out rambling
shambling
through the trailer park 'til dawn.
She was frozen in the hall
like headlines on a fawn.

Give me another run
before the sun goes down.
Give me another hit
my little homeless clown.

All alone in this
big old house again.
Harranged by all my
so-called friends.

Too late now
she's riding with the wind.
Just last week
she said she'd stick by me to the end.

Ain't no crystal ball
but I can
feel it in the back of my bones.

She got a sugar daddy
never coming home.

Give me another run
before the sun goes down.
Give me another hit
my little homeless clown.

I could tell she was lonely,
it just wasn't for me,
She's got a little hankering
to be a divorcee.

Give me another run
before the sun goes down.
Give me another hit
my little homeless clown.

-Will Dockery

Ozone Stigmata

Ozone Stigmata

On another level
about a thousand years ago-
I tried to hold her
and my heart won't let go.

In countess variations
just another two old souls.
And this net
Don't let go the coat!

On a handbasket from Hell
I hold the handle.
Hand basket from Hell
both sides of the candle.

Read her note yesterday
the memory made me cry.
I drempt I got back to her
over time and over miles.

In this shaky kingdom
My first light that was true.
This light
I raise a lantern for you!

Handbasket from Hell,
I tip the conductor.
Handbasket from Hell
I should have sued the docto
r.
I can hear you calling
from 10, 000 light years away.
And I'd be there with you
but I can't afford to stay.

I remember every hour
8 times a day.
This night
The flames are cold and blue.

Handbasket from Hell
all across Christmas.
Handbasket from Hell
I wonder if they missed us.

-Will Dockery (2005)

Angel of Esquiline Hill

Angel of Esquiline Hill

Did she go too far?
Waiting on the new crowded,
waiting for the woman with a gun.
Little prisms semi-naked on horseback,
dark halo surrounds her beautiful evil.
Sirens ring out tonight.
Sirens over Benning Hills tonight
little speckles of starlight.

Did she go too far
from the North Highland?
Did she go the way of the world and the wood?
Pale blue skin and sky
she's a Goddess now, on high.
Sirens ring out, sirens ring out
on Esquiline Hill.

On her wit we humbly wait.
Arm and Hammer tattooed on her shoulder.
Goddess gold and dusted
and roaring.
Dodge or on a dare,
on a sturm and drang,
watch her run like wild horses.
Sirens ring out, on that hill tonight,
sirens ring out like little speckles tonight.
Did she go to far,
from the North Highland?
Did she go too high
pale blue sky and skin.

Let me take you down she says,
down, down again.
Let me take you down son,
take you down,
into the sirens... on high.

Did she go too far?
Waiting on the new crowded,
waiting for the woman with a gun.
Prism, semi-naked on horseback.
Dark halo, frames her beautiful evil.
Sirens ring out... sirens ringing.
Little flecks of starlight over Benning Hills.
Spiderweb whirls, pale blue skin and sky,
Stars flicker tonight.
Starlight, sirens ringing on Benning Hills,
she's gone too high.
Let me take you down, she says.
Let me take you down... to silence.

-Will Dockery

Stan the Nightporter in Exile

Stan the Nightporter in Exile

In a state
of self-imposed exile
another period
of reconstruction.

Another crash and burn
life can throw these things.
Just learn to deflect
like Ali's Rope-A-Dope.

Because like the old cliché
that was
stinging in my ears
butterflies are free.

There on the second floor
looking over the park.
I put myself in exile
I knew I must have solitude.

I sat in the dark
seeing glimmers
of reptilian eyes.

She was so fast
that she just moved on.
She was moving
at some different vibration.

Watching the river flow
a hundred yards below
my mind wandered back
to a time
that seemed long ago.

May 27 1981
another scorching day
with my Karma
in retrograde.

That was the last time
I saw Stan the Nightporter
also
on that same day.

Stan worked
at the New Baby store
along my path
home from work
on Cheshire Bridge Road.

Along the same
stretch of road
as Johnny's Pizzeria.

Next door to Numbers,
a new wave nightclub
all the rage
that Spring of 1981.

I lived down
the big hill
down Piedmonth Road
near Ansley Mall.

In exile
in that old boarding house.

One day
I was walking through
coming home from work
and saw Stan the Nightporter.

He was
sitting in his truck,
reading
an Archie comic book.

We talked for a while,
I got his phone number,
said we'd
get in touch soon.

But times were really busy
back then
and we never did
connect again.

And now
39 years have passed.

I first met Stan the Nightporter
when he was
Bill Rumor's sidekick
on Tip Top Drive,
around 1975.

The house on Tip Top
set back from the street
a scene
of rowdy nights
of Rock-N-Roll.

My first view of the
sophisticated older kids
back when Columbus College
was called Cody Road High.

By the next year
this scene was busted.
Everyone scattered
or went into isolation.

Some by choice
others via a paddy wagon.

I saw Bill at The Loft
a few years ago,
he was playing guitar
in a band onstage
that night.

He smiled sadly
playing in his Slowhand style
lines on his face
depicted the decades
that had passed.

But no sign
of Stan
in 39 years.

I saw an old friend
who used to sing in the band
Stan the Nightporter drummed in
back in those times.

She said she
hadn't seen
Stan the Nightporter
since those days in Atlanta.

Seems he has vanished
into shadows of obscurity.

Our relationship remains
frozen
and I stand in solitude
in my isolation.

-Will Dockery

Wooden Footbridge

Wooden Footbridge

Almost half way
to Avalon
was a footbridge.

Out of the forest
the end of the road.

Now I hate
what has become of it.
Look, and smell
what gravity and time
have done.

It was not a lot
a Wooden footbridge
Our children
once used it
to avoid the traffic.

Let me contiue
down Avalon.
There in the marketplace
is the Edgewood Inn.

Mister Patel
in his office with a smile.
Roofers and good time girls
roustabout for a while.

Cross yourself
according to
Preacher Gulsbi's
prayers.

McMurray's barber shop
comic strips and tobacco
on my way home
from dance school

Especially for children
Go and interact
Edgewood School
Next to the transport.

December 8, 1974
Boy called Bob
Pencil hanging
He died at this level.

I was there there last week.
Look at that
wooden bridge
It was selected.

Get rid of the weed
And the gap between the water.
Keep it in the dark.
never
Now let's move on.

-Will Dockery

Irene's Painted Rocks

Irene's Painted Rocks

Irene's painted rocks
I still keep them
in my desk drawer
she gave me a few.

Some were seaweed green
some ferrous oxide red
others sky blue.

When fourteen years later
our code of silence
was broken down.

We were to meet
as she passed through town
before I learned
she'd gone underground.

This was to be
in early Springtime
so I collected several rocks for her.

We said goodbye forever
gave ourselves a pardon.
Like old Connery said
"Never say never again."

-Will Dockery (2020)

It Is Now A Grand Hotel

It Is Now A Grand Hotel

Lights flicker
in dark hills
the long road
past my past.

The Grand Hotel
is a subtly eerie
little empty spot
lit in sepia tones.

I had it on
and it formed
some of the weirdest
little dreams.

Horsemen angels
wailing lost
clicking languages
as a soundtrack
weaved in my brain.

I paid my toll
and was allowed
to wear a badge
color coded for accuracy.

Candle light
like a copper tone
I was waved along
down the darkened path.

I awoke too soon
or perhaps just in time
to return here
to break the pattern.

Debatable which was
the best move
though that empty hill
informs me
I know, I know.

-Will Dockery / 4-1-18

Meeting in Largo

Meeting in Largo

She runs and runs
into the sand
here we go
come take my hand.

White sand
reflects the light
the waves crash and glow
in the night.

A surging music
at high tide
sitting on the dock
with you at my side.

Seagulls caw and scream
a warm scene
in memory and dream.

And the rains came
they passed through
every day.
The rains came
seemed to
wash my sins away.

She runs and runs
out of sight
there she goes
she takes flight.

Into moonlit
eternal night
white moon
reflects the light.

-Will Dockery (11-29-17)

Apple Montage

Apple Montage

Sneaking around
with Cousin Jenny,
smoking menthol
beyond the sheds.

Late summer vacation 1973
in the backwoods of Tennessee.

To the right
behind the barn
were apple trees.

There were several
of those trees
and other trees
behind them
beyond a field
and behind them, other trees.

Later, I stood near
as a crowd
watched Pops and my Uncle
cooking apple butter;
stirring the brown gunk,
boiling in a huge black kettle.

I saw my father
secretly pass
a wine bottle
to my Uncle Clarence.

I went from
breathing cold mist
out back behind the barn,
to breathing
the hot misty steam.

The air smelled of apple fumes
and strong booze.

-Will Dockery

Off The Cuff (Part Two)

Off The Cuff (Part Two)

Enforced distance
I've known her for a while.
But I could never love her
I'll never know her smile.

Because she can't see me
and I can't see her.
She just lives around the way
but the distance could not be further.

And I can not explain that
can not be really written in a book.
She is like an ancient soul mate
she has such a distant look.

If I had the courage
I'd ask her why she don't seem to like me.
But like I'm sometimes known to do
I'll just wait and see.

Off the cuff
I cry secret tears for you.
Off the cuff
couldn't take a rejection from you.

-Will Dockery (2000)

Saint Augustine Blues (Chorus Six)

Saint Augustine Blues (Chorus Six)

Dollars in the bucket
collect for the street singer.
Old man with beads paints a chinaberry
points out the parrots.

Blonde after blonde after blonde
after the parade.
People start looking really strange again.

I must seem likewise to them
as this dusty smell surrounds me.
I'd draw these people with words
but I'm not fast enough.

They pass and fade
part of the parade.

On this really old wall
good view from up here.
Forever is a long time
but not as long as yesterday.

-Will Dockery (1997)