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The Goddess Ate at Arby's

from Into Light: The Poems of M. D. Friedman by Mad Dog Friedman

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The Goddess Ate at Arby’s

Hers is a difficult beauty, from a world
where the night is blistered gold, and
dark trees bristle with blue, hair-like leaves.
Feathery fish swim the summer wind,
while eyeless serpents burrow
with flat, black beaks
through silvery whiffs of sand.
What she ate is still a mystery.

Perhaps salad. Perhaps she lives on air.
What matters, though, is all of sudden
there she was as amber and shimmering
as the failing light of a dying candle.
(I still see her, pulsing on the curtain of my eyelids.)
She was chewing something, grudgingly
inhaling the oily smoke of rush hour,
exhaling our choking world like a sputtering tailpipe.

Translucent, dreamlike, iridescent, this creature
of sparkle and moon milk, sat three tables away
as real as the flickering fluorescent lights,
chomping down her lunch. Disregarding all signage, she wore
no shoes, or skin, for that matter.
What clothes she had licked her like flame.
Leaving a trail of diamond dust, she slid resplendent
into the yellow plastic booth where I sat, as if to chat,
 
yet the goddess did not speak.
Nor did I, although I could feel
the pain in her soul. Sad as a black hole,
veins surging blue starlight,
bleeding as calmly as a fading red giant,
her lungs wheezed laboriously with each expansion
and contraction of the universe. I wanted desperately
to help her, to somehow make things right,

but drunk with greed, we frenzy feed
upon the glowing bowl of her heart,
lapping up her luminous essence
like a pack of gluttonous dogs. There is no
end to what we take, while her breath
whispers through all that lives
she is dying.

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from Into Light: The Poems of M. D. Friedman, released January 1, 2024

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Mad Dog Friedman | Mad Dog Blues | Peddlers of Joy image

Mad Dog Friedman | Mad Dog Blues | Peddlers of Joy Lafayette, Colorado

Mad Dog writes from the moment and sings from his heart. His influences include sources as divergent as William Butler Yeats & the delta blues. His songwriting is sincere, simple & often humorous. He has recorded many solo & collaborative projects featuring his spontaneous compositions on harmonica, Native American flute & Theremin. He is also the founder of Mad Dog Blues & The Astral Project. ... more

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