Nashville Visions
A Likeness Zoo Full of People Trying
Nashville Visions 11/16/2005 David C. Roberson
The people tire weak from night. Shadowed squires lead and smite, amass armies from anywhere; The cowards drawn from hiding. Clouds converge: no moon in sight. Collective stones thrown into sky. Darkness shattered! Enter: light! The pieces are still flying. I alone in bed tonight, visions of her in my mind. Downstairs, lovers fuck and fight, but there's no use in crying. Television everyday: we're taught that life is pause and play. Memorize the star’s false face. A smile to mask their lying. Crafted quotes, they calmly state while inside we gnash teeth and hate we want their money and their fate. Ignore the fact we're dying. Nashville breathes its heavy sigh. Everyday, and every night. Broadway screams, “Something's not right!” The singers cover artists. Johnny, Willie, Emmy Lou, Elvis, Charlie, Bobby, too. Nashville is a likeness zoo full of people trying. “Be yourself,” I've been forewarned. Posers met with stones and scorn. Make them wish they'd not been born. Their product we're not buying. Bitter kids with angry pose, grown-up glares and dark, drab clothes. Shiny metals in their nose. The elders are all sighing. Childish need: be seen as old. Weathered, wired, stoic, bold. Don’t crack a smile, best to be cold. His time, the child is biding. Future past and future further. Writhe in unknown thought and fervor. Think of that which might still be. The time will come for fighting.