With no roots, you'll grasp for anything - reach for anything
With no education, you are at risk of learning from anyone.
I was not prepared for this level of truth. I was not prepared to be shot in this booth. The camera clicked too soon. I shot for the moon.
Instead, the stars landed around what was left of my head. A furious dread and an uncurious mind awaited my life on trial. It was short and uneventful except I thought everyone was trying to be helpful. Failing to reorganize guile and grace, all the white egg landed on my face. I tried to be straight with you but it went unrecognized.
It wasn't a disguise, it was sincerity. It was verity and truth but you weren't ready. Principled but undisciplined, the disciple was persecuted before anyone listened. Intent glistened, unhesitated with an eye to the future and a poet recitative. I'll say it again, I've said it before and it's all what I meant.
Playboy dummy. Simulacra, model of non-humanity as evidence of desire.
July 25
City Notebook
Better none than any
A dime for a penny
I started with one
And one turned to many
The fire deserved
my fingers were burned
I said I was done
But the specter returns
With the hex reaffirmed
Better any than none
Better many than one
I'm me when I'm real and
I'm him just for fun
I tried to be nice
to a world cold as ice
I cared how you feel
But I won't bother twice
Because truth is my vice
Affection Attending
A rhyme for the many
The sea stole my heat
But my heart gave me plenty
The fire for hire
Attention acquired
When met with defeat
"must have a desire"
A hunger acquired
Attention rejecting
A line for the testing
You split me in two
And my twin's redirecting
I took the wrong train
Played an alt not my main
I couldn't see through
Common sense to my fame
And I acted in vain
March 16 JFK to PHX
April 27 LIRR East
City Notebook
Guess we gotta give up to win
Step out of line, they put you back in
Guess we gotta give up to win
Bless me reader for I have sinned
Did you hear what is wrong today?
It's only whatever we choose to say
Guess we gotta give up to win
Bless me reader for I have sinned
Don't you want to keep up with me?
They say it's safe (now) to be this free
Free your self right down to your skin
Guess we gotta give up to win
Sell me mine, I'll sell you yours
On your knees or on all fours
If everyone does it, can it be sin?
Guess we gotta give up to win
How can I sing my song today?
I haven't apologized in any way
But I can still fit contrition in
Bless me reader for I have sinned
Or, 'Confessions'
9/13/18 to SD
to NY
March Tenth Ancillary
Language/morphing - disguised
Buried in space • A sky burial for my ideas
A black crow picked your brain and flew away
Echo chamber of glass
Echo chambered a round
The message hit before I crossed town
What a mess this age
I
Letters to the stars
Signal to the tower
Can you read me Lord
Do you have the power
I've sung it with my hands
I know it's what you want
I included everyone
Except who I forgot
I used the righteous words
And at the perfect time
You think I might deserve
A better place in line?
I'm ready for a blessing
You've got a lot to give
I'm reading and I'm checking
To redeem my little gift
II
So is it getting through?
My message through the air
Can you read me Lord
I'm dressing up my prayers
I wrote them with my hands
I know that's what you like
I copied everyone
That I forgot last time
I used to speak aloud
But where does that get me
Like wisdom of the crowd
That people have to see
I'm ready for a blessing
You could have more to give
I'm reading and I'm checking
To receive my little gift
III
My ten-stringed instruments
Are working overtime today
Can you read me Lord 2/17
My campaign underway
I used to be connected
But now I go direct
My focus redirected
Until you resurrect
I'm praying to the real thing
Although I'm still concerned
What if what I really meant
Isn't what you heard?
I'm praying for an answer
But don't expect applause
With no immediate feedback
Less likely to withdraw
IV
So I keep typing on, Lord
Forgetting to hit send
The prayers stay in my hand Lord
Forgetting to ascend
I wonder if this even counts
I wonder if this works
I wonder if you're reading
In a format in-referred
The words flow like a river
Streaming towards a fall
The others all are closing
So I'm just keeping on ...
I'm ready for a blessing
You've got a lot to give
Checking and refreshing
To receive my little gift
I'm ready for a blessing, Lord
I'll never go astray
I'm ready Lord I'm ready
I could be yours today
★ ★ ★
Jan 21
City Notebook
She pulled the branch down
Inhaled the flowers
I saw her do this
I smiled at her
It gave her permission to smile back
5/2/2019
Misidentified and strange (1 2 3 4 5 and 6)
FOV will change
My heart lives in the past
Attention never lasts
The hood slipped over my face
But I swore that I could see
Concentration just a taste
Of hypocrisy consuming me
Ghost steps
Ghost steps lead me on
By the time I catch up with them
They're already gone
Misdirection left to chance and
The illusion of romance
My heart lives in the light
When the sun is out of sight
"You should slip over the fence"
Is what the steps were telling me
Never did see where they went and
The suspense is killing me
Ghost steps
Ghost steps lead me on
By the time I catch up with them
They're already gone
★ Acoustic
★ Minor key
6/8 played as 4 + 2/8
★ quiet, low vocals
★ harmonize chorus
"is what the steps were telling me" Accent acoustic gtr on perf. on this and its rhyming line
Jul-Aug 2018 8/7/18
March Tenth 18
When everything's worse
You make it better
I say what I have to
You say what I get to
Wheels squeak.shriek
("destroying secrets")
Innocence will never last
Growing up too fast
Naivete is in the past (optimism? positivity?)
Growing up too fast
Open up
Open your wide eyes
Before you jump
Is it the right size?
Destroying secrets, open up your eyes
World disguise no longer classified
The future's face is now unmasked
Growing up too fast
deflowering enthusiast
Going up too fast
Time is up
Won't let you finalize
The final cut
With none to idolize
Destroying secrets now identified
Secrets you can now see eye to eye
Birder companion: Skiller.
My heart lives in the past (see Ghost Steps)
Make feel and time signature different than Ghost Steps (or combine with Ghost Steps)
meter is similar otherwise 6/8? digital handclaps
8/8 2018
March Tenth 18
Transfigurational exercise
Totally rational to let her die
Amtrak sleeping like fish on ice
Support your local flotation device
North Pole High has graduation on ice
Terrible things in the variable mind
Wearable signs, varicose vines
Hold me close I'm about to run out of time
Grown inside of me
And stolen from the air
Unload up and off of me
Consigned to yes and no
Alone as I can be
And hoping you don't care
from Venus far as you can see
Far back as it will go
From back unto the forth
With shining steel anew
Hide it under what I know
Bury it so at a glance
Bones grow inside the core
...
LIRR: Syosset to Penn Station 8-3-19
City Notebook
"Running to the Cross"
Thumbprint find the detective eye
Mineola fire meets Long Island sky
On my life I never thought I
Would be the right kind of clever thought guy
To heap a right pile of leftover rice
Mini stir fry means Staten Island fly
Your body is pale
Your door is shut
Your mind is closed,
Your eyes somewhat.
I'll paint you like frames
I'll leave you like dust
I'll open your eyes
I'll close your life shut
Your voice is insane
Your liquor like wine
Your reason is absent
Your dignity mine
I'll show you the sunshine
I'll leave you in gray
I'll give you a gift
Then I'll take it away
Your words are a gale
A lunatic wind
Your substance grave opens
A Gordian unspins
We're off to the races
And here comes the grin
With yesterday's story
The torrent begins
I'm lingering on
With an eye toward the end
You're singing a song I've survived, without, consent
A cymbal or gong resounding unsuppressed
2 März 2020
City Notebook
Frogefeller. No lies. Less talkening. More flies.
Add more danger.
and the UES
A canvas unheard
humanity curdled
we pass each other on our way
to anywhere else in the world.
alive here for free
the flooring for sleep
we stepped over someone's small
universe piled in a heap
Another blank slate
just moved from upstate
deserving of space somewhere
nowhere around section eight
topographical void
of the better employed
his kingdom secured
with the plastic white fence deployed
It's the them that makes us
xxxxxx nevertheless
It's the owning of things in reverse
that makes us what
possessions possess
in our dressiest dress
in the smell of success
it's the glamorous mess
and the no that means yes
that keeps us in the more and the less
11/24 "more and the less" and the UES
City Notebook
(original)
It ends then it begins
the evening ritual
from outside or within
forever unoriginal
I found her where I lost myself
and later in my dreams
She showed me things I never knew
and never found the meaning
And nobody knew where we were
And nobody knew where we were
It never could have lasted
for we were strictly young
like none of it would translate
to any older tongue
Like smoke above the rooftops
we drifted into space
And without any guiding lights
we followed our own way
And nobody knew where we were
Anonymously roaming
Possessing only verve
Cameras in absentia
Get nothing we deserve
We found it where we lost ourselves
And stolen from our dreams
Were visions from another eye
We never found the meaning
And nobody knew who we were
It never could have lasted
for we were strictly young
like none of it would translate
to any older tongue
We spoke into cassette tapes
We printed into space
Created new existence
They never saw our face, and
Nobody knew who we were
Nobody knew who we were.
Changes right in front of me
x Too slow to want to see
The end is undersea
The sea is over • The sea is over
Nobody notices anything wrong.
The Nobody Sea is dry today
The sea is over and we are under
Underneath Atlantic
we become blind
With Brooklyn ahead
and nothing behind
There is no surface for me
Too little light in front to see
The end ahead of me
Nostrand Avenue • Nostrand Avenue
Notorious society song
An anti-Valentines Day
The sea is over and we are under
From out the Mediterranean Sea
We forge a new reality
The end is beyond me
Railroad Avenue • Urban Avenue
The train strings us along
In slow-motion replay
The sea is over and we are under
Underneath Atlantic ...
Atlantic Terminated.
Brooklyn Steel.
Groovy noise rave-up
Fuzz bass
6-22-19 Brooklyn
City Notebook
wherein
within
therein
might have been
forgive
commit
seems
means
Dean's
machines
- You are the product
- Handing it over - unburdening oneself
- Incessant / constant irony
- Judge 0̸ ("judge naught")
- White flowers: Daisy, Lily, Baby's Breath, Lily of the Valley, Easter Lily, Dogwood
- unstressed-stressed --> da-DUM
The Conversationalist
Port Jefferson Zombies
Let's get out of Oceanside
Small regular coffee
"You Pay Me" attention
Heat meat defeat seat beat repeat elite deplete street
LIRR East
Overselling
Fantastic • majestic • amazing
Prime • pristine • premium
Oversales • Overwin • Uberwin
I don't win until you lose
Brick up the hole
Brick up the whole thing
Selling truth
Diamond + 4 Ms perpendicular
Hipster Viking Barista
Armed and ready to stake your claim
To fight the forces of the lame
By beating them at their own game
"I'm up in it
I'm in my prime"
(Asemic Writing)
© 2023 Mario Rossetti
CITY NOTEBOOK
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