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The Velvet Azure Diamond Chrysanthemum Man

1.
 
The Purple Studded Rusted Blade,
It come around the alley bend,
With a Chrysanthemum’s fading pain,
He began to sweep the streets again,
 
2.
 
The Man who stumbled along,
So skinny, not fat, gazed at the heroin spoon,
Drunk as a skunk and with passion in mind,
He began to sing “Blue Moon”,
 
3.
 
A child with one Eye saw the Fox,
Red and raving, eating out of a bin,
Frozen was the child, home in half a mile,
Who saw the Fox turn to him with a smile,
 
 
4.
 
The Purple hood with his Compass blade,
Heard the man howl first:
Some long ago song about Love and Change,
He followed the sound,
To end the noise and calm his brain,
 
5.
 
The boy pounded lead through the dead streets,
Cobblestone and wet emerald bubble sewage drops,
The Fox echoed after him, gaining on his spot,
The boy didn’t see the Man, they hit,
And landed the Man on top,
 
6.
 
The Purple Cobra saw the Man and Boy Collide,
In the sallow, pale, lonely moonlight,
He decided to rob them when he heard more closely,
A deep red snarl from somewhere nearby,
 
7.
 
The Boy, The Drunk, and the Studded Cobra Thug,
Stood looking at the Wild Thing; obviously not Normal,
Definitely sick,
Its breathing was a watery gurgle and far to quick,
 
8.
 
The Flower Petal Moonlight Thug,
Told them both to run, that when they had left the scene;
He’d knife the dog and safe would be everyone,
 
9.
 
Instead, the Boy picked up a Rock,
Instead, the Drunk took out his Bottle,
They, three, stood waiting,
Waiting for the Beast to charge full throttle,
For in each of their lives, perhaps this night was destiny,
They stood like mountains against the sea,
 
10.
 
“Come on, you fucker!” sounding ages older,
The Boy bellowed,
“Yeah! What he said asshole!” The Drunken Man,
Slurridly followed,
The Studded Cobra Madonna of a man,
Said nothing, but flicked his knife,
Sanely, he knew this was a bigger Beast,
And someone might lose their life,
 
11.
 
They stood, bathed in moonshine,
While ladies went to and fro,
A Street away,
Wondering between DaVinci and Michelangelo,
 
12.
 
The Beast was hungry, but smelt no fear;
This was different, but his mind wasn’t clear,
A Rat, sometime ago, had bitten him, he couldn’t recall,
Then he started to feel his head grow too small,
And his hunger picked up as well as his fear,
Fear,
And Anger, Fury, Rage,
Drunk on all like beer,
Before all this he’d lain alone, shivering, shaking,
Feeling poison in his Bones:
He began to piss Blood and Vomit today,
And now these Humans were blocking,
His way—-
He felt such anger; such foreign want to kill,
He was LOST himself, but deep down,
He didn’t want to kill: the Boy, the Man, the one,
Whose face you’d never see,
His Anger and Burning Brain drove him forward,
But he really wanted to let them be,
 
13.
 
The three saw the blood on his muzzle:
He’d chewed off his own lips,
Such a poor scoundrel, in the late evening,
Of yellow rising foggy mist,
 
14.
 
The Boy flew the stone,
The Drunkard his bottle,
The stone struck the animal straight,
Straight to the head with a bone braking SNAP!
The bottle hit its knee, as he tried to escape;
It shattered on the Beast’s two front knuckles,
He uttered a HOWL, tottered, and fell on his side,
Bleeding, breathing, in a shuffle,
 
 
15.
 
The Chrysanthemum man stood silent,
As he watched the others go,
Telling him run, to get out, if he stays,
He won’t see tomorrow,
But the Velvet Studded,
Leather Jacket,
King of Dark Alleys stayed,
He stayed for a minute, then,
Made is way to the Dying Beast,
Where, between shuffling breaths, he lay,
 
“You’ve suffered. I’ve suffered too. I’m the Chrysanthemum Man who wears Velvet Shoes. I Walk and I Watch, just like you, so I’ll call you Brother, because I’ll never get to know you. “
 
His black blade, in silence, danced out,
Hidden from the moon,
He laid it breadth ways, on the dying Beast’s chest,
 
“They wanted to kill you because of Fear,
I’ll never do such a thing,
We may be different animals but,
Cursed, we are, in the Same Black Lightening,
The dark lightening of Surviving on streets,
Riddled in cobblestone, of Disease, and Rot,
Of almost knowing love so soon, only to be forgot,”
 
He put the blade’s moonlit tip against the Beast’s chest,
It had begun to heave,
The insanity of a burning brain doing its best,
 
“I am the Black Leather Jacket Man,
And you are my Friend,
My brother who I struggle with,
With whom I now share my time;
In another Land, in another Life,
Find Peace, Find Ayuddha,
While I still Search…
‘I promise you pain in Death,
Is still as Beautiful as pain in Birth…’
 
16.
 
The moonlit 6-inch blade slide slowly into the poor Beast’s throat,
His eyes closed,
The streets were silent,
Silent and Hollow,
They stayed that way for a very long time,
Silent and Hollow,
 
17.
 
The Velvet Azure Diamond Chrysanthemum Man stayed,
Until the sun tickled the top of his head,
Then, like he had appeared with the still silent wind,
He vanished and was gone again,
 
18.
 
Nothing but boot steps on cobble stone streets,
Nothing but it all coming around again,
Nothing but Beast,
Nothing but life echoing in the halls,
Nothing but Man,
And who can stand Tall…
Other works by Robert Thomas Halliwell...



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