I never escaped from maws bing pi eyed piper pauper

Thus yours truly resigns himself

June first two thousand and twenty three
to imagine being gifted with untold riches
courtesy female named Jean E.

This tramp (caricatured familiarly

epitomized, demonized, characterized...
countless Chaplinesque productions,

Dickensian tales,
oil paintings from artistic

hands of great masters,
and other anonymous

exquisite craftsman, et cetera)
remembers practically nothing

of nine month stay in utero
birth, childhood nor early adulthood
my amorphous gauzy,

hazy fractal memories
solely comprise fractured,

fragmented and splintered collection
of miserable memories

character wry zing living
hellacious hand to mouth

hard scrapple existence.

Past wispy vestiges of wretchedness
present woebegone existence, which seems
a worse fate than death

overpowering urge to survive
summoning up one

barely audible l'chaim utterance
against depredations rustling

grim reaper found nothing
but defeat daily dismal

grinding away of last shreds
repurposed driven life fending off real
and imagined threats sought salvation
vividly encased within

preserved imagination,
an existence awash

with trappings of southern comfort
provided by Jim Beam.

Yours truly dug deep

with bony introspective strength
in tandem with fantasy notions knocking
around in figurative

heady noggin like cranial carapace
to muster every ounce

of strength escaping
chronic confrontation

endless streak of bleakness
cursed with brutish, nasty

nefarious fate as a measly

looking human varmint,

this grimy, grungy, rangy,
et cetera looking besotted being
clung with all might

within mine five foot ten inch
and one hundred

and fifty plus pound body
to transcend twerking terrestrial travesty
tweeting and tweaking

fickle finger of fate against favor.

I tapped atavistic survival skills
summoning willpower

to stay alive drinking butter bear
heavy cross of dirt poor poverty

borne no matter
a hard-core skeptic at heart,

this cynic plaintively
called divine intervention

to help this human piece
of flotsam and jetsam

to cope living like a doleful
junkyard dog essentially

abandoned, ignored, cancelled
and shunned vagrant

frequently raged against
Deus ex machina manacled movement
found figurative amidst

literal unlovely bones
slim pickens with demons

that tormented psyche

while traipsing along litter strewn
condemned boulevard of broken dreams,
torn and well-worn shoe

kicked discarded items
weather beaten hands reflexively bent
to retrieve accouterments

comprising colorful jagged shard,
previously housed cheap fermented liquor
nothing but crud filled

remnant of dog gone
boozehounds’ favorite drink.

Although never drawn

to drown sorrows
by turning to the bottle,

cigarettes nor drugs
(a respect for thyself existed),
an automatic reflex caught

eye-catching attention
comprising anonymous drunkard’s signature
lost memento and wireless device entity
constituted a dullish metallic object,
which turned out to be a heavily damaged
slender MOTORAZR (long obsolete) phone.

Out of foolish embarrassment

qua natural instinct,
i raddled then rubbed

remnant once containing
amber liquid of the gods’

irrational explanation in mockery
against cosmic consciousness, my mouth
jabber walk key talky like

into mobile phone these chapped,
course and cracked fingers

slid across unbroken surface
of antiquated bottle in tandem

with parched lips uttering
cockamamie pretend plea, a crackle, snap
and pop delivered a lifelike being whose
corporeal essence resembled a goddess.

The mp3 player issued magically
syncopated beats indicative per favorite
saved playlist tunes former owner

of electronic contraption
without a shadow of doubt,

this vision and auditory music definitely
brought sobered Punch

to this Judy schuss schlepper.

I clapped these nearly deaf ears, thence
rubbed mine-gnarled hands

across myopic eyes.

These twin bodily motions

executed just to dismiss
stray chance of experiencing hallucination
a maiden suddenly appeared

in plain view,
which disbelief found me

pretending to conduct
make believe conversation

via encrusted cell phone
while speaking a matter of fact tone of voice.

She (in a hypnotic, lilting,

melodic and sing song tone)
responded with casual chit chat

genie hill (Alladin like)
everyday, general friendly conversation
eventually ensued fraught

with apprehension and self
consciousness) before purpose

of her presence
became clear, an intuitive

understanding took place
akin to acute telepathic Sikh sixth sense.

Immediate difficulty arose

to think of one wish
to abet grievous humiliation

and immersion in miserable
penury, which might be abrogated

once and for all
with immediacy by simple syllabic voicing
for a pile of crisply minted money, yet
rather than blurt out immediate offering
for untold material commodities

and resplendent riches,
i surprised myself and

communicated a desire
for female friendship.

A gamesome, genteel, gentle gal who would
surrender herself for cries

and whispers seemed
more important than any pile of wealth aware
cha self-actualization about

my utter decrepitude
appeared as immediate

deterrent toward attaining
a bona fide sincere relationship, an ordinary
and reasonable ambition appeared as lofty goal.

Self absorbed in rambling

longing of body, mind
and heart, I quickly became oblivious
to imaged or real corporeal presence
who spurred outpouring

tears of joy per this
ostracized and unwanted vermin eyes
while loosening the tongue in an effort
to picture the escape

from pernicious malady
crushing breathing room

of abominable existence.

Lips shut tight also

prevented the woebegone loss
what appeared as some

divine trickster who conjured
such a muse out of thin air

upon winding down
this unrehearsed recitation,

a painstaking effort
got made to open the eyelids very slowly.

Lo and behold, when manifestation

in actual dolled up guise
of a gorgeous gal stood still as a statue,
and remained rapt

with attention provenance
and provenance found pleasure

in my prattle, and promise
got uttered by lovely lass

to remain a permanent
die-hard companion

no matter many considered
this paperback writer wannabe
nothing but wretched

pestilence of the earth.

This groveling gremlin

of a human felt like a beast alongside
one beautiful babe, who came across
as genuinely modest and passionate
to promulgate profound sharing of body,
mind and spirit triage, where homelessness
and pennilessness mattered not a whit
to this literally spellbinding goddess,
who seemed to materialize out the heavens
in the likeness sans Betsy Ross.

The question how

and where did this muse
render herself to appear

out of thin air puzzled,
and quizzed curiosity

assessed and gleaned no matter
not one word uttered,

thus necessity for conversation
seemed superfluous for we both

seemed able to converse
by autosuggestion of this,

that or the other query.

I (by the way) seemed

to be more intrigued

in this angelic spirit
come to life viz comedy of errors

that punctuated anonymous
life with angst king lear

riddled tragedy suddenly took
a most pleasant unexpectedly

found that all’s well
that ends well with this leery king

from southeastern Pennsylvania

possesses great expectations

by dickens no matter the field

of whet dreams populated

with slim (shady) T. Boone Pickens.