David Jackson

Arrival of the Dreaded Body Snatchers by Dandelion Del La Rue

January 28, 2015July 23, 2014 by David Jackson

Arrival of the Dreaded Body Snatchers

The Body Snatchers
Have arrived
And won. I see around me
Countless plants
In human guise,
Giant philodendrons
Everywhere, attached to
Little boxes
Little brain supports
Staring into
Gizmos
Mesmerized
Zombified
Plantified.
What would Alice say?
Boringer and boringer
Perhaps.

What if Alice
Had an ipad
Instead of a boring book
With no pictures
Or conversations.
She wouldn’t have seen
The rabbit
Or fallen down the
Rabbit hole
Or drank from the drink me bottle
Or nibbled on the
Magic mushroom.
She might have
Thought, the roses were really red.
Wikipedia would have said so,
And she wouldn’t have
Noticed the cards
Running to and fro
With sloshing buckets
Of crimson paint.
She wouldn’t have heard
The wisdom falling from the
grinning lips of Cheshire cats
And caterpillars.
And Dorothy, of course,
Could have googled maps
And got to Kansas by the
Shortest superhighway.
She never would have
Met the scarecrow, or the
Lion, or heard
The munchkins sing.
She wouldn’t know
That she could melt a witch
Or dance on yellow brick roads.
She never would
Have stopped to smell
The poppies.

I’d rather be
An old human
Than a young
Philodendron.
I’m glad that I was young
Before the body snatchers
Came.

Oh Abraham

July 19, 2014 by David Jackson

Both hold dead babies
“See”
“See what they’ve done”

Innocence is no longer
childhood
when
children see
dead children held in the air

Abraham
Oh Abraham your
God
is noisy
childish
and leaves
dead children in the street
and trash in the ocean

Rodeo Ready by Norman Tween

June 6, 2015July 15, 2014 by David Jackson

Here is a song about Rodeo Ready
he could ride a horse real steady
and he sang his songs all night long
to his lovely darlin’ Betty
That’s Betty Ready

She said,
You can ride and twirl a rope
and sing like a chickadee
why don’t you sing on the radio
and not just sing for me.

So that’s when Rodeo Ready
when down to the radio

He said,
I’m Rodeo Ready
and I’ve got a song or two
I always sing these songs for Betty
but now I’ll sing them all for you.

So he sang his songs and they looked on
and then they had this to say,
We like your songs and the way you play
and thanks for coming by today,
but
You’re not radio ready,
no siree
You’re not radio ready.
Leave your card in the hall with Eddie,
Mr Rodeo Ready.

So Rodeo Ready went home to Betty
he said,
I sang my songs in the bar so strong
but Them old dudes said I sounded wrong.
They said you’re not Radio Ready
and to leave my card with Eddie
Cause I’m not Radio Ready.

So who is this Radio Ready said Betty
I swear he don’t mean nothin’ to me
And if he’s so good”
on the radio already he’d be.”

So now ya’ll know Rodeo Ready
never got on the radio
and he went back to
singing his songs alone to Betty
Well one day he became a dadd-ee-o
Folks showed up when the child was born,
and asked them, “What’s the baby’s name?

Well Betty looked at Rodeo

Rodeo looked at Betty

“We’ll call him Radio Ready
He’ll be Radio Ready.

And on the way home
Betty she moaned
“Did you leave your card with Eddie?”

Lyrics by David Michael Jackson and Norman Tween
Melody by Norman Tween
Guitar by Andy Derryberry

Photo Clipped from Why the Cowboy Sings

From

Posts by Summer Breeze

July 11, 2014 by David Jackson

Summer Breeze (Edy Lou Benjamin) of Silver City, New Mexico founded our sister site, Motherbird.com and has been our friend and comrade since 1998. We lost her this year. She also published many poems at Artvilla over the years.
We will miss you, Summer.

Here are the posts Summer published at Artvilla since 2005. Not all of the dates are accurate.

[pt_view id=”5814f4696a”]

Fish Quay North Shields by Norman Tween

February 11, 2019July 10, 2014 by David Jackson

The tall reddish building (the 18th Century ‘Low Light’ which assisted navigation from the river entrance)

This guache sketch is drawn from an old postcard photo of the Fish Quay c1940s. I made up the colours but the Low Light is seen with its former pre-white fascia. I doubt the workers in the fish sheds would be wearing yellow oilskins then, probably black. The outline of Knott’s Flats, completed c1938, can just be seen in the far background to the left of the Low Light.

The High Light is on the bank above. Boats coming in aligned both buildings to avoid the rocks in the estuary. Cliffords Fort is behind the Low Light. Some signs of the Fort wall remain.

The fascinating North Shields Fish Quay dates back to the 13th Century. Amongst its many historical elements is Clifford’s Fort, a Scheduled Ancient Monument built in the 17th Century as part of a network of coastal defences.…….Fish Quay

From Wiki:
North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Historically part of Northumberland, it is located eight miles (13 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Its name derives from Middle English schele meaning ‘temporary sheds or huts (used by fishermen)’,[1] and still today, the area is synonymous with fishing and other trades associated with seafaring.