FLOPHOUSE ON ROUTE 666
Smut mattressed under the sign of the ghost
Christened in blood, the sleep walking virgin
Rends herself upon the banister rails
Gay-hearted Jack cracks his skull-like shell
Hatchlings feast heartily upon a gracious host
Beneath their hoods, teeth gnash like tin
Driven men peer from eighteen wheeled jails
As mudflap girls quief their majik spell.
©1999 Jonny Kingston
HOMETOWN DRIFTER
This is no town to drift in
Pallid moon, river barren
Nightshades drawn with leering eyes.
Strangers pass, suffocating
On air thick with innuendo
And the occassional lynch-mob din.
Death is a way of life here
Greed; the blood that feeds
Our pleasure-seeking hearts and minds.
No one asked to be born
And raised in this hopeless state
Turned inside out and out again.
Incapable of bringing joy
Only doom and gloom
And an unbelievable history.
Will this reckless abandon
Ever come to abandon me
To enjoy your simple pleasantries?
My pleas fall on deaf ears
Or maybe I'm too blind to see
Even the very slightest of mercies.
©1997 Jonny Kingston
BROS.
They sat together, closer than brothers
Sharing Guinness and sinsemilla
In the stillness of the workshed
Where one would later hang himself.
©1997 Jonny Kingston
DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY REUNION
Second-hand luxury cars
Fill the lot, where the kids
Will soon be fistfighting.
Barren evergreens offer
Sparse shade, bringing little
Relief from heated discussion.
Black flies nestle their eggs
Fruitlessly, into flesh
That is bound for the fire.
Accounts of sexual conquests
Are shared, out of earshot
Of wives and girlfriends.
The punch bowl is spiked
With the usual, table strewn
With various petri dishes.
Facelifts and tummytucks
Are compared, then the women
Move to more fertile chatter.
A stereophonic device
Creates ambiance, drowning out
Sounds we cannot endure.
Photos are taken
For posterity, as if anyone
Is ever going to care.
©1998 Jonny Kingston
CHILDHOOD MEMORY #463
Our babysitter
Was a coke dealer
On the side
She kept one eye on us
And the other
On her customers
Until one day
The masked man
Shot her in the face.
©1999 Jonny Kingston
SON OF A BITCH (MY LIFE STORY)
My life plays like a bad movie
Poorly cast, crudely written -
Too many loose ends left dangling.
My fan club has disbanded
No one buys a line I deliver -
I've played this part to death.
It's a cross between Danny Bonaduce/
Johnny Depp, with a little Sid Vicious
Thrown in for effect.
I've entertained Porn Stars
Coke whores, kleptomaniacs
And the occasional spoiled brat.
The one's I've respected I dismissed
While I was drawn like a magnet
To the worst trashcan bitches.
I was raised by "Bonnie and Clyde"
Two of America's Most Wanted
Gun-toting gangster wannabes.
I've stared down an FBI shotgun barrel
Carefully examining a photo of my "dad",
Whom I denied ever seeing.
My real father was hacked to pieces
In a blood splattered stairwell
Holding a birthday card addressed to me.
(I suspected my step-dad of this for a while).
We were forever somebody else,
I learned to lie to my best friends -
I learned to leave without saying goodbye.
We were constantly on the move,
On the lam; on the hunt for new digs
And even newer names.
Things would get back to normal
When he got sent back to the Pen -
He always got out too soon.
(He finally died of camel (non-filter) cancer).
My mother is decidedly worse for wear,
A perpetual welfare leech, high on OCD
And an expert petty criminal.
She drives a blood red Corvette,
Owns a Winnabego, van, truck
And is in the market for a ski boat.
(All of this on $235 a month Government Assistance).
My sister has fallen on hard times -
First husband is a full blown heroin addict,
Second one's on parole for murder.
Her two beautiful children are following
In her and my sorry footsteps, sad to say
History does repeat itself.
All through this - I pretend this is normal.
I watch my brother-in-law carve the turkey
Like his best friend carved his grandmother.
( ! )
So this is to be our last Christmas together,
My family will have to go on without me -
For this is my New Year's Resolution:
TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE.
©1997 Jonny Kingston
