Mimic

Spotlight on an empty stage
but look deeper- and see an
impersonation of a person
his face a masquerade
how much would you
pay to see the
future
lying past today

Friends claim to have
hella soul like some
platform shoes
from '72- but how much
treading on the hooves
could you endure- stepping
on holy ground of cloud city
Could this Archangel fly straight while
approached by false prophets?
Well, hell no-
You must bid them 'Adieu'

Let's strap on a mask
for acquaintances, now
known as a smile
364 more steps to a fresh
Solstice- let the sun set for
a while, sweet child of mine
put your toys away
no time to play- it's a grownup
World without place for
hijinks and an elaborate
imagination
just take one last break, then
we can waste and watch all
our youthful dreams
incinerate

My eyes
filled with fumes from a
flickering inferno
different colors segregated like
Mandela-protest apartheid times
a pink pure-cut diamond
with jagged rinds, still too rough
to even shine
This rock is bloodshot,
pried from the hands of a
dead soldier in disguise
We're all sight seperated by these
Cape Town Republican tribes
with a checkered past, it's impossible
to see past
black-and-white lines

I've got heart
but I am not a Love
machine
I can only emulate
passionate reactions
which I've seen
on TV screens

She tells me "dame contacto"
yet I cannot, though- 'cause
I really don't know what a
human truly feels like
not made of flesh and
positive-O blood type
I'm merely composed by words,
anecdotes, witty sayings
and insight

Could I please someday be
Gipetto's real son, not some
wood carved facsimile
give me pain, give me the
ability to feel some sense
of empathy

I am some thing which has
yet to be invented
I'm a clone or remnance of
the boy you first fell in
love with, or scars
of premature pregnancy
baby lost in the second trimester
the father you don't remember
or your cancer-stricken brother
your best friend who died last summer
or your mom with
a bum heart

I'm your potential,
you will come to realize me
someday-
all you can do for now is
wait, continue to not
fear life or death, or trying
every wild thing under the sun
and fucking up, one day
we'll find perfection- 'til then
just keep up human tradition
lose & find love,
and I'll keep
experimenting
with fate






(c) Paul LaTorre 2010