electric fairy lights danced

on darkened streaks as

the armor of her eyes

ran black in salted streams,

she looks pretty like this,

as though falling stars

became ghosts on her skin,

though her rainbows are

laced with scabs,

he gets lost within the hues

and he's warming himself

by the fire,

burning all his umbrellas

to prepare for the future,

and he likes the look

of painting the sky with

visions of her rising tears.

Electric fairy lights danced

on darkened windows.

Hovering souls folded

into quarters of bloody rags.

Stars marched single file

onto death row

with no rays of hope.

Moon beat hasty retreat

into pools of curdled mist

inside my head.

Buzzards screamed

festered messages of doom.

Empty mirrors

reflect troubled spirits

falling into abyss

of no return,

frantically holding on

to jagged knives

to cut the darkness.

Drowning in

endless desert,

self-indulgent sun

refuses to rise.

Threatening shadows

of the murky forest

extinguish fairy lights.

Melancholy stabs

winged lives

as black clouds

swoop angrily in,

playing an invisible

orchestra of despair

scolding its next prey

in barbed wire threats -

DISSONANCE SURROUNDS.

Electric fairy lights dance on darkened windows

Sparks in stasis framed by the night

Where I raise my glass to the moon

And take stock of all I've seen

The good, the bad and the melancholy 

It gets deep inside the bottle

Rabbit holes may offer madness

But the bottle offers oblivion

While I observe significant structures

That echo deeper meanings

Modern crucifixes and midnight wires

Deliver words of many a saviour

Digital scriptures that will never have the weight of a universal dogma

To certain masses

But individuals crave absolution of a different design

Free thought and liquor linger on mine

My tongue flows on midnight rhymes

Spiced rum and a world come undone…

© Richard Withey. All rights reserved.

     Electric fairy lights danced on darkened streets while the world slept. I, in the meanwhile could not sleep, insomnia pulled at my heart and sleeve 'til i was compelled to rise an' take a peek.

     Yeah, I'll testify, there they were dancin', playin' in the streets. Laughing, toying, chasin' each other an' the lights they lit. Mostly greens, they looked like leprechauns, I imagined if I'd catch one, boy what a fit. Probably, in its squeaky little toy voice, would reprimand me good, but then gave me a great big bit of good.

     I gave in. Jumped through my window and caught one between my thumb and index finger. Being extra gentle, I asked it its name. It said. "Let me go, oh, crazy human man. You're not supposed to be here, be asleep like everybody else. How come you're awake? Let me go before I tell on you."

     "Who ya gonna tell, cute little one?"

     She squirmed and wriggled and shouted, "Lord, Lord of Light. Help me. Help me!"

     "Okay, okay, don't get crazy. I'm just curious. What's this all about?"

     "Well, while humans sleep, I will tell, 'though I may get into trouble, . . . we come out and dance and play and bring peace on the streets assigned to us by the Lord of Light. We sing and praise the Lord of Creation. This helps people sleep. It keeps some of them, the ones who you call haters, it keeps them from doing bad or worse things to other people."

     "Well then, go on, go sing. Go play, make music and dance."

     With that she sped away on wings like a Tinkerbell. She looked like a neon flash of light, leaving a fluorescent glowing trail in the night air. I wondered if other humans heard or saw them as I did. Maybe, I thought, their activity is at this moment inspiring dreams. "I wonder if it's true, keeping violence or bad deeds happening on this or any given night."

     Their music was melodious, rapturous and sweet. "Enough to qualm the nervousness or mean streak out of any human predator or stalker," I thought.

     There were thousands of them. The whole thing resembled a grand parade, like the Festival of Roses. Some were elegantly dressed. Some appeared to be officials in charge of the whole thing. There were children and families and groups that played special instruments like harps and electric organs in tune with kaleidoscopic lights.

     I don't remember falling asleep. But when I woke it was just another ordinary morning. I made myself breakfast and wondered about the whole affair. I didn't question whether it might of not happened. I resolved to have an open mind and welcomed the prospect of it happening again.

Electric 

fairy lights

danced 

on darkened streets

as merry midnight 

eyes watch

from discreet 

corners

waiting

   waiting

is no more

than a trifle

in a world 

that twinkles

birth

and death

in a single

held breath

reward

arrives on heels

of pleasure

proffered in layers

every earthly

revolution

myriad repetitions

one may lose count

base need sheds

its lustre

and the moon

waxes 

and wanes 

waiting

   waiting

is excruciating

madness of 

superfluous lives

lived and a soulmate

to accompany 

each one

Electric 

fairy lights

danced

on darkened

streets once more

pass the time

make merry

watching life

come

and go.

Electric fairy lights danced on darkened windows

While you and I danced in the street

The music unheard by anyone but us

Our hearts raced in time to the beat

Electric fairy lights twinkled in the moonlight

There's a dare twinkling in your eye

Mischief alive in that devilish smile

And I laugh, and you're asking "why?"

Electric fairy lights glowed neon colors

Like the tracers that trailed off our fingers

The stars in the sky are chasing each other

The taste of the mushroom tea lingers

Electric fairy lights swirling like cyclones

I'm spinning out, you watch me twirl

Higher and faster, blurring the night

I'm happy, I'm safe, I'm your girl

Electric fairy lights bounced off parked cars

As if searching for life in the night

We might be the only two left in this town

But I think that will work out all right

Electric fairy lights left ribbons behind them

We chased ribbons for hours on end

I'll follow you any damn way you will go

Space and time, my love will transcend

Electric fairy lights skipped across rooftops

You're leaning in close for a kiss

Your licorice lips are a magic elixir

I've been waiting my whole life for this

Electric fairy lights that frolicked with glee

Kept us company that whole night long

Invisible to normal folks sleeping inside

They can't hear the electric fairy songs

Electric fairy lights that danced in the dark

Disappear in the bright sunlit splendor

And the time we ate mushrooms and danced with the moon...

Yet another time it hurts to remember

The fairy lights danced on the wrap-around police shades as the merry-go-round spun to a halt.

The police officer's gun was pointed at the child's over-sized head.

The officer's sunglasses were black unblinking pools.  If eyes are windows on the soul, no-one was admitting being at home. 

In the background the shrieks of children and anxious yelling parents. 

'Get away from it!', shouted a red-faced and sweating man to a sobbing flaxen-haired girl on a wooden hippo. 

The armed officer tightened his banjo-wire lips and ground out a series of quickfire orders. 

'Dismount from the unicorn!'

'Keep your hands where I can see them!'

Frustrated by the lack of visible wrists the officer abandoned handcuffs in favour of roping his prisoner's arms to his sides with the string of fairy lights. 

At the internment centre, based roughly on skin-colour,  he was processed with the Afghans and Syrians. 

A sympathetic Afghan kid of about 12 helped untie the dead and broken string of fairy lights. 

'You're not from around here!', the boy commented, as they shuffled together in line to the processing desk. 

A kid from the Mexican cohort hooted with laughter. 'We're all the same now! All with a one-way ticket to the wall'. 

At the processing desk the customs officer mechanically outlined the rules. 

'If you have money, or you can get it,  please step to one side. 

'You will be accommodated in the Towers Hotel to the left until your money runs out. 

'If you have no money you will proceed in an orderly fashion to the wall for involuntary expatriation. 

'You are allowed one phone call.'

The child clasped his long delicate fingers round the hand-set and tapped in a number. 

A subtle orange light appeared. The broken string of fairy lights floated gently from the ground and began to pulse red, white and blue. 

The electric fairy lights danced on his darkened eyes and reflected strange constellations. 

The child appeared not to notice as he puckered his lips doubtfully, swallowed and spoke his first word: 'Ell-i-ot?'. 

Electric fairy lights danced

on darkened eyes

Whimsical fantasies of

awakenings

extinguished by

recognition

of the permanence

of sheep-coma

#nightdwellers

#beginningline

electric fairy lights

danced on darkened eyes

of scattered souls.

a neon sign,

ungodlike and self-aware,

straight to the point

proclaims

these lovely ladies dance for you

and

open twenty-four hours a day

and

topless sweethearts

and

WELCOME TO HEAVEN.

heaven.

in the cold place

at the nape of my neck,

or in the grubby fingers

of a divorced mailman with a dollar.

the delicate place of a

half-hearted dream,

shattered in the grey between

relevance and politics.

a strip club behind a chinese

restaurant.

this is heaven?

fairylights and broken bottles

in an alley where someone

lost their way, their innocence,

the contents of their stomach.

a heaven for someone

with dark eyes

and a few questions

under their skin.

Electric fairy lights danced on darkened windows as Shoen walked pensively down the boulevard, shoes scraping across the rough cold concrete, hands in his jacket pockets. He saw the lights floating in the air above his head, but opted to shift his gaze to the ground. But his poor spirits did little to rival the beauty of the moment; the lights cast faint glowing shadows of themselves onto the ground Shoen was intent on staring into. 

The street basked in the yellow-orange light thrown down by the street lights, and Shoen still noted the haunting gradient with his peripheral vision. The road was abandoned by all intent on slumber. Finally, Shoen gave in and swept the hood off of his head and looked upward at the breathtaking lights as he let the small warm breeze ruffle his fur. His ears felt great from not being restrained by the hood, and he took a deep breath into his chest and let it all out slowly in a content sigh. The lights were indescribably beautiful, lined up haphazardly, casting their faint colors around them against the night sky. Suddenly, the street lights flickered off. Despite his slight alarm, Shoen found no reason to be frightened. The fairy lights were still there, guiding him. Without a second thought, Shoen followed his capricious urge to follow them. He sauntered along their path. 

He also wasn't bothered when the lights lowered down until he could have touched them. But they drifted lower until he could, and began to cluster around him. He smiled and closed his eyes as they embraced him, covering him in white light. 

The lights scattered, floating away and fading away. Shoen felt clean. His fur now had assumed a magnificent pearly white, a drastic change from dark grey.

He felt clean.