My cellphone is beeping, but I’m not picking up
The lights are flashing, but I can’t see them
The world is calling, and I’m just here waiting
A lonely ghost at the edge of the world

I am waiting for the tides to come in
The white foam to wash
in
and recede
into the distance
unveiling the sparkling seashells beneath their blanket

Apollo is glaring red, hot eyes

but I lean forward on this rock


and listen instead to the whispering sea

I used to be the king of men
I used to be the star of night


the green limelight


and the purple mystery
but now I’ve run away from my destiny

The glamour shingling, dangling behind me

I walk on, I walk on

The shadows of a beggar crawling after me

I walk on, I walk on

Where it takes me, I do not know

All I know is that I’m going nowhere

and nowhere is exactly where I want to go

The fun I have left –


enjoy your game

I leave for the others
who have never tasted the gritty sand

of gold caviar

On this beach, a million miles nowhere
I knew you’d ask me

where’s the beach ball?

The blanket rolls, and the sea breeze

inflates it

falls down again,

rolling and rolling

Maybe one day they’ll find me on this shore

an old man sitting alone on this rock
Their still-breathing eyes searching impatiently

for a warmer fire that was never there

And I the evil, evil hermit

can say but this, a superficial riddle

The records of history, by speech I pass down

to be read and discarded by the uncool few

For there is no yellow and red in blue

and there is no life


within one’s very life

So sail on, young Frenchman and

travel the seas, the six lands
when you return, you’ll find nothing

Nothing but yourself, on this sandy shore

sitting on a rock, watching the reflections

watching the reflections and their slow ripples