EXCERPT

Last Ticket to an Apocalypse

The last ticket to an apocalypse was
Sold to an old man who'd seen wars,
Rains, fires, and stars that had fallen
For tens of generations.
He gave it to me as he talked and his
Parrots squawked.

He told me he'd seen one as a youth
That was in the black horizon.
(A legend tells when a old horizon falls
Another is born to take its place.)

The horsemen came in their black shrouds
Riding on their black steeds.
He called them "Bastards!" to their faces,
Then rode on, ignoring him, without a care,
Only he was spared.

Tickets are sold every fifty generations
Or so for a horizon, that's about to end
So a new one can grow.
The ticket was torn,
Tattered, and quite old.
I ordered coffee sat down
To enjoy the show.

Black birds flew in the stars,
Fires blazed hot with fury
Darkness fell across the horizon.
In a moment, all was lost.

A new horizon was created to take its place
With a golden hue, some called "Arcadis."
May it stand a thousand years and let the
Horsemen ride no more.

Montenegro Aria
(First Movement)

Time stood still
While twilight faded
In the beginning
Where my dream
Stood silent,
Monte-Christo fell
Dead, gasping for life.

Echoes from the shadow lands,
Echoes from the wind,
Light fell in meadow fields
Where Montenegro fed his cranes.
Their long legs wallowed through
The mud and mire
With faith of exclamation.
He fell to his knees
And sired to heaven.

"Forgive me God for my sins
Build my faith from your tempest winds
To keep safe this life for all time,
To raise my dead sail from the depths
Where my heart has sunk, left hung
On that gallows pole,
Take me now and purify my soul."

Adagio

"If I were a sailing man
Escaping Devil's Island,
I'd run from these Guyana shores
Like a bastard from hell
To my French alpine hills,
The Atlantic waters
Swell and sway.
The whales are cruel
Madness weighs."

"I'll not see the world from my cell,
From this prison,
My jailer comes to kill me,
He met his fate today."

Brutish is the song.
Monte Christo sings,
His contemplation grim,
His reflection dulling senses
Already lost to him.
Where is his butterfly queen
To save him from this worried plight?

Allegro

Tiger shark, tiger shark
Swimming near the tide,
Hungry for blood
Rid me of this life.
Condemn me if you must,
My raft's broken of its trust.
Take me now - I succumb;
What I thought a new beginning
Is an ending just begun.

Refrain on A Mariner's Greed
(Second Movement of Montenegro Aria)

Allegretto

"Blue is the moon
Blue sea silver swells surround me
Rise like pillars
I sail on wings of fire

Neptune damns me
To the salty brine
Assaults my senses
A demon comes to
Greet me."

Monte Christo falters
In his raft on this sea
With no past
He sails about his
Lonely way
To dream of home
Where his Albatross play.

To sleep upon his bed
To his darling sweetheart
To keep her warm through
The nights while the world
Has stilled
To kiss her once, kiss
Her twice
To make his swamps
A hope filled plantation
To please his lust and greed
With rice his crop
To drink with a twisted
Smile with a smidge of tea.

Adagio

"Softer still his sirens sing
Their voices in my ears
Stop this torment begone
From my heart
You sweet and beautiful things
Why should you judge me
Let me live and dream.

Those prison walls were a hellish
Place that left me
Sullen and wired
I'll not be a monster to the low
Or the weak
I'll not be a braggart, evil
Or cruel whose bite is bittersweet.

Neptune condemn me if you will
Stop these tempests swells
I'll give you my soul
It's worth a king's ransom
Just let me live again
To be with my desire."

Finis

He sailed on through
The seas for several weeks
It seemed.

He did begin his life again
With his sweetheart darling
He made his fortunes
And always well.

The debt paid his ship sailed
To a Pacific island shore
As the thing he most hated
He fell into the sea
And was never heard from again.

From a Salt Flat in Argentina

I returned from Sodom and Gomorroh
Busted down and out
I took my losses hopped a slow boat to Brazil,
Sailed the Amazon,
Got lost somewhere along the way,
Hooked up with some bandits,
Who like to party in Rio.
Then I was handcuffed to a giant
Named Ralph who stole
The National Trust from Botswana.

You want to ask him
How he got here.
The story is epic
In its eventuality!

So we're stuck in a salt flat in Argentina
Or is it Chile?
Damn right it was cold.

An anaconda happened by.
Chased us for three days
Until he ate something
That disagreed with him.
I think it was a tax agent
I'm not sure.
He didn't leave his name.

Pangora is lovely this time of year;
I met an albatross
On the way to the Galapagos
Islands who fed us seaweed
For awhile until he married a
Condor with a name that
Sounded like Gina.

I hear they're doing well
They send their love.
I think Ralph turned
Cannibalistic,
We both were.
When I managed to wiggle free.

I got him first, knocked him cold.
I adapted some wings
From some tree sap and twigs
And flew away.
That's how I ended up here
Stuck in the middle of nowhere.

I was taken in by a family of sloths
They're a friendly bunch.
I hear we're raiding a Banana Republic
I may get a pair of khakis.