The Moon as Witness

By Al Ferber

For eons and millennia the moon has overlooked the earth in all phases of development. All the creatures, however strange that have occupied the varied environs. Humans the strangest of creatures by far have over their short time on the planet provided the moon with moments of both euphoria and despair. The moon has witnessed everything crossing the full range of emotions and behaviours from bravery to depravity, the horror and the comedy. These poems are but snippets of the great tragicomedy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479765003

Al Ferber

Al Ferber a septuagenerian going on 13. Born. Regrettably… A North Philly kid. Survived education at Temple U., Penn State, Villanova U. Alcoholic 30 years. Sober 23 years. Indenture servant to Catherine the Great 34 years. Learned to love and appreciate cats and one dog. Authored 30 books of poems, 2 novels, 3 chap books. Poems in Magazines in U.S., England, Scotland, France. Still alive, on the downward path of the sliding board, as of this writing. An undocumented alien in the world. Resides Ocean City, NJ surrounded by water with Cathi, Luna, Mitzi, and Opal. So there.

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Copyright © 2012 by Al Ferber.

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CONTENTS

The Storm

Lean Cuisine for the Soul

The Whip

Sinner

Everything In Its Place

Rock Bottom

Sunshine Superman

A Life Too Short

A Moment of Madness

The Magic Is Gone

Conga Fire

The Edge

Rabbit Hole

Bent Twig

The Mornings After

Chaos

Cleopatra

Sylvia

Stick In The Mud

The Rapture

Aspects

Black Bird

Black Magic

The World Is Too Bland

Wanderer

Speedway

Parking Spot

Backdrop

Tides of Emotions

String Theory

Inner Conflict

River Gulch

One Punch Knockout

Interviewing God

One Step Away

Boy, Teenager, Man

Castle Keep

Nobody Knows Me

Once Again

My Soul, My Spirit

Myths Are Made

From Dreaming

I’m Lost

The Masquerade

Old Neighborhood

The Moon As Witness

Marriage of

Heaven & Hell

Decided To Live

Gas Lamps

Steeple Chase

Confusion

Deceptors

Church

Lane Changer

Dark River

Smoke Stack Lightning

SALvaDOR

Slipping & Sliding

The Past Recaptured

Hedonist

Simple Pleasures

Odd Angle

Sex After 60

Rainy Night

Abandoning

Frame of Reference

Symbolic Power

15 Minutes

Of Gods & Demons

Nothing To Do With

Boat Men

River of Eternal Now

Cognac

Last Legs

One Cheap Trick

Fishing

HOBO

Right Church

Wrong Year

African Violins

The Other Side Of

The Looking Glass

Hunter & The Hunted

To Grandmother’s House

Graduation Dance

Pardon From Purgatory

Over The Lip Of The Sun

Me & My Succubus

Languages of the Dead

A Flood of Tears

Angels Dying in

the Night

Racing Moon

Midnight Lightning

Sensing Something

Left Behind

Is There Anything

You Want

STRAY CAT—MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE

PUNCHING HOLES

IN HEAVEN

In The Shadows of Reluctant Souls

Cathedral of

Sacred Mirrors

Stolen Voices

Interior

Even Deeper

Autumn In Summer

The Hunted

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS

DEEPER

Torn Apart

Interpersonal Relationships

Half Light

St. Henrys

Bone from the Jungle

With You & Apart

Crawl Space

Twilight & Dawn

This Old School

She Colossus

Corridors

Everything Revisited

Kid

Stage Play

The Map of the

World is Wrong

Limitations

Jawbone of an Ass

A Wider Shade of Pail

Propensity

Open Terrain

Big Mike

Out of the Mist

Wing Span

Ether World

Turn About

Band of Brahmins

The Patriot Act

High Wire Act

The Other Shoe

Shoot Out

Masquerade

It’s So Bizarre

Explosion

Stark Realization

Sputtering Neon

Physical Attraction

Moment of Clarity

College of Saints

& Criminals

The Crucible

Railroad Ties

Dragon Fire

Cover Girl

History

Five

Mayhem

Sordid

Every Death

Ju Ju

Aberrant Behavior

Increments

Shaman

Circus of the Gods

Labyrinth

Zaftig

Zaftig II

Objectification

Panic Attacks

Ghost Town

Clandestine

Dome

Bedded Down

Jagged Crack

Library

Making Art

Window Shopping

Handyman

Asylum

Healthy Thighs

Death As a Thief

Balls To The Wall

All Night Beanery

Whip Lash

Desolate Angel

The Souls of Suicides

Defective Machinery

Confusion

Master of Cool

Buffoon

New to Death in America

Uncle Joe & My Dad

The Doors

One of Buddha’s Secrets

The Trees of Evil Deeds

Between

Split Decision

City Lights

Assignations

Paint Chips

Parapet

One Lit Candle

All In A Days Work

Never

Even Psychos

The Stained

Glass Windows

A Good Time

My Generation

I Am Dancing

Wooden Dance Floors

The Beat

Shadows

THE STORM

Her name was Sandy

a hurricane

renamed cyclone

lifted up and poured

down tons of beach sand

on the streets

of Jersey resort towns

mountains of sand

and wood and insulation

and houses without

residents no longer fit

to house residents

exiled to motel rooms

cots on school gymnasium floors

some still in their homes

without electricity for weeks

Sandy may have dropped

from headlines

but in her wake

she has left lives lost

lives ruined

and for the fortunate

a rebuilding process

that will take months

and years and years

LEAN CUISINE FOR THE SOUL

Conscious thought

is lethal

to the soul

its essence being

its own

its sole energy source

the soul is the arbiter

the creator

of minimalism

it needs nothing more

than exposure

to get it’s instinctive

juices flowing

flowering

painting oriental gardens

of the heart

the mind

the most malleable

the most receptive

to celestial tone & color

a canvas in heaven

once stripped of thought

the soul seems to be on a

perpetual diet

an ongoing hunger strike

to pump up the natural gas

that propels it into

dimensions of beauty that

no man with the miniscule

power of thought

could ever conceive

THE WHIP

Every couple weeks

during the summer

a man would bring

his truck with a ride

The Whip on it

to the neighborhood

cost ten cents a turn

hardly any kids would

ride it cause most

of the time

the streets were almost

deserted

most kids were swimming

up at

the Municipal Pool

in Hunting Park

most times The Whip

would do its thing

with one maybe

two kids at the most

seemed odd

almost eerie

always the same

each time he came around

searching for dimes

when I know he would

have settled

for nickels or pennies

on most days

SINNER

I know I am your

Archetypal sinner

my two favorite

deadly sins being

lust and sloth

as a matter of fact

I spend most of my time

engaged in

one

the other

or both

sloth comes in

the form of the rest

I need

from the high energy

cost of lust

which I believe

is active in me

24 hours a day

even during times of sleep

I have no interest

in fictitious virtuous things

in fact it is virtue

that bores me to death

I am indeed allergic

to all things virtuous

not a single one of them

is fun

and all result in erectile dysfunction

EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE

Let’s look at Nazi Germany

shit economy

no jobs

currency worth

next to nothing

and just in time

someone to blame

the citizenry voluntarily

turning over their rights

to the state

for their own protection

and off they went

into a dizzying

period of history

any of this sound familiar

in this can’t happen here

Disneyland of the planet

every necessary piece

of this folly has already

been set carefully

into place

and the sad fact is that

the lambs are of the mind

if you can’t see it

it doesn’t exist

like cancer & heart disease

ROCK BOTTOM

Consider the implications

Rock Bottom indicates

a place

where there is

no place

else to go

no way out

except

possibly surrender

indicates perennial dryness

perennial lack of life

located somewhere

in the Badlands

where there is

no good to be had

where there is

a dearth of angels

a plethora of agony

with no relief

except perhaps

surrender

but to who

to what

that could afford

a clean escape

SUNSHINE SUPERMAN

Sunshine brightens up

days and lives

lights the way for joy

for happiness

the hallmark of all