Hobo Jungle

[San Diegan]

Stiff and Jackie,

Thanks for a touch of home. In this strange place, I seem to have that old Cream album on my mind. This one links into our trains...

White Room

by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown

In the white room with black curtains near the station.
Blackroof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings.
Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes.
Dawnlight smiles on you leaving, my contentment.

I'll wait in this place where the sun never shines;
Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves.

You said no strings could secure you at the station.
Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows.
I walked into such a sad time at the station.
As I walked out, felt my own need just beginning.

I'll wait in the queue when the trains come back;
Lie with you where the shadows run from themselves.

At the party she was kindness in the hard crowd.
Consolation for the old wound now forgotten.
Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes.
She's just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings.

I'll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd;
Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves.

Jackie, I can't say enough about family. Love them for all you are worth while you can.

San

[P&R Pete]

JB, LOL! What a great story. A toast to the Moms! Bet your's could tell some stories. We need to get her around this fire.

Stiff ol' buddy, the stuff you've written has been some of the best poetry here.
Don't know if you ever saw it, but I started a new camp (that got superceded by yet another Jungle) back at the old joint with a toast on New Year's Eve last, which I dedicated to you, and to this, one of my very favorite pieces:

Thanksgiving is a moment to remember
How little we can do to move the stars.
All we are, and have, we must surrender,
Nor is Earth less inscrutable than Mars.
Knowing this, we know the need for friends
Sharing both our pleasures and our pain,
Giving, though it may not serve their ends,
In the only joy that will our love sustain.
Very much like the water in a lake,
In sum, we serve as mirrors to the sky.
No one alone can Heaven's picture take.
Given friends, we know the reason why.

Tonight I'll reprise it for San's sake, too, who's sounding a little homesick.
San, we miss you around the fire. Godspeed you home, bud, and your family too. May your freight run true.

[Daisy]

Hey, did you know "avatar" means a god's incarnation into bodily form? Kind of cool. Especially yours, Jackie, you keep cracking me up.

[Jackie Blue]

D, if that's true, it makes me wonder what the hell God is thinking sometimes.

[Daisy]

Yeah. That God's a pretty far out cat.

[Jackie Blue]

D, no offense dear, but am I a bit too subtle or are you a true blond?

[P&R Pete]

Just for the record:

I'm not really gray. I just dye my hair that color, because otherwise, I'm afraid people will look at my age (54), look at my naturally dark-brown hair, assume I'm coloring it, and ask me a lot of nyob questions.

This way, no problem.

[Daisy]

Excellent stategy Pete. My hair's naturally made of snakes, I just dye it brown so people will think it's hair.

I was just trying to diffuse that bomb before she/he blew Miss Blue. Maybe time for another flower poem. This one's Kijo Murakami. Short and sweet so I can get back to my vodka.

The moment two bubbles
are united, they both vanish.
A lotus blooms.

[Guest]

It's good you didn't answer that very pointed question with anything that made sense, Daisy, and please don't do me any favors, dumplin.

[Tramp]

I was on a train from Paris to Greece in 1975. It was called the Orient Express but turned out to be a very slow, very foul (there were people sleeping in the bathrooms and I was attacked by a salami swung by a very mean old woman. After the salami broke she reverted to her cane) train ride that took over three days. On this train I met a strange fellow who borrowed my tobacco and only left me with one thought. He said, "The instant you find a name for God, it's no longer God."

[JimTT]

I was on a train once that was over 24 hours behind schedule and we got passed by tomorrows train.

[Tramp]

Jim, But that gave you an extra free day, right?

See how we're all sober with Dufus gone? Talking normal? No speech problems? Discussing God?

"Dufus?" Tramp calls out. "Where are you, brother? Help!"

[I can't even spell any longer.]

[Guest]

It's all my fault, I'm sorry! I've been calling for Dufus for weeks, I can't think straight I can't see I can't write right, I need that drink worse than I need a beating with a sausage!

[Daisy]

Well that was me. it SAID my name's Daisy, it SAID I'm logged in, but I'm still just a guest. No rest for the thirsty -

[JimTT]

Well Tramp a train that's 20 four hours behind iz a train that auta be servin free whiskey with an E, YESSIR, An I ain'ta gon-na be in two gooda mood ifin they do but even worse ofen a mood ifin they don't Then theriz the question of time and I don't rightly no if that's a question I can anzer nohow. Daisy I'lla telya right here an now youu cain't trust them computors lesson you wants ta be made a fool of.