They keep a Leyden jar on the bedside table, a flickering nightlight, naturally charged, by thundershowers and lightening, by the northern lights, by late nights tumbling beneath static filled sheets, an old blue-violet "Ball" mason, partially silvered with alternate layers of copper, aluminum foil, tarpaper, filled with some rare gas, she forgets, a noble one anyways, and when it's dark you can hear the crackling, see the plasma blue fireflies and filaments as they slowly discharge...
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- Category: Love
Summer begins.
Before or after, he can't remember, does it matter?
He drank the Kool-Aid.
This weekend he is out of his senses. Summer, seemingly just begun, "midsummer madness", midsummer, misnomer, this parties just getting started...
The music, EDM, drumkit, clap, percussion, samples, overlain by a haunting melody, French singer, EDM the mixed-media of music, scratching, now - a familiar voice - Huxley? Oppenheimer? Alan Watts? Street Jesus? It's always the dead philosophers...
A different set, different DJ every hour...
The music, the feeling, love, this is it, this is it, you can feel it, the Kool-Aid kicking in, more? Not yet, the beat drops, now run, now find her, but where is she?
Chew Gum.
Dance. This, the bass, pulsing through you while on the dance floor, there's no floor, dance, just dance, the Hula-Hoop girls are up next, flanking the stage with their triple-infused-LED Hula Hoops, just watch, the lights, the colors, the music, then jostle again your way into the pit...
There's a girl aching on the edge of the pit, back arched, young, nubile, skimpy white bikini, aching, watching, aching...too young. She's tripping for sure.
How many days can you go without sleep?
Some 'shrooms? Just a handful, please...the bruised blue edges of psilocybin, grimace as you swallow them down, they taste like shit, bitter, they suck the moisture out of your mouth, drink your water, take a chocolate, that's better.
Chew gum.
Pace restless and stare into the fire, there's a crowd gathered, grab a pallet, throw it on, have to keep this fire going. Don't let the fire go out.
Drink water. Look at the people warming themselves by the fire. Gathered, gathering.
Community.
On his right, a midget dressed as a unicorn. Nothing odd about that.
Beside him, Goddess, she's standing enigmatic, justice, perhaps, or one of the fates.
Try and make conversation, but she's enjoying the quiet, the not so distant thumping of the music.
Go back and dance.
Beats, sampled from nature, a woodpecker, a heartbeat, an operatic air. Birdsong. Tribal voices, are they sampling Deep Forest?
Fire eaters, spinners, flame throwers, back up folks, give them some room. One, a fit Roman Centurion with a flaming helmet and sword, everyone loves a Centurion.
Swallow. Drink Water. Chew gum.
I gotta remember this DJ, this music, it's great. The whole party, really, never felt that warmly towards his fellow man, but tonight, tonight, everyone's all right.
Jesus is here. He's gotta be here, he wouldn't want to miss this. Go find him. But find a coffee first, past the first aid tent, people lying down, past the crafts tent, people making masks, find the coffee.
Coffee, thank god. This is what he needed, what he was looking for. Now where was he?
Sparkly lights everywhere, they do this so well, the disco-ball scattering lasers into the woods, the pine-trees twisting, turning, pulsing.
Past the furries, 'are you a racoon or a beaver', past a Top Hat, what time is it? Paths lit through the forest with sparkling LED lights, the wall of the DJ booth with a projection of ...wait, it'll become apparent, it's just morphing, past another projection of the spirit of spring morphing into the spirit of summer, the chill tent, the chill tent, colored swirls and spirals of oil projected onto the gauzy tent ceiling becoming constellations and galaxies and.... There's that midget again. Nothing unusual about that. Someone helping another person to the chill-down tent, security, doing their rounds...
Nope. It's Ken. Ken, Ken, drinks the Kool-Aid, eats the mushrooms, becomes a Mall-Cop.
Ken Ken Ken Ken Ken Ken Can't.
Doesn't matter. He's doing fine. Look at his pupils.
- "You doing all-right?"
- "This is unbelievable I'll come back...I've got to help this girl to the medical tent..."
Back to the fire, the sphynx is there yet, staring into the fire. She's beautiful.
A tap on the shoulder. It's Jeesus. ''I've been looking for you!....Enjoying the show?"
He is, Of course he is. That beard though. "Do you want a coffee?". He's fine. More of a wine guy.
The Centurion is done, now it's the aerial silks, slender, beautiful girls hanging, dangling, from scarves, graceful, an aerial ballet
Rod Serling now introducing the Twilight Zone, scratch, scratch, cut to harmony, melody.
"...spare a cigarette?"
Cigarette, cigarettes. At this hour they're worth their weight in Cocaine, back, in front of the fire,
"...I've a pocket full of drugs..." she begins, then tapers off, the rest, you know, no-one to share them with, he will meet her again, and know her better, but for now, for now...
Everyone here, loaded to the gill with drugs, MDMA, Mushrooms, Cannabis, Cocaine, Special K, you want it, just ask, somebody will have it....except cigarettes, nobody thinks to bring cigarettes, this the one most coveted at this hour, even if you didn't smoke you'd be wise to bring an extra-pack, a carton...
Touchy-Feely, all this hour, everything's kicking in, colors swirling, silver haired beauties, platinum locks, mature, should you talk to her? She's under no such compunctions, touchy-feely as well, this is a great party. Watch the fire, feel her waist under your fingers, incomparable, this feeling, touch, connection, the skin, raising hairs, it's fundamental this need for touch, the first thing, and this and this and this and this
People familiar and changing, from the peripheries of acquaintance, turning into lithe elves, spritely fairies, woodland gods and goddesses, sprites, their energies surround them, auras that pulse and shimmer, "...are you seeing this...never mind, never mind", warming your hands upon the small of her back warming her hands upon yours...
Fireworks and Kaleidoscopes explode up from the fire, glowing cinders carried off into the air, time for another palette, another piece of gum, contentment, she's working the sunrise set, talk earnestly about trivial things, feelings, do you know her? Of course you know her, you've always known her, time, now, to find your your tent, where did she go? where did she go?
Smoke blows in your eyes, there's a light rain, time now to find your tent, where's Ken? where's Jesus? time now to go to bed, no, time now for your second wind, it's early yet what time is it? and people are still arriving and leaving, the crowd around the fire changes, a small girl with beautifully appointed golden horns worn at the temple, a red devil with pitchfork waving at you from the far side of the fire, a large Pan, goats eyes, goats horns, shaggy hooves, 7 feet tall at least, he must be on stilts, people talking quietly in pairs, threesomes, groups that knot and twist, costumes, he needs a better costume, time now to dance, the music compels you, there's no staying away, it's the pied piper luring people from the fire, dance, try and find the rhythm, constantly changing, careful, careful, keep your feet under you, find a spot where the crowd is thick and thinning around you, a break, back to the chill tent...
Ken, helping another girl to the Medical Tent, he's thinking she's taken too much...
- "You doing all-right?"
- "This is unbelievable I'll come back...I've got to help this girl to the Medical tent..."
There's a man, they've restrained him at the edge, is he restrained? he's on his knees, took too much, acid by the sounds of it, on a perfect rant, he's a whore, he's a rich man, he's richer than all of us, we are nothing, we are all poor, he's a rich man, he's a whore, he'll suck your cock for a dollar, he's gone, gone, gone, a few people nervously discussing what must be done with him, roll him up in a carpet, drive him down to the highway, nobody wants to deal with this, his girlfriend, she's in the chill tent, she's doing OK, ...
- "don't offer him the dollar...it'll make it worse" someone says...
Another, he's looking for his girlfriend, can't find her, he's going vehicle to vehicle, tent to tent, he's missing her, where'd she go? did you see her? he's gotta know, you can't say it but he's gotta know...
More Kool-Aid?
Very slightly bitter, the chemical wedding, back to the fire, back to the dance, circle among the fairy-lit wood paths, tents to tents, projections to projections, and do it again, find Ken, find Jeesus, and that until the stars have all faded away and it's time, the crowd is thinning, it's time for some rest...
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- Category: Love
"Too long the insufferable company of fools.
Too long, too long, and yet, reflect,
That if together we banded to buy a ship -
You'd make Captain yet!!"
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- Category: Love
He's explaining to her:
"They cross the border into the forbidden zone and pick them. They flourish there.
Only, you see, they can't sell them - they're still far too radioactive. So what they do is put maybe one, two, three berries in each pint. They average them out so there will be no harm. One berry's just a little more radioactive, say, than a truckload of bananas...it's THERAPEUTIC!"
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- Category: Love