Ching-Ching Old Marley
Sermon from the Prius. Featuring a Recorded Reading of it by me, Paul Stewart.

Dereck looked out from his Prius,
with a sense of indignity
at the malevolence all around him
Penning the woven words of woe and dispassionate despair, he waits,
for reason, for Godot?
~
"Sitting in my chair, stomach's over there —
Way beyond despair, disrepute, disparate.
and warm
and kind
but warm
and kind
are dead, without works, without sparks."
~
Colours align — but don't rhyme anymore
World of technicolour — neutralised; grey scaled
Der-eck—Dereck—he knows, he notices, he documents
But doesn't act.
Self-gratifying
ambivalence and dissociative apathy
Writes his tomes of Ptolemaic grandeur—without backbone
~
"I remember trees that had freedom to stretch out and touch,
to show their love and consideration for all that entered their realms.
But then the diggers, the loggers, the lumbers came—
Jacks of all trades, Jacks in murder. Trees remurdered
for paper products, a wide selection of accessories, and stationery."
~
E-coli e-coli—messing with my system
Erudite I not. Luddite I not
I shall bequeath the queen—the queen and I shall dine at three,
at three in a tree on the right land.
"The right land," you say—with dismay
Right. Right. Land. Good man, not bad. Who is good? Who is bad?
~
The lord is in his temple high, high above the profane and people
people called David and Frances, Frances and Francis, Flora and Fabian.
I spent the night writing a thesis in my head; woke — it was no more.
Dead on arrival.
Several hours to piece hypocritical analytics, loose tether.
~
Remember A Christmas Carol. Remember, Old Marley, misery guts.
"I wear the chin I forged in life!"
Chain. Not, chin.
"I made it link by link, yard by yard"
"I gartered it on of my own free will"
"and by my own free will I wore it"
Exactly.
~
"Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check"
"When I step up in the place, I step correct."
"Put your hands where my eyes could see."
"Come on—break your neck"
~
Y'all know who you snappin' your neck to, breakin' your body to at the weekend.
Old stinky, muddy, deathly Marley—Ching-ching dem chains.
Ching-ching Old Marley. Not Bob. Old Marley. Not Bob. Bob—Bob Marley—
Could you be loved? Marley, could you be loved with the ching-chang of your chains?
Pass me the Courvoisier—ching-ching-ching,
~
Spirit—I know that I, like all men, must die—
but not having lived as I have;
Not alone, unmourned,
not so poor in heart.
As I was feeling brave and foolish after recording A Requiem to the Lordes of Poetry: Flap Your Giblets in the Wind, I went ahead and recorded this one too. Okay. There will be a recording coming soon. I screwed it up. I shall update it, when it be done.
*
Thanks for reading!
Author's Notes: More cobweb cleaning. More dressed-up darkness and philosophical musings in the guise of ridiculous, inane ramblings of a madman. At least this time, the painting is at least thematically connected.
There are references to Busta Rhymes:
And Godot. Samuel Beckett and Busta Rhymes. United at last.
If you liked this, you probably would like this:
Three of my most beautiful pieces, as evidence that I actually do know what I am doing in this game we call "twitchy twitchy pen ink blot paper parchment delight."
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!


Comments (8)
Wow, I had to read this a couple of times. I kinda had the feeling when I go home and people speak to me in English and Hungarian in the same time, so much going on that my brain freezes like an old computer. I think I'm going to read it a couple more times.
You are a pure gonzo, crazy ass, poet of destruction, Paul. Some daze, entering your world beats the fun house at the fair. 'Ambivalence and dissociative apathy' - pure absurdist genius. 'I wear the chin I forged in life' - laugh out loud funny. The Brueghel pic of the Triumph of Death was a great match for this poem as you astutely pointed out. It's all crazy enough to be brill!
beautifully done, Paul
And now I petition for Busta Rhymes to play Scrooge in my local Christmas Carol play. I’m yet another Jbaz copier, hypnotized is the best description of feeling.
Geez. This is one of your would you like a Lobotomy with that pieces 😅. I had to read it again to digest more. Are the quotes from A Christmas Carol? I assume.. I loved those which also seemed to connect to another line I liked too, “dissociative apathy” hmm. Is there a painting/poem challenge (I forget the name of the form this minute).
I’ll admit, I read this through a couple times—had to look up a few things—and I still think there are parts that will take me a while to wrap my brain around. The part about Marley really struck me, though.
Must agree with JBaz on this one.
This is one hell of a beautiful ramble. I was hypnotized 😵💫