Leading Man Gets Lost/A Few More Stars

Clouds roll in the scene begins
With a sleepy lion's roar
Our spotlight finds a clown
Up to nothing and nothing more
Rushes of the moon lit waves
Rewriting the lines of shore
Clown had never been so close
To being this close before

He played the part
A time or two
The clown who missed
His rendezvous
But there is nothing
Up his sleeve
And love becomes
What you believe

Starlet searching mad as hell
Raging storm soaks her dress
She finds him on the carousel
With his white face all a mess
And the shadow on his cheeks
Breaks through the masquerade
"I see your face is all in streaks
Were you on an escapade"

I can see it in all the papers
"Leading man gets lost"
But then isn't all publicity
Cheap at any cost

Silver teardrop turns to a shower
Words are whispered in her hair
Close up of his squirting flower
He gives it to her
And proves that he still cares
The matinee's getting restless
They've been through this before
Credits fall through their embrace
Bright lights are out the door

© 1997 Stefan des Lauriers










HEAVEN COULD USE A FEW MORE STARS  

I used to think that fame and fortune
Would bring a love that lasts
I imagined myself an impressionist
Painting pretty pictures of my past
I was one ray shy of sunshine
Dreaming of golden curtain calls
It wasn’t till found my own true love
That I shone like a star at all

So lets sing few love songs
Before being called from afar
We dreamed the same dream all along
Heaven could use a few more stars

To all my friends who left their names
On the walls of the old cafe
I’d like to be like a haunting refrain
To return to you someday
But I fear that friendship is over
I would have liked to see it through
Well isn’t it just like an old mirror
To give the wrong image of you

So lets sing few love songs…

Well I’ve sung my songs in empty halls
I’ve sung for a full house too
But I‘d never really sung at all
Till I sang with a love that’s true
Now there’s singing in the gentle rain
Giving depth to an empty street
And in the reflection of heaven on earth
I can see where our destinies meet

So lets sing few love songs…

© 1983 Stefan des Lauriers

ut pictura poesis (as is painting, so is poetry)—
Horace (in Ars Poetica, 18BC)



GOD WILL NOT MISS HOLLYWOOD
 

Mother took me to the movies

When I was still her child

It was at the Roxy Theater

A film called the Ipcress File

An actor slumped in the window

With a bullet through in his head

"Don't tell your dad what you saw"

Was all my mother said

God will not miss Hollywood

When lightning crashes from on high

For it is written with such big letters

It is legible from the sky

The lure of the silver screen

Can't keep us in the dark

For every imaginary shot fired

There's one that finds its mark

Through the years so many

Have been sprayed at 007

For every bullet that missed

One has sent a kid to heaven

God will not miss Hollywood...

Have you seen that splashy canvas

Called the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”

It’s the one with Elvis and Marrilyn

In a diner with James Dean

Well at least they had food to eat

(Though greasy through and through)

Their Boulevard may be broken

But at least it was an avenue

God will not miss Hollywood...

© 2004 Stefan des Lauriers

TWILIGHT OF STEAM

The train was in the station

As the Bohemian Ambassador

Said, “My name’s Eternity

Nothing less ‘n nothing more

Let me read your fortune”

Train jerked I nodded, “yes”

With a red star on the engine

Black stars upon her dress

On the other side of the curtain

I was awakened from a dream

Between the dogs and wolves

— In the twilight of steam

The first card had a full moon

With a dog and wolf below,

“Your heading soon

will change”

I responded “Is that so”

Vague notions like smoke

Drifted along with the train,

“It will happen very soon

You’ll be left out in the rain”

On the other side of the curtain...

The Conductor started shouting,

“You went beyond your stop

You better pay the difference

Or I’ll have to call the cops”

I joined a line of passengers

All dressed in glistening black

As we crossed the overpass

To the other side of the track

On the other side of the curtain...

In the warmth of the waiting car

I was feeling quite relieved

Until another ambassador

Drew something

from her sleeve

And it was with an eiry flourish

That this lady had the urge

To play upon her harmonica

— A melancholy dirge

© 1997 Stefan des Lauriers

SO CLOSE TO BEING...

I was wondering when I'd see you next by chance upon the street
Outside the times we planned by phone for rendezvous to meet
The first time was the night after — the third time we split for good
Next you were happy to see me was there something you misunderstood

We were so close to being close
Just a faint image of myself
Looking in the window from the outside
Sometimes the world seems small
When it closes in on you and you've got no place to hide

I remember the times I'd wait with you for the school bus so long ago
And how your pony once got loose and we caught it with a handful of snow
You loved me for that crazy spirit — rebelling from our hometown
Something wilder than the geese flying in the fall but even they're shot down

We were so close to being close
Just a faint image of myself
Looking in the window from the outside
Sometimes the world seems small
When it closes in on you and you've got no place to hide

Then I saw you in a subway car sitting right across the aisle
We were just strangers ignoring each other as we whiled away the while
I'm wondering why I wrote this — perhaps it sounds absurd
But I just met someone who meant so much to me and didn't even say a word

We were so close to being close
Just a faint image of myself on the floor
When the windows been shattered
And all you can say as I pick up the pieces
Is that it never really mattered

© 1975 Stefan des Lauriers

LAUGH IN THE DARK

I dreamed I was a mime artist

Lost in a maze of heart

Never knowing which way to go

To the finish or the start

Trapped in a see-thru maze

My hands defined the space

But there’s so much of it

Between love and death’s embrace

I used to think that love

Was just a laugh in the dark

‘Till I got stuck in a maze of mirrorsGHGGGGHGHGGH ,.

In Life’s Amusement Park

There was once a friend of mine

Lost in a maze of mind

No matter which way he went

He couldn’t leave himself behind

His head in a tower of ivory

The rest sunk far below

He’s a walking roller coaster

From his head down to his toes

I used to think that love…

We may be all reflections

Of life’s distorted thrills

Lost inside a Looking Glass

In an endless maze of wills

If you get dizzy as a pinwheel

From all the ups and downs

Wait ‘till you see your true love

Smiling through a painted frown

© 1996 Stefan des Lauriers