Rembrandt's Nightwatchman Soliloquies, 12

REMBRANDT’S NIGHTWATCHMAN SOLILOQUIES 12


The navigators’ guiding light was
a broken light bulb.

The voyage was undertaken, as advertised,
to try and find the Holy Grail.

I paid my passage, hoping if the Holy Grail
was found, I, a tabula rasa,
could find a belief.

The excursion boat moved slowly, when
there was nothing but water to be seen,

There would be a floor show, girls
wearing many feathers and scanty

Pieces of crimson cloth with sequins.
Afterwards, jugglers, tight-rope walkers,

Sword-swallowers, and a Volkswagon
from which twenty-five midgets emerged.

The grand-finale was a BMW from which
a regiment of soldiers clad
in germ-ware uniforms emerged.

Also to past the time while the search
for the Holy Grail continued, there were
slot machines, bingo, kenko, euchre, and poker.

We passed many islands, but all had
the same shore lines;
the shorelines were lined with skeletons
of buffaloes.

We arrived at an island named Cythera
which advance spies informed that this
island was the location of the Holy Grail.

There is a crowd of people leaving the island,
all dressed in silk clothes, also
there was a Harlequin with a guitar.

When we arrived picnic lunches were unloaded,
cavier, shad roe, and a roasted suckling pig.
Champagne was served.

Every one, except myself, drunk and happy,
staggered back to the boat.
I asked about the Holy Grail,

I was a tabula rasa, I needed a belief.
I kept inquiring
About the Holy Grail.
No one knew what I was talking about.


Duane Locke

Posted over on The Hold