sitting on the edge of the bed
looking at each other
holding hands
radio playing in the background
the air around us snaps with anticipatory sizzles
eyes, fingers, grazing
barely touching lips to
mouth neck chest
losing definition
inside each little particularity
every little singularity
each half moan
and whisper
every sharp intake
brushstroke of
foudations for evenings not yet spent
in love and sweat
steam and adoration

along a dirt road casting shadows
long with bloated summer
sky bluer than i've ever seen
like unreality broken through
like the paint you use
your hand in mine we walk
in two days your shoulders
will be peeling
replacing the old with the new
your skin is on my sheets
and mine under your nails
as the season invades us
there's only so much to take off
before you're laid bare

dancing a tango upon the heads of pins
my hand placed where your back meets hip
guiding us through the twists and turns
not knowing this beat we follow
or where it ends or begins
we dance all night and retire
to dance again
in smoke filled hazes
long drawn out gazes
twisting turning mazes
of rose petals
where backs meet hips

tendrils fall across your face
plastered there by sweat
your lips taste lovely
like saltwater and strawberry's
like night by the ocean
i am covered by your hair
a waterfall of auburn
shampoo sex
straddling me
raining kisses
soft sweet like springtime
skin pressed to fire
branding me
leaving your mark forever

leaving traces in my mind
the lines written on your back
crisscrossing like a map
of a confused and beautiful city
words wrapping over your hips
your smile holds more than meaning
beneath your emerald gaze
i work in plum and cherry
strawberry and sweat
brushes tickling teasing
titillating tips of twilight tracery
pictures in my mind
memory being what it is
will likely fade away
but not before again
I find a canvas
rose and hewn
all at once remarkable

Like a New York real estate agent
I've shown too many rooms of my heart
desperate like a boxer in the late rounds
punch drunk and out of options
corner of my mind trying to throw in the towel
I've left myself open
to interpretation and examination
beauty in the eye of the beholder
why can't you be holding me
til after the end times
til the whole world melts away
will i still be wondering
why you had to leave

i know i come off too strongly
too directly spouting the colors of my mind
rain gutter runoff of insecurity
forming oil slick kaliedoscopes
unfortunately i've covered your ducks
with my row of shit
my own crude fumbling in the dark
knocking over your pottery and I'm
wandering and you're lights out
the best thing that i've ever seen and i'm
wondering what you could ever see
in me

Lasting rays of summer evening
Streaks of red and purple
Meet the waters edge
you were standing
In a blue jean skirt
As the breeze from the ocean
Ruffled your hair like a parent
Waves caressing your feet
Washing the brown sand from them
You were looking at the horizon
The ships passing at sea
Little specks against the gumdrop sky
I was skipping rocks off the waves
You came over and held my hand
And we sat on the sand
Watching the day fade

Seasons fade
Gently spring to summers wrath
Falls cool embrace to winters death
For this we trade
Permanence, Solidity, Temperance
For
Vibrancy, Variety, Vicissitude
The house in Kansas
For the yellow brick road
Even if we have to step
On the which is here
To get there
To face our lions
Follow our paths
Find our cities
Made of emerald glass
Step on rainbows
Wonder why
Diamonds rarely fall
From the sky
Ah yet seasons won't stop their cycle
Years pass from days
Time our closest friend
Even she betrays
In the end
Our adventures done
There must come
An end of one

Falling from flower petals
Dew tasting sweetly on my tongue
Shall I tiptoe through your garden
Or make a mad dash to the heart of things
We savor our various detours
Finding this nook or enclosure
Our rendezvous
To steal away our kisses
Our longing
Obscured from the prying eyes of
Those that might not
Understand how we can feel so free
To express
Want and need
Desire formed delicately
Under cover of night

Oh so sorry
You fell away
Down the well
Playing guessing games
Oh how you strove
For truth and meaning
Always seeing
Hardly feeling
If only you knew
If only you saw
That things that seem true
Are often found false
And where henceforth
Have you gone away
And will you come back
When you're done with your games

As we lay here
Silently in bed
My hand rests
On your naked hip

Your head on my arm
Back to chest
My face in your hair
Smell of shampoo
Sex and body wash

You mumble something
In half drowsy awareness
I can’t hear what it is though
It doesn’t matter
Because we are here
With my hand on your hip

In the space right before sleep
I can feel the touch of your lips
The slight pressure of hand on back
As you crawl into bed
Setting things into place
Like puzzle pieces as we lay
In that space it lasts forever
Like only dreams can
Filled with heat and light
Depth in brevity
A concerto from you to me

Arthur C. Clarke RIP

Arthur C. Clarke; probably, if not the most influential Science Fiction author of the last century then definitely in the top 3 has passed away this morning in his home in Sri Lanka. Clarke wrote many excellent books of which Childhood's End, Rendezvous with Rama, and of course 2001: a Space Odyssey are the most well known. Clarke was also responsible for coming up with the theory for determining how to put a communications network into the eponymous geosynchronous orbit 22,300 feet above the planet, which pretty much led the way to, well life as we currently know it. So, today when you use your cell phone, or the internet, or see a television remember that none of that would have been possible without Arthur C. Clarke science fiction author, futurist.

The way you look through me
So effortlessly
With just a glance and
A come hither look
From your big green
Half lidded wantonness
Just burns through my soul
Leaving embers dying in
Forest fire aftermath
Leaves me withered and charred
Ready for new growth
The way you look at me
Over the edge of your
Oh so sexy spectacles
Makes me yearn for you
To look at me at least
Just one more time
Like that
The way we look together
To the horizon sometimes
When your hand finds mine
Swaying lightly
Like palms on Ventura
Or bed sheets

Clouds drift by
Tumbleweeds
In a prairie of blue
Lazy like lovers
Languid after long laconic
Kisses of
Lips
Hands
Thighs
Mingling and joining
In harmony
Perfect like the way
Your hair frames your face
As we lay on the grass
The twilight reflects
Off the green in your
Yes oh so smoky gaze
Mixing with the reds and oranges
Of not quite yesterday

Tales of the counquering hero

Okay, so as referenced earlier, I knew I was going to be playing IG Hidden, in the City Championship. What I didn't know was that I wouldn't be able to find any of my Crime Syndicates or Flying Kicks which is of course ridiculous since I must have about 20 or so Flying Kicks. So after calling around and being able to secure at least the FK's Mike and I headed over to the shop. Regardless this is the pile I ended up playing...

Tot's

4 Catwoman
4 Johnny Quick
2 Superwoman
4 Owlman
2 Black Manta
4 Jemm
2 Ultraman
4 White Martian
2 Prometheus

Plots

4 Batzarro Beatdown
1 Savage Beatdown
1 Crime Syndicate
2 Pathetic Attempt
2 Hunte Castle
2 Lvl. 12 Intelligence
3 Flying Kick
4 Big Leagues
3 Skree
4 Secret Files
4 Blinding Rage

Total: 60

So after grabbing the three Flying Kicks from Adam and tossing them in my deck heading out for a quick smoke and BSing with the folks at the card shop we sit down to play there's 9 players there which is nice for what I considered pretty average prize support. I take a quick look at the meta for the tourney.

1 FF (Bonnie)
1 IG Hidden (yours truly)
1 Kree/VU (Adam)
1 Punisher (Abel)
1 Skrull/IH (Sean)
1 FF (Mike)
1 Hellboy/??? (Mikey)
1 IH Curve (Mik)
and
whatever Ryan was playing

Rounds are paired up, Sean has the bye.

Round 1 Abel (Punisher/FF)

Abel is a good player in our area and I knew he'd be playing Punisher since he's been playing it for a while. I win the roll and take evens.
Turn 1

Abel lays a resource and passes.

I drop Catwoman.

Life 52-48

Turn 2

I drop Superwoman. Abel plays Punisher hidden. I swing for 4. Abel powers Punisher up on his attack back

Life 51-46
Turn 3

Abel lays and plays out Thing ( the 6/5 one). I play Owlman, he swings for 9 to the face which I am of course forced to take. I play Skree on Punisher, swing Owlman through him then smash Superwoman into Thing, lastly I bring Catwoman across for the 5 point swing. Abel Ko's Punisher.

Life 42-34
Turn 4
I Lay a resource and play Jem, discarding Johnny Quick. Abel plays Punisher attaches a Desert Eagle to him flips a Baxter Building, draws, discards an Invisible Woman, draws again still can't find part of the Fate Suite and flips a Tower, discarding another FF character, finally going out to get the Helm. Raised eyebrow on my side. Combat ensues. I first attempt to Lvl. 12 away the eagle, he responds by calling my attempt Pathetic. So, I have Superwoman bravely fly over and smash punisher for 7 with the help of the Big Leagues. "I should have gotten the Cloak" Abel says. I then run Jem into Thing and Owlman smashes his face for 7. Abel keeps Punisher

Life 39-18
Turn 5

Abel plays Ghost Rider, with a Wheels of Vengance does more drawey-waey stuff with NBB, still can't find any stuff to put on Punisher and shakes his head. I play a White Martian. Abel went to scoop at this point, but we played it out anyway after his attack it was 6-18, after mine it was 6-(-12)

1-0

Game two I play Mike my roommate he's playing FF and just shakes his head. "You know that's a total pile you're playing right?" He says to me.
"Yup," I reply, "still gonna win."
"I know." He states glumly.
the game goes pretty much that way with me winning 32-(-2)

2-0

Game 3 I play Sean who is also playing a hidden deck. He sits presents his deck and says to me, "good luck," to which I reply in kind.

It pretty much goes as chalk with me playing my characters hidden and Sean moving his with Franklin Richards. We do an obscene amount of damage to each other due to the fact that he has no hidden hate and I can't find a Skree! Turn five we of course have complete boards, except for a three for me which I missed. He swings for like 38 taking me from 20 to -18, I look grimly at the fact that he has 16 and start doing math, eventually I figure it out and get him to -19 while I sit at -16 thanks to the +2 from Catwoman. I shake my head and Sean's hand and step outside for a much needed smoke.

3-0

Game 4 I play Mik. Mik is playing straight IH curve and poses no problem really as I finish him off on turn 5 11-(-18). This game was notable for being the only one of the four in which I didn't get Catwoman on 1.

4-0

I have to say the deck is phenomenally fast and strong, I can see why people were gaga over it at the modern tourney in LA. Even a sub-par build like this one was able to pretty much lay waste. There wasn't really a match that I felt pushed in, except for the one with Sean, and even in that game I never thought I was going to lose. That's not to say the other players played poorly, Just that the decks I faced couldn't get to the hidden area. If Adam had played the Wolverine deck then things probably would have been different, Wolverine pretty much eats Injustice Hidden alive. It's weird though, I'm a City Champion, I placed 2nd in the first CC, and yet I've bombed all the Elite Series and MW events I've attended...I'm not sure if that makes me a good player or just lucky in my meta choices. hmmm.

Saturday afternoon and all dressed up with no where to go...

So I've decided to play IG Hidden in the City Championship tomorrow. It's a relatively straight forward deck and it's been a while since I've played anything that was so viscerally straightforward. Hopefully I'll remember to take a notepad so that I can post a report over here.

We're the ones who have to suffer, we're the face of promises
Leaning on the railings of metaphoric precipices
Looking for meaning, looking for nascent symbolization
Two dimensional with no depth
Cardboard players on matte frames
Off with ere heads
And you're off to see the wizard
In your little black dress
With emerald eyes
And come
Fuck
Me
Pumps
And I can't find the whole
Just the segments of time
Slipping away til
I'm too late

what to wear....

So Saturday is the City Championship for Sacramento (which is where I live), for a Card Game I play called Vs. System, I think I have two or three options for decks, yet I have no idea what to play. the options are as follows: IG Hidden, SS Denial, and X-men Recovery, could also play IG X-Men Handflood/Burn. Any thoughts?