Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice), from the 1988 comedy-horror-fantasy movie directed by Tim Burton. This movie is still great, and very little about it is dated some 25 years later. It is still hilarious. I love Michael Keaton's acting almost solely for this character, which he just friggen nailed.

Here's one of those old Haiku style poems that I started with this go round, also written in early December, 2008. The style is eight lines, beginning and ending with the 5-7-5 syllables that I use all the time but in the middle there are two seven syllable lines. To be correct to the form, there is one haiku, then a bridge thought, then the other haiku. Wrong Place, Wrong Time meets all criteria except for not being about traditional subject matter. I read one place that this form is actually an ancient improvisational style typically used for expression in public teahouses. Poets would contest with each other sometimes using this style.

Before I began blogging I spent a few months in the comments of other blogs getting used to the medium. It was there that I started doing haiku and very shortly found this style so I could do larger pieces. Now I rarely use the style because my work requires nine lines or even fifteen. My poetry is rarely longer than that.

While Wrong Place, Wrong Time works well as an amusement, it could be allegorical too. I don't necessarily mean I think I am all that ugly. I don't think I am all that ugly even as obese as I am. Using allegory I may be masking that I am actually an alien on the planet, abandoned to my fate, ditched by my so called friends, who promised to pick me up but never returned. I really related to ET. I've been trying to phone home for a long time. So maybe I mean that, that you would know if you saw me naked. Maybe I'm an actual angel on a mission from God and you would know if you saw me... So try not to decide what was in one of my several heads. I really related to Men In Black also :)

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

What a freakin charge!
You saw me walk in naked,
Now look at your hair!

There's good reason to wear clothes
At least for the likes of me.

Gotta get you combed
Unsnarl the tangles and knots,
Say you were not here.

Written December, 2008
First Posted March 14, 2009
and intro modified and expanded for republishing today.