The Transylvanian Lineman

 The Transylvanian Lineman

"Don’t drink too deep in Transylvanian taverns." – Jack Kerouac, Nosferatu

i.

Nosferatu was  the man who vamped.

Who was like 

a hard hissing burden.

cast as he was

part man, part mythos

ranging from rake to maiden

with the shadowy purpose 

to cloud-up the minds of man and time

Noseferatu

keeping five counted steps between

the haloed souls

in the COVID card line.

He runs silent 

a sharp-eared visage

Causing giggles and shrieks

in the Harvard film archives

Noseferatu Looks like a mad Shemp

In a mad man dance down the street.

ii.

With the sunrise

I pick up the empties

and toss the joint stubs of

someone's nocturnal imbibe

the light of the morning

drives ‘way the animal Kinski

and I feed the birds

and pray

they

bless our day

Offering a wife’s crumbly cake

and marking

A world in a tangle, pursued by an infinite lance and

a very old man's problems.

-          Jack Vaughan Aug 2023

Pat Metheney on Wes Montgomery Story Telling Techniques (Spawned an approach used in this poem.)