I hear my train a comin
_It was 1972 and I just picked up Jimi's Rainbow Bridge album.
Also, the night before I picked up a red sheet at the island.
It was early that Saturday morning.
I didn't eat because it's better that way.
This day would be my second.
I walked into the living room and approached
the Hi Fi Stereo inside a cabinet on coasters.
It was dark brown perhaps mahogany
with a design reminiscent of a medieval looking cross.
Six of them. One on each side and two each
on the front and back.
I took the vinyl out of its sleeve and placed it in the stereo
dropped 5 tabs, drank some OJ and waited.
I started to feel a stirring queasy nausea in my stomach
and the light in the corner of my eyes began to flicker.
I put needle to vinyl and the magic synchronized
immediately to the stage of surreal
that seemed to be waiting for his direction.
Paisley colored patterns started flowing
within and around each other on walls and ceilings.
On the green carpet were millions of sunshine illuminating dots.
Lights with their own source glowing small round points
of orange upon the green.
They began to move with the sound as it moved through them.
Wave upon wave of fever rushed my mind.
The music jammed. Relentless brilliant guitar peaks and valleys
reached out and grasped and drew me back then pushed me on
sliding down the neck of his guitar.
Slippery wet licks dripping through me
and sucking me back up to thrust me into an orgasmic spew
pulsing the phantasmagorical theatre flickering before, in and through me.
I stepped forward and to the left of me was a wall mirror of some size.
I looked at myself in the mirror and the top of my head just above the eyebrows
was floating and there was blur to the part of my face just below the eyes.
Between the blur I had no eyes at first then suddenly
they pierced through and were floating through each other.
Was there two, no four, no six no….
My hair had life independent of my body.
Its long strands reached across my face and caressed it.
Reaching upward it swayed to and fro
separating into multiple strands and then back to one and over again.
I looked to my right out the front picture window.
Outside there was wind and it bent the branches of the trees and rustled the leaves
in perfect syncopation with the music.
Each leaf with it's own multicolored aura all seemingly waving at me.
The branches swayed to and fro in long graceful sweeps in almost a hula dance.
Color flowed throughout the street and the grass in the yards undulated like a million
tiny neon green snakes with their tails in the ground each
with a blazing red point of fire upon its flickering tongue
and every house and car sighed and breathed.
Jimi kept pushing me through this dream and I felt his genius in my spirit.
And the sky, outside the sky was pulsating waves of color and shooting beams
of radiant brilliance that paved the way to forever. The very fingers of God
reaching cross the sky.
At this very moment a loud bang came at the back door.
I rushed to see who it was and it was my best friend.
I opened the door and immediately we both burst into uncontrollable hysterical laughter
and fell over each other into the kitchen writhing on the floor in joyful hysteria
as Jimi's train kept a cummin.
We stumbled out into the crisp October wind and our journey began.
And that's just what I can explain.
I have often wondered of the significance of that moment.
Also, the night before I picked up a red sheet at the island.
It was early that Saturday morning.
I didn't eat because it's better that way.
This day would be my second.
I walked into the living room and approached
the Hi Fi Stereo inside a cabinet on coasters.
It was dark brown perhaps mahogany
with a design reminiscent of a medieval looking cross.
Six of them. One on each side and two each
on the front and back.
I took the vinyl out of its sleeve and placed it in the stereo
dropped 5 tabs, drank some OJ and waited.
I started to feel a stirring queasy nausea in my stomach
and the light in the corner of my eyes began to flicker.
I put needle to vinyl and the magic synchronized
immediately to the stage of surreal
that seemed to be waiting for his direction.
Paisley colored patterns started flowing
within and around each other on walls and ceilings.
On the green carpet were millions of sunshine illuminating dots.
Lights with their own source glowing small round points
of orange upon the green.
They began to move with the sound as it moved through them.
Wave upon wave of fever rushed my mind.
The music jammed. Relentless brilliant guitar peaks and valleys
reached out and grasped and drew me back then pushed me on
sliding down the neck of his guitar.
Slippery wet licks dripping through me
and sucking me back up to thrust me into an orgasmic spew
pulsing the phantasmagorical theatre flickering before, in and through me.
I stepped forward and to the left of me was a wall mirror of some size.
I looked at myself in the mirror and the top of my head just above the eyebrows
was floating and there was blur to the part of my face just below the eyes.
Between the blur I had no eyes at first then suddenly
they pierced through and were floating through each other.
Was there two, no four, no six no….
My hair had life independent of my body.
Its long strands reached across my face and caressed it.
Reaching upward it swayed to and fro
separating into multiple strands and then back to one and over again.
I looked to my right out the front picture window.
Outside there was wind and it bent the branches of the trees and rustled the leaves
in perfect syncopation with the music.
Each leaf with it's own multicolored aura all seemingly waving at me.
The branches swayed to and fro in long graceful sweeps in almost a hula dance.
Color flowed throughout the street and the grass in the yards undulated like a million
tiny neon green snakes with their tails in the ground each
with a blazing red point of fire upon its flickering tongue
and every house and car sighed and breathed.
Jimi kept pushing me through this dream and I felt his genius in my spirit.
And the sky, outside the sky was pulsating waves of color and shooting beams
of radiant brilliance that paved the way to forever. The very fingers of God
reaching cross the sky.
At this very moment a loud bang came at the back door.
I rushed to see who it was and it was my best friend.
I opened the door and immediately we both burst into uncontrollable hysterical laughter
and fell over each other into the kitchen writhing on the floor in joyful hysteria
as Jimi's train kept a cummin.
We stumbled out into the crisp October wind and our journey began.
And that's just what I can explain.
I have often wondered of the significance of that moment.
_Written by Scott Schoffstall
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