Sunday, July 28, 2013

post card from Valparaíso

I watch the clouds roll in bringing new ships to the port early in the morning
the sky is grey and the streets below my window look like a box of crayons

I crawl back into bed and bury myself under a pile of maps and history books
and journals chronicling another adventure I will never take...

The coffee is cold and the bread is hard, the bed is lonely but warm
and the window I left open lets in a cool wind with smells from the world on the other side of the sea 

It is two in the afternoon when I decide to venture out of my winter den
It is summer back in Mexico, but here winter is falling on us... the nights are cold...

I stumble down the stairs like a wounded wolf rolling down the Andes
The clerk behind the counter smiles but is indifferent to me... I wander his halls like a ghost

I step out into the street and wander in search of a reason to go back home -
to Mexico, to the States, to the North... but there just are no good reasons... Panama has become the far North for me...

I walked into a café near the pier - I ordered a sandwich and a glass of wine... the sandwich was dry and the wine just kept coming... I sat there and wrote letters to imaginary friends and drank until the sun began to go down

The night is cold... I remember I left the window open... my bed will be cold tonight... I watched the ships in the harbor and thought of my child hood... as I would watch the ships come in and dream of escaping from the world on one of them some day...

Dreams change as we get older... most of them... until we reach a certain age and those child hood dreams come back to us... calling us from the harbor... from the train station... from the banks of a lonely river

It took me eleven years to get back home the last time I ran away... I do not know If I will make it back this time... probably not...

I will head South and get lost in forests and cold rocky beaches... and camp at the foot of the Andes and live like a savage... making my way to Puerto Williams and get lost in the fog and the rains and the snows... lost in the hills and the valleys and the green where I will stay forever...

Forgotten by the world and those I left behind - one day they will just stop wondering “what ever happened to Victor?  Where has Dash Deringer gone...”
Me on the left with my brother Alejandro - when we still spoke to each other
watching the ships come in...

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Letters to Japan

"Letters to Japan"
Victor Vogt
mixed media collage
scanned image, originally printed in the 
"Deringer Report News Letter"
the second issue - October, 2007.
the original piece is now lost forever, 
the poem overlaid is "To Forget You..."
I forgot just how old that poem was...

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Santiago (with me...)

You can go back to the world you knew - before I came along
When you make up your mind - you’ll find that I am gone...
You can walk away for ever - and never look back to see
If you might be happy here - in  Santiago with me...

If it is love you require - I  have plenty left to spare
And the pretty words you desire - I  can pull them from thin air...
But the passion that you wanted - and  the hunger to be free
Might not be here when you return - to Santiago with me...

You can argue all night - you can scream until you cry
Wouldn’t you rather make love - until the gods are satisfied...
I’m not going to beg - you know I’ll never get on my knees
Hate me if it helps to forget the nights - in Santiago with me...

Sunday, May 12, 2013

like a star exploding in Heaven...

And I feel just like a star exploding in Heaven
Like a snow flake falling into the sun...
I’m nothing without you girl
There’s no place left in this world
For a man like me - who doesn’t have any one...
Like an angel with a broken wing
Elvis Presley with no song to sing
There’s nothing girl - and no place left to run...

And I feel just like the devil tumbling down from Heaven
Like a comet burning up in the sky..
I’m nothing without your love
Like the desolate moon above
For what will I be - without you by my side
Like a wolf  that’s left out of the pack
And a ghost that can’t find its way back
There’s nothing girl - and no place left to hide...