David Saltaire Biography

I am a Beaded Lizard living in the undergrowth of the Diamond Desert.

I am a Bird of Prey, coolly eyeing the beauty of soft, hairy mammals,

ignoring my feathers and ability to fly.

I’m Jessie James, dreaming I’m Siddhartha fleeing his choking hothouse garden, running towards the cool, clean night.

I spent time in the villages of stone, howling like a crazy, lone wolf.

The sound was too loud or the people there too quiet. They came after me with tea so, I ran off, my bushy tail tall in the air. I leapt through the Prickly Pear and suddenly I was somewhere.

It's like this, sometimes: You find you survived the flash flood but, your wheels are gone. So, I burned my money just to see if I could. It made a mystic incense that seemed to please the smoke trees. Satisfied, I said Hosannas to the empty mud and walked on.

I found the magic bus too late. It was empty and covered in graffiti. The names crawled like tarantulas over the rusted surface but the bus didn’t go anywhere by itself, and the words dried and shrank when spring came. Eventually, the bus became a hill and I had to leave.

I swept the Plateaus and slept under the mountains. I prayed at the edge of the greatest ocean.

I crept like a Salamander into the cold dampness of the Redwood litter and drank from the great bole of eternity.

I became a ghostly soldier and wandered the plains. I was looking for my head, trying to keep my heart stuffed in my shirt.

I was looking for the past but, it’s never there.

I found myself on the edge of the desert again.

I was a Lover for a time with sun in my eyes and the end in my sights.

I met Horses out in the maze, Mountain Goats and a Lion or two.

They all had their own way to go and went there.

Once, I became a molecule of scum in a hearty soup of Bay water, at the edge of a catwalk.

A frog ate me. Eggs were laid, giving me a new lease and a new perspective- and a thirst unslaked to this day.

Now I’m a Griffin, a Lizard, a Snake, a Man. I’m water.

I’ll meet you in a cloud, then we’ll go back home.

I’m BlackJack David. Here’s my card, here’s my hand. Here’s my bet, Here I am; oh yes,

right here, by the river again.