I Am Santo

Fiction, poetry, music and mindscape pictures by creative artist Jason Santo

VESUVIAN

Sheets aflame with greedy passion,
molten faith and igneous blessing
steal land.
Crashing bodies fuel mountain lust,
quake in unfathomable wake
and stutter
with inferno ecstasies.
Tectonic play shifts
and a heart encased in past regrets
cracks,
fissures of yearning destroying now.
The rumble of climax startles.
Fierce rages quelled by steaming surrender
Embrace like cool seas
Adding layers of calm and steaming faith,
a divine cataclysm
and a scar that builds
new verdant dreams
from delicious nightmares
of roiling destruction.
Don’t look.
A watched pot never boils.
Just turn away
and let the world sprawl out
while it consumes your unwillingness
and buries trust in permanence.
Seminal ash coats lovely flesh
in obsidian gratitude.
It’s enough.
Growing dark is still growing
and a charcoal heart
can pretend heat
even when it’s aching
in a cold bed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

@jesmegs and @leah_jean_writes were inspired to collaborate on a germ of an idea I gave them, then spread the blooming virus back to me. These are my symptoms.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poet #storyteller #iamwriting #cracked #collaboration #fissure #crevice #broken #volcanic

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

Mirror mirror, asked on that wall. For you are the fairest of them all. Can you not see? This fairy tale holds no place for others. This happily ever after is yours and no one else’s. Princes may come and go, but your beauty and this divine reflection will stay forever, assuring you of the truth: there cannot be another as lovely in this world, or in any other, real or imagined. Set your teeth upon the apple and taste wicked futures where dreams of lust crowd like crippled forests at night, like the notions of forgiveness swimming in the fright of others who cannot claim as you do the throne of unapproachable affection. For you are the dream. You are the fruit. You are the pure descendant of Eden, at home in children’s stories; alive only in fictions where snakes speak sweetly of temptation and crones with knobby knuckles eliminate their competition. And who are you? Siren or klaxon? Savior or warning? The shrill cry of beauty is a hung note in the gallows of melodic reflection. Try, try, try, sweet girl, and look forward to that day when the looking glass cannot tell you anything you don’t already know: that it’s there already, in the heart, that truth. That undeniable return from the sea of cast off jealousies that ran fathoms deep, but surfaced like whale breath, like a stolen rib, like a queen’s ire when someone else dared alabaster’s sheen to a contest. Oh you always win. The perfect always get what they want. Too bad greed disallows desire, a book starved of revelation; a tale without an antidote kiss.

***///***

The truest of writing prompts, the enigmatic @alice.artc blessed me with this shot and a “mirror mirror” reference which resulted in the edit you see and the words you may have had the patience to read. Thank you, dear Alice, as always, for being such a tremendous muse.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #iamwriting #collaboration #muse #lovely #beauty #doeyes #beautifulwoman #portrait #mirror #reflection (at Mirror Mirror)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

Maybe it was the roundness of her eyes or the deep warm brown of her irises that hinted at a universe of thoughts she had swirling like galaxies in her mind. Inviting the curious. It was as if the firmament went out. She wondered if her eyes now just held cold dead space that no one was brave enough to stare into; a hungry abyss that was the color of her loneliness. Men and women. They seemed unable to look at her any longer, despite assurances of her ravishing beauty. She stepped into solitude, a maiden draped in knowledge and robust heart instead of silk finery and reticence; her mind as limitless as night sky and to be spoken! Perhaps they found such forthrightness unbecoming. Let them. She had bigger plans than to appease, and if she was as lovely as each said with their candle wax pronouncements dripping from their wary lips, she would trim their wicks with a quick sideways glance, hinting that those fires still burned within her; those faraway suns possessed even more mystery than ever. It was then she smiled again, confident in stride. Relegated to nothing and no one.  Aware that her definitions defied and her value needn’t any assessment. 

./.

Sometimes a story resides in a simple glance. Thank you to @theeglantine, as always, for allowing me to steal a tale from her always expressive beauty. She could have written it better, but I’m still glad to have had the shot. Her photo, my edit and words.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #iamwriting #collaboration #muse #lovely #beauty #doeyes #beautifulwoman #portrait (at On Approach)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

Vestige yearning,
piecemeal fulfillment,
Seeking a heart that interlocks
The way snowflakes blanket
And stars collide
Far from here, but happening
Like these dreams of complete
Blanketing
Overlapping
Depths of understanding
Like the churning
Of an ocean
Tumult sweeping day aside
Ushering in stifling night
Like stones cast
Fleeing light
Drawn by the gravity of imperfect bliss
That dark heart of reality
The antithesis of together
In light
In Union
Whole.

***

After eons, @jesmegs and I have finally managed to get a collaboration happening and it’s been a ton of fun. A fantastic writer and lovely inside and out, this is a huge honor. Her image. My edit and words. She posted a companion piece. Look for more coming soon.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #portrait #beauty #collaboration #brokenheartslament #pieces #longtimelistenerfirsttimecaller #lovely
(at Pieces)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

My rage is a Hellfire won. It’s prophylactic temerity. Taste this seed where the yawn and ache demand. Be here in the presense of a thousand years of stammering bliss. What the evidence portrays again and again with reckless disregard is that this never mattered; that each and every uttered word, committed action and kindness offered was a snowflake melted on an upturned hand; incidental and insignificant. Enjoy the latest snowfall. Let those lovely shapes disintegrate in your alleged warmth that hides such sanctimonious greed and oh how hate urges to devour your liver, your kidneys, your heart. Oh how these teeth bared grind against each other like knives on the sharpening stone; just die. Go far away into the abyss of memorials, I have nothing left for you, your taste or your anguished fuckery that clicks and clacks like stilettos along the long, empty corridor of promise. What degrading mirages we strived for. Such horrific heat ripples on the forever sands reaching into failed forever. The greatest trick of love is that it meant something at all. Like an eclipse bathing the world in dull amber or a funeral shawl drawn over pulled shut eyelids, everything is transition, a darkness that too will abandon to greater forces of Science or God, some fictions spilled like carelessly poured whisky that burns like your craven blush of affection. The only truth is death, each flickering second a footstep toward the absence of breath, of faith, of love. May it eat me alive and spit out these tinder bones for the fallen’s inferno. Like you did. Like everyone does. At least then the pain will end. The body no longer able to scar. The mind no longer able to remember. The heart, thankfully, no longer able to beat.

***
#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #collaboration #winter #forest #wintersun #sunlight #frozen #newengland #death
(at A Death)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

When she breathed, he felt her. When she laughed, he grinned. In the fantasia of their ardor, she donned a mask but he knew her, could see her, would love her. Their lips were designed to kiss one another’s. And in the hot rhythm of celebration, amid the colors of reveling masses, he took her by the hand, lifted the mask and told her to fear nothing. Now was their time, and despite miles of longing and circumstance, they fell into each other as if the sky were beneath them; the infinite plummet into what had lay above them now a Heaven on Earth. “If you fall again, fall with me,” he said. She smiled, bringing herself to him in a fierce embrace. “We fall together,” she said simply. And at night they can still be seen in their ascent, a brilliant star the course by which the broken-hearted find new faith; a fire aglow in the firmament dimming doubts and fanning bliss.

****
My second collaboration with @alice.artc is for all those lovers out there celebrating today (or not) apart. I personally love a day dedicated to love. Sure we should live every day with this kind of reverence for whomever holds our heart and no, I do not think it should be about gifts. It’s love. And often it’s easy to forget how blessed we are to feel it at all. Thank you, Alice, for the photo. Expect more collaborations soon as winter has left this New Englander with nothing but a phone full of snow shots. :-/

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #collaboration #phoneart #artmodel #beautiful #valentinesday #ardor #brokenhearts (at Blessed)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

She’s wallowing in accordant sin
The magnificent din
Of misspent fortune.

Drinks lap-spilled and drunk.
Bleary-eyed sunrises stung.
Lace mesh dilettante hung,
Filched climax, lyrics hummed

But never sung.
She’s come undone.
Fingers uncoiled from the last rung.

Crying among
Ripples of fresh sun
Tears return to where she’s from.

The lapping waves
Dismiss a chaos haze.
A memory maze,
Too many lost days.

Her mind cranks, overturning,
An engine on fire, burning;
A soul whirring, spurning,
Each decision, court adjourning

For the verdict is clear,
Cracked lips, each swallow a sear,
Tiny pains from the auctioneer
She bid highest, without fear.

But lying prone at dawn
Another night alone gone,
Absent key and verse of that song

Longed for in her heart
But ignored from the start.
The invitation to embark
Beckoning waves impart

An imagined goodwill,
Abandoned for the acrid swill,
Another drink downed until
The jury’s had its fill

Of her lies;
Gavel struck eyes.
A body despised
Dry dock anesthetized.

Wake up, baby
The Angels are waiting.
Wake up, lady
The waves are breaking.

————————————————-

To have the opportunity to work with the enigmatic and hilarious @theuncenvoredstripper is like winning the lottery. Her images are deeply affecting and her stories even more so. That said, I wanted to challenge myself to tell a story in a totally different way she does to one of her stellar images. Hopefully it compliments as well as one of her own tales.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #writersofig #poetrycommunity #literature #creativewriting #fiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #flashfiction #microfiction #storiesofinstagram #storyteller #collaboration #classicbeauty #pinup #vintage #portrait #femmefatale #dock #watersedge
(at Bather)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

Dissected by the uncaring eyes of infinite scrutiny, it’s light addiction, a careening screech off binary canyons that hunts for the turned ear, swift validation and the head nod of connection. “Let’s be friends!” each snap screams in a desperate howl, like the cry of a wounded animal at mating season. Let’s mend the hurts of this life of longing, pixelate our desires and accomplishments and drink from one another’s lives in carefully curated streams of candor. See me here. See me there. Look for me and feel the soul twinge as if we were two on a train sitting opposite each other, eyes flitting to avoid staring; pretending we’re not hungry to talk. Hear this voice! Comment on the lines of this face, brow beaten by the course of life, the pains of adulthood and the ever lengthening distance from childhood’s folly and joy, a once careless mind now worn like a badge to paint this fool as still innocent, still silly, still with eyes open and staring Heavenward with wonder. Then it all starts to slip, the tectonic grind of truth sending mountains of fear, jagged peaks of rage, into once carefully maintained skies as if this was an errant God lost to His passions, maddened with the pursuit for nothing so facile as now, but instead wholly lusting for a tomorrow of untarnished compromise, where wires and transmissions give way to the electricity of touch, and the windows that revealed too much are adjacent doors through which another will walk, stand proud upon entry after navigating so much barren fantasy and smile as if here is home. Welcome. This is where it starts. This is where dreams take shape. This is where we are exposed.

————————————————-

Thank you to @rhilandria who not only inspired this piece through a discussion about IG, but also shot and edited the photo. She is a brilliant artist and it’s wonderful to have her as a collaborator and friend.

#poem #poetry #writing #writer #poetic #creativewriting #igwriters #poetry_addicts #literary_imagery1 #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #poet #words #building #oldfashioned #exposed #mextures #collaboration #dustbowl (at Exposure)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

It was gleeful, 
This delight.
The hand finding wet,
The body curling under 
Each hot kiss
And confident breath
Bred from decades of waiting.
She sung high quiet
Into a pillow stained with lipstick
And the smear of mascara.
The moans of approaching release
A chorus of measured patience eroding
As cliff ledges falling
To the need of a turbulent sea.
Still she hid in the heart light,
Silhouette suggesting the long shadows
Of a perilous dawn
Where the cry and tension of sated hunger
Blinded all reason,
All mercy,
All reluctance.
So there she lifted high,
Spine bent in ecstasy 
And euphoria inching closer
With bold strokes 
Painted within the welcoming yawn
Of her need;
His masterpiece.
Her lost composition.

##############################

This is my second collaboration with the  lovely @life_lyrically. Her photos and my rather intensive edit accompanied by my words. Thank you so much, M. It’s wonderful to have your trust and faith to create something special together. 

#poetry_addicts #mobileartistry #poetry #snapseed #poem #photoart #heavyedit #silhouette #woman #beauty #lovely #writer #collaboration #writing #risque
(at Feared Art)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink

Scattered angels litter ghost feathers, onionskin intention and the balance of hope. Searching for the craze of flesh, the drunken whirl of freedom, late nights and bold decisions seduce from shadows borne of daydreams. The quake of release teases each moment, shedding loyalties, gowns of silk mourning craven attraction, gathered in a pool of failed reluctance. Legs swathed in diaphanous longing, hands trace bare skin raised to goose flesh by desire, lips filling with need, the growing rush of urgent yearning flooding unknown hallways to bedrooms, offices, closets; the secret darkness where devils embrace their nature. Rise only and never know the beauty of the fall; the delicious torture of failure.
########################## Photos by @life_lyrically, edit and words by me. This collaboration was the product of a Workd Series wager. If her St. Louis Cardinals won, I owed her a glorious margarita recipe. If my Red Sox won, she would send me photos to edit and write to. Well, here’s to the Red Sox winning. And thank you, Maggie, for sending such inspiring imagery for my words! #poem #poetry #literary_imagery1 #collaboration #literary_original #portrait #photoart #editonphone (at In Her Room)

Published by Jason Santo on | Permalink