On sultry days, the slightest breeze brings relief.
It's in stagnancy that situations become intolerable.
Silence is hearing place, hearing piece
where clearest surfaces the longings
for peace and surf and home.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Boy at The Pane
Sherman is a kid going on 90,
thrilled with sights and sounds since he was a little.
Ever since Sherman was knee high to a grass hopper,
someone up there has been painting him pretty pictures.
Ever since Sherman was knee high to grown ups,
the dead pan, bad-breath folks have been slamming him hard.
Who is this shithead to claim such privilege,
that every artist he revels in,
does their arty thing
primarily for little Boy Blue's attention
If Sherman is a fool, let it be so.
Better to be lied to than face unbearable truths.
thrilled with sights and sounds since he was a little.
Ever since Sherman was knee high to a grass hopper,
someone up there has been painting him pretty pictures.
Ever since Sherman was knee high to grown ups,
the dead pan, bad-breath folks have been slamming him hard.
Who is this shithead to claim such privilege,
that every artist he revels in,
does their arty thing
primarily for little Boy Blue's attention
If Sherman is a fool, let it be so.
Better to be lied to than face unbearable truths.
Clay 's Reality
The cicadas return,
but the hum from the freeway overpowers them
The serious downside to living next to a highway.
The missus and I discuss
to fell or not the majestic oak by the garage
It could tumble, maim or kill. Hurricane season approaches.
What folly (seems to me) to establish the worst case scenario
as the most probable. Should not the oak have a right to live?
It was planted here before Gwendolyn and I got knotted!
The uterus is the visionary.
I'm just the dip stick she married
Serves her right for having been such an optimist.
You marry a guy much older than you ---
expect damaged goods.
You marry a virgin, expect inexperience.
but the hum from the freeway overpowers them
The serious downside to living next to a highway.
The missus and I discuss
to fell or not the majestic oak by the garage
It could tumble, maim or kill. Hurricane season approaches.
What folly (seems to me) to establish the worst case scenario
as the most probable. Should not the oak have a right to live?
It was planted here before Gwendolyn and I got knotted!
The uterus is the visionary.
I'm just the dip stick she married
Serves her right for having been such an optimist.
You marry a guy much older than you ---
expect damaged goods.
You marry a virgin, expect inexperience.
Elizabeth River Crossing
My jaunts from Georgia are to a village 10 miles from the Virginia shore
where late at night, a few brave souls skateboard and ride their bikes
There's nothing quite cathedral as darkened, empty streets.
I thrive in a town where my nostrils breathe in salt.
where late at night, a few brave souls skateboard and ride their bikes
There's nothing quite cathedral as darkened, empty streets.
I thrive in a town where my nostrils breathe in salt.
Oh, Weatherspoon
Solitude, how I adore you
who provides me climate and altar
to soothe and stoke with words of rapture,
she who I most desire,
me, of course
who provides me climate and altar
to soothe and stoke with words of rapture,
she who I most desire,
me, of course
The Eroticism of William Overture
I've heard it said, a computer's memory can't be erased
A google search is recorded forever
If this is so for electronics,
what of spongy, brainy matter?
I dare not write all that I think
once imagined may persist
and find itself out there stalking
A google search is recorded forever
If this is so for electronics,
what of spongy, brainy matter?
I dare not write all that I think
once imagined may persist
and find itself out there stalking
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Nymph
Like a long, straight highway through flat lands
This be April not July
before the corn grows high
before the wheat sweeps forward of the drive
Tornado alley...this be Kansas.
Like a long, straight drive under blue pearl distance;
gold the open window wind's resistance ---
over the highway's meridian, a puff like her
she of pastel slant, she of ivory neck
she of hair the color of autumn haste
she of powdered breasts
Do I know this actress from somewhere?
The pampas, perhaps,
perhaps the Australia ?
This be April not July
before the corn grows high
before the wheat sweeps forward of the drive
Tornado alley...this be Kansas.
Like a long, straight drive under blue pearl distance;
gold the open window wind's resistance ---
over the highway's meridian, a puff like her
she of pastel slant, she of ivory neck
she of hair the color of autumn haste
she of powdered breasts
Do I know this actress from somewhere?
The pampas, perhaps,
perhaps the Australia ?
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Road Back to Haifa
Haifa was once called Tell Abu Hawam.
Settlements tend to undergo name changes.
New York was once called New Amsterdam.
Likewise, people live through different stages.
Sammy, a taxi driver, had been a failed medical student.
No passion for anatomy, made obvious
the first time he had to carve a cadaver.
Let the ill, therefore, heal the sick.
Sammy's childhood ambition was to be an astronaut.
If you look at your city as a strange planet,
driving a cab comes close to being a space traveler.
Every country is basically an alien nation.
On his 26th birthday, Sammy is contracted by a tourist
to drive her to the Dead Sea and back.
Tour bus are cheaper, but the lady wants a cab.
Be hospitable to strangers. Tourists, after all, are guests.
During the trip, the tourist asks many questions,
questions of a personal nature, like is Sammy a Jew or Arab?
Does he have relatives who are Holocaust survivors?
What does he think of Barack Obama?
Sammy begins to feel suspicious,
a nagging feeling like that of deja vu,
as if he has already lived this situation,
an entangled plot to kill him.
Midway to the Dead Sea, Sammy gets a call,
and fakes it into a conversation, which recommends
his immediate return to Haifa. This he explains to the tourist.
He'll arrange for another cab.
The next day, Sammy reads, that the other driver was murdered.
Was the murderer the androgynous, bespectacled tourist?
On the road back to Haifa, Sammy listened to Dark Side of The Moon.
The dark side of Earth is the evil which lurks in the hearts of men...and women
Sammy should review the Pink Floyd album more closely.
There could be a message for him in the lyrics.
A year later, the tourist is back. Like the first time,
she wears black leather. Like the first time she finds Sammy by a cab stand.
This time, she's wanting tutoring
in Hebrew and/or Arabic.
Here we go again., seconds on deja vu.
What is this she up to?
Settlements tend to undergo name changes.
New York was once called New Amsterdam.
Likewise, people live through different stages.
Sammy, a taxi driver, had been a failed medical student.
No passion for anatomy, made obvious
the first time he had to carve a cadaver.
Let the ill, therefore, heal the sick.
Sammy's childhood ambition was to be an astronaut.
If you look at your city as a strange planet,
driving a cab comes close to being a space traveler.
Every country is basically an alien nation.
On his 26th birthday, Sammy is contracted by a tourist
to drive her to the Dead Sea and back.
Tour bus are cheaper, but the lady wants a cab.
Be hospitable to strangers. Tourists, after all, are guests.
During the trip, the tourist asks many questions,
questions of a personal nature, like is Sammy a Jew or Arab?
Does he have relatives who are Holocaust survivors?
What does he think of Barack Obama?
Sammy begins to feel suspicious,
a nagging feeling like that of deja vu,
as if he has already lived this situation,
an entangled plot to kill him.
Midway to the Dead Sea, Sammy gets a call,
and fakes it into a conversation, which recommends
his immediate return to Haifa. This he explains to the tourist.
He'll arrange for another cab.
The next day, Sammy reads, that the other driver was murdered.
Was the murderer the androgynous, bespectacled tourist?
On the road back to Haifa, Sammy listened to Dark Side of The Moon.
The dark side of Earth is the evil which lurks in the hearts of men...and women
Sammy should review the Pink Floyd album more closely.
There could be a message for him in the lyrics.
A year later, the tourist is back. Like the first time,
she wears black leather. Like the first time she finds Sammy by a cab stand.
This time, she's wanting tutoring
in Hebrew and/or Arabic.
Here we go again., seconds on deja vu.
What is this she up to?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Nancy Fosdick
Saladin and I rode north from the badlands
where luck would have it, we encountered the Mexican army.
Saladin was impounded for 24 hours and so were my shooting irons.
"A precaution," said they. Yeah --- in lawless lands,
the whim of the moment is justice be hanged.
I frequented the town's one and only cantina,
had a few margaritas and shrugged off the freaks,
one in particular who wanted my lap to chew the fat.
No prancing boys for me in g-strings and in heavy eye liner at that.
My vision was steadfast, get back my guns and Saladin.
Get outta there quick time, maybe, even with an extra mount.
When red tape is unwarranted, some shit should have to pay.
So, I poisoned their well and stampeded their horses,
took what was mine, plus the lieutenant's palomino
and rode hard Texas bound, where I do declare,
I behave like a lady, fight like a man, and the Mexican army be goddamn!
Providence bless The Lone Star!
where luck would have it, we encountered the Mexican army.
Saladin was impounded for 24 hours and so were my shooting irons.
"A precaution," said they. Yeah --- in lawless lands,
the whim of the moment is justice be hanged.
I frequented the town's one and only cantina,
had a few margaritas and shrugged off the freaks,
one in particular who wanted my lap to chew the fat.
No prancing boys for me in g-strings and in heavy eye liner at that.
My vision was steadfast, get back my guns and Saladin.
Get outta there quick time, maybe, even with an extra mount.
When red tape is unwarranted, some shit should have to pay.
So, I poisoned their well and stampeded their horses,
took what was mine, plus the lieutenant's palomino
and rode hard Texas bound, where I do declare,
I behave like a lady, fight like a man, and the Mexican army be goddamn!
Providence bless The Lone Star!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Easy Does It, Don't Spill It
We had an appointment, our regular rendezvous
to hold hands and chat awhile as childhood sweethearts
often do. We've been going steady since I was four.
That's why I say, what's mine is mine
and to no one else belongs.
So what's up! My date has stood me up!
Am I depressed? Not yet, but wait...
I'm too livid to be depressed.
In toilets, trains and stranger places,
I sought my lover's favor night and day,
and paid for it (I falsely thought) with unholy reverence
as one pays for one night stands with a king's courtesan.
So can anyone inform me, what went south?
It's not like I've been unfaithful,
or switched the bitch for cross word puzzles.
Girlfriend is still my muse par excellence.
Then, she of free verse and rhyme retorts from her hiding place,
"Shut your mouth, if indeed your mouth is mine to prick or tickle.
Find yourself a thorn and stick it where it hits you.
Then return to me renewed, once your mouth is licorice
and your teeth are bleeding hot."
So said, so done, my witchy mistress.
I've leached my lip to bleed a bit,
and pledge upon this page that oozing syrup.
Here Muse, I place my tongue upon your trunk,
and entrust my cocoon cerebellum to your crowning canopy,
that we may think, rethink (shall we),
our topsy, turnkey, off and on sadistic thing.
to hold hands and chat awhile as childhood sweethearts
often do. We've been going steady since I was four.
That's why I say, what's mine is mine
and to no one else belongs.
So what's up! My date has stood me up!
Am I depressed? Not yet, but wait...
I'm too livid to be depressed.
In toilets, trains and stranger places,
I sought my lover's favor night and day,
and paid for it (I falsely thought) with unholy reverence
as one pays for one night stands with a king's courtesan.
So can anyone inform me, what went south?
It's not like I've been unfaithful,
or switched the bitch for cross word puzzles.
Girlfriend is still my muse par excellence.
Then, she of free verse and rhyme retorts from her hiding place,
"Shut your mouth, if indeed your mouth is mine to prick or tickle.
Find yourself a thorn and stick it where it hits you.
Then return to me renewed, once your mouth is licorice
and your teeth are bleeding hot."
So said, so done, my witchy mistress.
I've leached my lip to bleed a bit,
and pledge upon this page that oozing syrup.
Here Muse, I place my tongue upon your trunk,
and entrust my cocoon cerebellum to your crowning canopy,
that we may think, rethink (shall we),
our topsy, turnkey, off and on sadistic thing.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Resist Not Evil
Clear conscience is clear vision,
in any attack, the surest defense.
When comes an assault, there's a cute move
which usually throws meanies for a loop.
You embrace them in order to assist them
to pursue into the void their chosen course,
where they explode like farts in reverse
imbuing the universe with dazzling displays.
in any attack, the surest defense.
When comes an assault, there's a cute move
which usually throws meanies for a loop.
You embrace them in order to assist them
to pursue into the void their chosen course,
where they explode like farts in reverse
imbuing the universe with dazzling displays.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Attitude and Physics
Upon the floor above them crashing,
Jack and Jill and Bill looked at each other,
and made for the nearest exit.
Jack was a mail boy, the other two were accountants.
The accountants were experienced runners,
and down the stairwell they went without tripping.
Jack was right behind them but soon took in front,
'cause he dared jump entire flights of stairs as if he could glide.
You might say, it was a matter of attitude and altitude.
Whereas, the runners ran out of panic
Jack celebrated the occurrence as a non-event,
a "goof," a practical joke of sorts
like falling drunks, often won't suffer a scratch.
All things being equal, a " a non event" attitude
can get you out of a fix quicker.
However, in the case of Jack and Jill and Bill,
the accountants were killed on the 78th floor,
Jack made it to 51st,
where he overwhelmed by smoke
...in the event labeled 911.
Jack and Jill and Bill looked at each other,
and made for the nearest exit.
Jack was a mail boy, the other two were accountants.
The accountants were experienced runners,
and down the stairwell they went without tripping.
Jack was right behind them but soon took in front,
'cause he dared jump entire flights of stairs as if he could glide.
You might say, it was a matter of attitude and altitude.
Whereas, the runners ran out of panic
Jack celebrated the occurrence as a non-event,
a "goof," a practical joke of sorts
like falling drunks, often won't suffer a scratch.
All things being equal, a " a non event" attitude
can get you out of a fix quicker.
However, in the case of Jack and Jill and Bill,
the accountants were killed on the 78th floor,
Jack made it to 51st,
where he overwhelmed by smoke
...in the event labeled 911.
Up To Now
When nature rages, not everything everywhere is shaken.
There are limits to energy's expenditures.
and yet every configuration belies a certain stillness,
the very foundation of a thing's location,
perceived especially at night, as in meteor showers,
or in how the wet grass lies.
There are limits to energy's expenditures.
and yet every configuration belies a certain stillness,
the very foundation of a thing's location,
perceived especially at night, as in meteor showers,
or in how the wet grass lies.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Young Master Jeff
When he had nothing better to do, he'd peek into the frig.
What was he looking for? The ice box was as he left it.
It still cooled, it was still well stocked.
There's something about opening a frig out of habit
that's like turning on the TV when the place is awfully quiet.
Maybe the residual memory from stone age years,
when a guy had to be on the lookout for his next meal
Young Master Jeff, if you haven't guessed it -
his full name was Jeffrey Dahmer
What was he looking for? The ice box was as he left it.
It still cooled, it was still well stocked.
There's something about opening a frig out of habit
that's like turning on the TV when the place is awfully quiet.
Maybe the residual memory from stone age years,
when a guy had to be on the lookout for his next meal
Young Master Jeff, if you haven't guessed it -
his full name was Jeffrey Dahmer
Monday, April 6, 2009
Lady on The Rock
The horizon frowns,
and the rain sets down upon the sea in sheets
Abigail's homeward bound on stepping beach,
she whose bedroom window is off a pinnacle
she who lives on the edge of genesis.
Like surf, like waves
there's an affinity in repetition
betwixt quiet intensity and disquieting stillness
Abigail's eyes are those of the beacon she mans,
she of the darkest hours and reddish day breaks,
she who has sea shell hearing,
she of the oiled hands, she on the rock of acute austerity,
she like a hermit crab, jealous of her private doings
she of no man nor need of one. Neptune be blessed,
for she is married to a lighthouse.
and the rain sets down upon the sea in sheets
Abigail's homeward bound on stepping beach,
she whose bedroom window is off a pinnacle
she who lives on the edge of genesis.
Like surf, like waves
there's an affinity in repetition
betwixt quiet intensity and disquieting stillness
Abigail's eyes are those of the beacon she mans,
she of the darkest hours and reddish day breaks,
she who has sea shell hearing,
she of the oiled hands, she on the rock of acute austerity,
she like a hermit crab, jealous of her private doings
she of no man nor need of one. Neptune be blessed,
for she is married to a lighthouse.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Show Time
They are lean and vicious, big and little homo sapiens,
pit bulls of mushroom ears from blows received
They're fists and kicks bruise and bloody
can splinter ribs, separate ligaments
divide brains from cranium casings
like eggs and yolks fall apart
These are men caged to fight
Judges are paid to award laurels
Referees are paid to keep it clean
Crowds cheer and boo and egg them on
I view the gladiators from my living room
where I try to figure out from first impressions
who will be the winners, who will be the creamed ones
Do I feel guilty that I am entertained by this barbarity?
Only guilty that I do not feel as guilty as I should.
What the heck, I'm but a tourist just passing through
pit bulls of mushroom ears from blows received
They're fists and kicks bruise and bloody
can splinter ribs, separate ligaments
divide brains from cranium casings
like eggs and yolks fall apart
These are men caged to fight
Judges are paid to award laurels
Referees are paid to keep it clean
Crowds cheer and boo and egg them on
I view the gladiators from my living room
where I try to figure out from first impressions
who will be the winners, who will be the creamed ones
Do I feel guilty that I am entertained by this barbarity?
Only guilty that I do not feel as guilty as I should.
What the heck, I'm but a tourist just passing through
Prologue
He had been dying for nearly half an hour
It wasn't as easy as he supposed
In fact, he had been dieing for the past 6 months
A calm came upon him in the death throes,
a calm like the calm after sex.
All the introspection was finally paying off.
In his mind, he walked across the room
to a door unnoticed in the 30 years he lived there
He opened the door to a room smaller than a closet,
except that now he found himself in a toy house
He was almost unconscious. As he opened yet another door,
a gust rushed in.
It wasn't as easy as he supposed
In fact, he had been dieing for the past 6 months
A calm came upon him in the death throes,
a calm like the calm after sex.
All the introspection was finally paying off.
In his mind, he walked across the room
to a door unnoticed in the 30 years he lived there
He opened the door to a room smaller than a closet,
except that now he found himself in a toy house
He was almost unconscious. As he opened yet another door,
a gust rushed in.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Great Leap Forward
A moth flutters against on my window
seeks entrance to my light bulb,
David Letterman, late night television
Next morning, a bird fancies the living room a garden,
is rendered unconscious. What dreams may come
transit victims
Same night, a seismic movement torments the house
I worry if it might be the dead released from my basement
Inner quiet ought not compromised by circumstances.
The great leap forward to approximating perfection
seeks entrance to my light bulb,
David Letterman, late night television
Next morning, a bird fancies the living room a garden,
is rendered unconscious. What dreams may come
transit victims
Same night, a seismic movement torments the house
I worry if it might be the dead released from my basement
Inner quiet ought not compromised by circumstances.
The great leap forward to approximating perfection
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Stone Mountain Rain
The rain here has a frame of its own
which loves the bare face granite mountain
as much as its stone loves to be bathed by the pelt,
scarring, eroding, rendering gravel at the footing,
and a little further down, the gravel also gets its rocks off,
changing into sand. Such rain (I swear) exists, persists and lives.
which loves the bare face granite mountain
as much as its stone loves to be bathed by the pelt,
scarring, eroding, rendering gravel at the footing,
and a little further down, the gravel also gets its rocks off,
changing into sand. Such rain (I swear) exists, persists and lives.
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