Simple 15

Let's see how long you can hold your tongue
after receiving the worst insults
ever

There will be occasions that you'll have to say something
Let's see how long you can restrict replies
to one word sentences.

A hundred times, I've tried and failed.
Familiarity has two sides.
Breeds contempt...may breed content

The Urge to Breed (draft)

Perhaps Darwin explained
why when iguanas are struck
with the pressing urge to propagate,
they gallop blindly to a mystifying ritual
in the Galapagos in the equator
where the earth's midsection bulges

Iguanas in heat slide down volcanic slopes,
not directly into the lava pots,
but dangerously close
to have their young

Bombardment of boulders explode around them,
avalanches ignored, downward they spiral
to reachthe place that's choice
cold blooded reptilian desire
perhaps for vapors and sizzle
a need for ambiance
to have their young

Ash Wednesday

Jewish humor and Jewish pathos
that is written on my face

The wanderings of a restless people
that is written on my face

The Jesus incident
that, too, is written on my face

What I trust is not written on my face
is that I was Hitler's Czech Jewish astrologer,

the one who instructed the Fuhrer to find the mandrake
subsequently, shot dead in a Berlin park

Lady Hamil (draft)

A gardener who kills indiscriminately
every bug, every spider in her path
explain to her that God made them
explain to her a garden without bugs
would be no garden

I married a war criminal

The City Awashed (draft)

The architect is posted at four o'clock
in the long shadows of October

Seven months of utter silence,
and I think I could remember infancy
The sound of ships in the bay
the sound of rain in the streets
the green atmosphere which leaves a thunderstorm
the first recognition I existed

these never left me

Mixed Bag (draft)

I've survived long enough
to recognize turning points

nothing has yet exterminated me

Everything Fades (draft)

Spectacular sunsets fade
riots of spring have their moment
winter de-leafs them

summer returns
returns the falling

Second Chances (draft)

I won the lottery, this morning
Waiting on the light to change
my attention strayed for a second
and I proceeded into traffic prematurely

The rush of trucks near missed me
Alzheimer's?
-Nope
Lesson 10 on tape, Mandarin.

What is Light? What is Darkness?

It's the relationship of angles
that hold compositions together.
A sound argument is one in which
established points of reference intersect neatly.

In visual displays, for example,
points of reference hold
a given composition balanced.
Given points of reference express mass and spacing

Volume is but a mathematical expression of mass, after all,.
and space is utterly expressionless without mass
to define the boundaries of both
Space may not be exactly what we think it is.

Take the following example: Light is energy. All energy radiates.
For the sake of argument, let's say that darkness is the absence of light,
but is darkness the absence of energy? Certainly not.
Other forms of radiations exist in the dark not in the spectrum of light.

Nothing really may be absent of energy in the universe we perceive.
Therefore it may be, that energy does not occupy space as we suppose.
but rather, that space occupies energy.
More appropriately, it would be an issue of "spacing."

Variations (draft)

I home, speaks fern
speaks moss
speaks forest low and dank
such gloom is ours
here in the fog

each leaf is veil
veined and greenie,
and then Saint Frost
virgin bride of tapered fingers
virgin bride assassin

Here time decays
decays the bark
here the yawn arrives,
and when the bride undoes her corset
it's high time to hibernate

I spied her while the autumn lasted
a dove, I spied, who spread apart her legs to drink,
and then paused to make alert ---
a snapping branch
across the ages

We home, proclaim rock shucking roots
roots snaking to streams and brooks
all that's underfoot mysterious,
and water that renews the jungle...
heaven's purpose

Joker(draft)

If thoughts could kill, Vice President, Sir
believe me,
I'd thin this crowd in seconds.

No double talk of global warming,
Just you and me, Vice President Bunker
...mainly me.

Hey, A Prayer (draft)

Thank it that made the sun to shine
clouds to gather and rip
rich diversity of designs,
mineral, flora and fauna


How beautiful is the garden
not yet asphalted over

Six Arm Wonder )draft)

At the speed of light,
how way out we should meet
you and i so different
so alike. Can I be your squeeze?
Would you be my confessional?

Amazonian (draft)

So much it rained the day I was delivered,
my parents named me "Luri"
in the Hooni tongue, word for "flooding"
My mother's placenta looked like a dam

Rain which pounds and splatters,
rain goddess of my forest people
In the beginning, there was lava
but in the subsequent luri, everything changed

forever

Slower than Molasses

One step forward, two steps back
Any slower, I'd be at a dead stop

Come to think about it,
I already am.

Backpocket Friends

If you're poor, you don't have friends
If you're rich, everyone wants to help you.

Monday morning, my coworkers inquire
"Had a nice weekend?" It was okay...

I went to Malaga.
"Where's that?

-Spain.
"You went to Spain for the weekend?"

Make people believe you're rolling in money.
Soon you'll have so many friends, you can Bernie Madoff them.
you can even Bernie Madoff them.

Simple (14)

You might not like what you're about to hear,
but you are exactly where you're suppose to be,
the cumulative effect of thoughts, words and dee
and, damn, those others you never saw coming

The Hindus call, "karma"
In Arabic derivation, "kismet,"
we Christians call, "you reap"

Heaven and hell
nearer than you think
the edge of the world
the rim

Simple (13)

Inherited physical flaws from generations aback
combine for the enrichment of modern day surgeons
with skills for rearranging noses, and making gals short of lips
to look as if the same have been enhanced by repeated stings of wasp

My goddess,
were I to have one,
would be built more like a boy
than an hour glass

We may all, one day,
be contently Frankenstein-ish
with weave down to the nipples
of our saline injected turkey breasts

For Real? (draft)

He spotted the lady
She had a neck like a swan
She wore a necklace of pearls
She was lovely

In her pnk chiffon dress
she reminded him of a lilies
Her feet were exquisite
Of bosom not abundant

This was Harold's dream girl
but he sensed she could be infected
Where from came to him that idea
Intuition, wisdom or what...

That I manage a sentenance is a wonder (draft)

Attention deficit you can work with
Don't get too wordy.
Don't stray from proven formulas

A penny for your thoughts
Cat has your tongue?

A page at the most I'll challenge

September Song

Once we were young
now let us make ready to part

How wide is the cosmos?
As wide as a cosmic yawn

How deep is romance?
As deep as autumn poodles?

Peanut Butter and Jelly

The weeds have reached their maximum length
Frost is not long in coming

Another, another,
another battalion of our boys and girls,
of our formerly unemployed

are shipped to the front, are marched to war
Score one for democracy

Simple (12)

In a perfect world
faith and science would be sweethearts.

In the imperfect world,
they are more often than not antagonists

Simple 11

Rules of the game
apply to the game being played

Obviously, life is game
as well as hunt

Simple (10)

Said a lonely old spinster
on discovering a chat room by accident,
I come to find dialogue,
not suitors nor bantering
of the x-rated kind

You don't always get what you want
but desist not from searching, regardless

Simple (9)

A good listener, a good reader be
Begin by literal interpretations
Then, peek and dig behind the obvious

Often time, truth is a pin
in a haystack of preposterous inventions

Simple (8)

Inappropriate language
can be prejudicial to ones mental development

Reality gets spoken into existence

Simple (7)

In the wisdom of the folk proverb,
that an ounce of prevention
is better than a pound of cure,
take care of your teeth
in order to avoid the dentist's drill.

In like manner, Mapovia,
before committing sin,
consider that the act may result,
in having to open your mouth, eventually
to the likes of a Charlie Manson dentist

Simple (6)

Before I fly, I'm prepared for collision
I've check out my fellow passengers in the lobby
I assume (as I should) that I am in good company

What better way to crash
than in good company

Simple (5)

Doubt's wonder child is worry

Because I am of limited intelligence,
I try not to worry.
My limited intelligence might have it all wrong, anyhow
I keep things simple.
I box life's issues into a simple manifesto

Observance of the Ten Commandments

Simple (4)

Several living rooms, I possess
One, my one room apartment ---
as much in my head ---
The other, the trains I take
to the living rooms I fly
cross country

Simple (3)

Desires are emptied
as seeds swallowed by birds
are vacated in flight

The cycle of seed to fruit
and back

Simple 2

Talk to strangers as if they're armed
Speak sparingly, not rude and easy

When encountering potential murderers
be more concerned for their fate
than for your well being

The destruction of antagonists is a mixed blessing.
To be spared violence is preferable

Simple 1

Be you ever so skilled in giving massages,
chances are that others would do you better
than you could for yourself

Progress on Dream to Painting

"It massive leans as if prepared for rocket launch."

The painter picks up charcoal
to interpret on canvas the image dreamt above
Straight away, the sketch looks whacked
Erase and start all over

The second attempt is worst
The painter presses on
She'll go charcoal to white, white on white
the chalkiest white to the oiliest white imaginable,
tinged with pink and blue beneath
like veins of goddess awed by 20,000 volts...
And, lo, a new idea comes to the fore

Blurring the lines with which she began,
the painter sees depth not present before
She leaps into the work,
and through the night, paints thick

No art is complete, save to extend frontiers.

Prescription for Heartbreak

In fairy tales, witches are ugly
In real life, they can be stunning
as the black widow is to the mate she devours

If a relationship gives you pause to think,
retreat far to think it over.
Or at the very least, fast for a week.

Issues amazinglyclarify on empty stomachs.
Solitude purges excessive sentimentality
of the kind that paralyzes slobbering lovers

There Is A Butterfly

So elegant, so beautiful, so harmless

There is a butterfly whose territorial range
are the bound of my property to the tree line,
but not as far as the highway
In front, to Miss Carol's porch.

Have you ever considered
this fragile creature's stamina?
Who pauses only for seconds to alight on a flower.
Who in the Monarch species flutters from England to Mexico.

When this yellow green guest crosses my path,
I instinctively reflect on the following:
1.) E=MC2
2.) God is Wonderful

The Nature of Noise

In the wilderness, true silence rarely exists
in urban settings, less so

In conversation as in music, silence is pause

In musical structure, notes act as bricks
pause acts as mortar

This the silence which truly is golden

Witch's Prayer, Wizard Stare

It massive leans
to the left
lighthouse poised
prepared
for rocket trip

Its starboard porthole
to moon so close
fingertips
could almost
touch

Its pockmark pores
its crater skin
wrapped in gauze
of witch's night
witch's dim

the spell is cast
oddly snapped
photo graphed
goblet drunk
to the dredges

Sun's Slant

In winter than summer
the sky's coloring is warmer.
My bedroom window
frames the passage.

Tree canopies that frill in spring
fill in heat,
empty in autumn.

Geese squawking
long distance,
formations flying
the shadows lengthen

The Melting Away of Confinement

Something is strange
Something is missing
The inclination to sin is absent
Where has temptation gone to?

This is gonna take getting used to
Thomas lays on the mattress, naked
forearms upright 45 degrees to his biceps,
fingers, extended to the ceiling, they tingle

His hands are empowered
No longer will they be used to inflict punishment
Henceforth, they will be employed
in the working miracles

Language Lives

By this hour, yesterday,
I counted four leaves fall
in the space of the morning.

Today in a minute,
four leaves have fallen.

Keen was the observer
who altered the verb "to fall"
to the name of the season,

she or he, disregarding
the rules of grammar.

The Beginning of Smoke Stacks

I explain to a member of the now generation,
that as every citizen has right to an elementary school education,
every citizen is entitled to health care when needed

The young gentleman claims that people are sick
because they overeat, and them popping out babies in litters
do not carry their fair share of the tax burden

Thus, the low lifers get sicker and contagious,
while we who are healthy, wealthy get screwed
on account of the imprudence?

This discussion is going nowhere.
The young gentleman is talking survival of the meanest
I'm talking love thy fellow citizen as thyself

The young gentleman is talking, perhaps,
of the possibility of recycling the unfit
into more useful protein

To See

He is not bloodied anymore.
He is clean and fragrant as the hills
in the green, green mornings,
of cool blue heavens.

I still remember him bloodied, though.
His vivid, courageous, ruby heart,
when he hearkened to my frantic calls for help,
when I was puss swollen and muddied.

He is no longer bloodied,
but radiant.
Both faces, I should remember.

What does Art mean to You?

Amalgamation and refinement of memories
word play of the absurd, of the amusing and sentimental
jigsaw puzzle challenge of perceived reality

What else?

Blink

2000 years separate us... no big deal
2000 seconds are as difficult for me to tally
as 2000 years. 2000 nights I have kept no log of.

We are united by your promise
I am with you
always

Pretty Sisters, Ugly Sisters

There are people with disagreeable expressions,
nothing could possibly please them.
It's not surprising, if they engender similar.

People with disagreeable expressions,
like nothing on earth could ever please them,
Lord, spare us of this terrible affliction.

It may take forever to rearrange a sour expression,
product perhaps of genetic encoding.
It may take selective breeding, several generations.

Here's hoping your expression is not disagreeable.
If it is, please, try opening your heart a little bit wider.
A change of attitude is your last, best chance

for an immediate and extreme makeover
is your last best chance for an extreme makeover.

Art Lesson 10

Integrity is fullness
in behavior and in the physical
No missing parts.

Like planetary orbit round the day star,
to be full is to be pregnant.

The Mona Lisa smiles.
caught by an agile, old inventor
as well, by a fly on the wall

viewers somewhere near
somewhere distant

Night Mares

The dreams we dream, we edit.
This poem I verse, I dreamt last night,
a dream of rampage spilling over,
the blood throbbing in my throat,
its scent indelible in nostril linings.

There came to me a wench, not seen in years.
Pregnant she came, proclaiming I fathered
the 13 year old fetus, she carries
Tomfoolery, even in dreams that is implausible.

She wails and pleads that I believe her,
argues her cause alternately as if it is before a jury.
Says its high time we wed, that I should step up to the plate.
Seems I heard that line before.

I don't know how in all these soap suds,
my best friend, Ralphy gets in the mix.
I haven't seen him in years, either.
Nevertheless, he too is getting on my case.

It occurs to me that Ralphy and Sophie
may have carnal knowledge of each other,
and are in cahoots to have me pay the tab.
I'm annoyed, can you blame me?

Words escalate to blows.
It should be a cinch for me to floor Ralphy,
except, that in the years I haven't seen him,
he's gotten an advanced degree in voodoo and kickboxing.

The New Yorican has me looking as if I've had a session
with 15 pit bulls, unleashed to bring me to repentance.
But what I lack in fighting skills
I makeup for by being 7th born,

So, I nail my best friend
with a knee to his sperm bank
and apply to his windpipe
a Vulcan thumb.

It's then that I awoke to a happy ending,
and pray to God that Ralph did to,
for who knows if what dreams may come
might be ascribed merely to indigestion.

Fossils and Mummies

I've traveled a grave distance
Three and a half hours by aeroplane
By ship, it would have taken weeks

Halfway to downtown from airport ---
a commotion, a "protest" explains the taxi driver,
camera crew and actors present,
including one dressed like Adolf Hitler

Event is live on internet
The issue --- highway in horrible shape
bridge falling apart, accidents everyday

Government ain't doing shit
Says Mr. Chavarria, "Expect long delays
when you return to the States."
No round trip I've booked.

I've come to the chaos of my native land to say goodbye.
To the lapping, licking flames of cremation,
I bequeath my life's recollections

Fossils and mummies keep theirs a little longer

Day Trip to Espinel

from highlands on curves,
pumping the brakes

down to the capital
rumbles the bus,
coughs at the roadside houses
diesel vapors and burps

to highlands across fields of pine, palm and bamboo
...the passengers gaze at their lives

time brings us recall
at 45 miles both ways
soon enough, we'll arrive in the terminal
two ladies have yapped the entire agenda

Beyond Telescopic

Like a bubble divides in two,
into two halves a point separates,
and from there begins a clockwise rotation
and a counter clock wise rotation
respectively.

The right point swings 180 degrees rightward.
The left point swings 180 degrees leftward.
On crossing paths,they travel upward
another 180 degrees,
meeting again at the apex.

There fusing, and once more dividing,
into four additional points dividing.
Thereafter, to the next power dividing,
and no longer rotating just circular
but also spherically rotating,

squaring over and over, into new dimensions
Is this not exquisitely procreative?
If only we could witness it,
we'd fly through the ceiling,
I'd betcha you.
















and the circular action is an in and out action as well ---
spherical that is, and subsequently, many times over squared
not just numerical value but in extra dimensions

Is this not high romance?
Is this not super nova orgasmic or what?

Soloway's Last Supper

Georgia and I were rehearsing Soloway's convoluted monologue,
not easy for Georgia, acting supposeldy as an ordinary housewife
and part time clerk at Dollar General.
Ben Soloway had been a homosexual and professed anarchist
before he put a gun to his mouth, last year.

While we rehearsed over and over the next take,
the Gupt Brothers dropped by. They're sleazy producers
of low budget Bollywood. Cynically, they queried;
"Involved in a Soloway Play, are you?
Lot's of luck, Donut. Surely, you'll need it."

I was not willing to hold my silence,
It might cast doubt into the minds of my actors,
I replied, "Not to worry, Gupta losers, Gupta twins.
"The Last Supper" is now securely a Mapovia property.
...Sound, camera, action.

I am not one to attempt to enlighten
those of faulty vision as to how one guy's bad luck
can be another fellow's good fortune.
I would do with the Last Supper
as damned well I pleased.

The Former Gardener of Loosmann Tabith

In the deep of an obscure grove
stood a metallic statue,
skeletal form of fish
standing on it's tail,
ten feet top to bottom
spine, ribs and fins,
rusted heavily.

Over the decades,
the work has sunk bit by bit
into the soft rich earth on which it rests.
At present, the pedestal is gone,
and the work is all but 5 feet buried,
which leads one to think, that at this rate
it will eventually be a bench on which to sit,

the skeletal head and teeth exposed.


that makes one wonder,
if at this rate of burial,
might not the work be reduced to a bench,
on which to sit on the skeleton's teeth?