Tonight, I Go Shopping with Woman

The place --- a limbo, a mall
a branch of Marco Polo's voyages to Cathay,
a store by the name of Macys
0n I-65

To my mind, a suffocating mace is Macys
To my eye, a maze of spun polyester,
and of panties, likewise, spun
from petroleum residues,
a poster shop of model girls and model boys

a little bony around knees and hips,
looking like no way they could survive the next great famine
...Macys and tedium, and a spouse who would rather shop all day
than stare down museum corridors at finer exhibits

And then, the lights are offed,
and the burglar proof grills clang shut,
and me thinks, that to be locked in here an eternity
would be a cruel, cruel fate.
It would be useless to scream,

for who would hear you but mannequins
which in time, you'd be turned into one of them
eyelash-less and bald,
and white as chalk

forgetting that once upon a distant time
you were man, you had hope
before you were zapped
while shopping with woman
in mall.

Wolf Pack

Where from comes an image,
where no prior concept existed?
Where from comes an image
to who first had it, before ever we got it?

Art imagines, art conspires,
art impacts the masses
to flock and go "crazig,"
if only we hit the right buttons

I speak of symbols,
but what works in seals and crosses
in other configurations
figure

Passion and zeal and graphics
Eyes roll back into their sockets
Glass cascade like shattered ice,
crash down from yonder heights

Today, we throw a beer festival
Tomorrow, we light the torches
Today, we sing karaoke
Tomorrow, we march on Poland

The Varnish Eats AT His Brain

I am tired of painting portraits
The human countenance depletes me
I see reflected in the eyes my subjects,
my own discomfort

I need change like dry creek needs water
I need a fresh approach to painting
I want the feel of being a student again
I want to paint Prague in winter

English Suite # 6

Oh, if I could only poem
as Johann composed

No, dear, I am not snoring
It's to this divine score, that I am listening

To God be the glory
for Bach and for ears to dig him

My Brother, The Invalid

Rivalry since birth led yet to another misunderstanding
Brother hid under his bed a machete in such an event
should one of his siblings or in-laws come looking for trouble.

His visiting sister from the States sensed the danger,
the morning Horace flew off the handle for no good reason
As tomorrow, she's returning to Mobile
she has come to make peace before leaving.

It's futile, but give the perturbed brother
a parting embrace. He accepts with resistance
No correspondence and stiffens.

That's the way it goes down,
but the story continues
Brother and sister will meet one more time
the circumstances totally different.

He's disabled because of an accident,
she ready to resume the embrace,
maybe to bid him goodbye.

Art Lesson 9

When you accept worst case scenarios,
you are free to fight and kill ... if necessary.

You are untethered as Neanderthals could ever have been,
my brave, hairy ancestors who painted on cavernous walls,
the critters they hunted, in whose skins they dressed,
of whose animals spirits they must have been somewhat curious
as they ravaged the beastly sinew.

This in art
is the power of fatalism.

Ready The Catapults

It is a night to transcend our starved senses
the smoke of sandalwood rising,
unveiling the starry eyes of spirits
The perfume of late bloom gardenias

In verdant shadows,
the fountains gurgling
the plop of falling fruit