A crowd appears, to peer at piers,
and beseeches a beech at the beach,
wheeling at the wail of whales.
Going, gone, where escargot.
Boats bode. Tides abide.
Sand is the sentinel, snail, the trail.
Ocean flora, coral peace. It’s all they ask.
Battered rook and powdered knight,
salted bishop, set to fight.
King and queen are in the castle.
Leave the prawnlike pawns to hassle.
In this world of sixty-four,
refined moves define each score.
Every route and battle path
boils down to essential math.
Behold now the L-shaped knight.
Salted bishop stays on white.
Pawns move two then hesitate.
King spends life avoiding mate.
While the bold and mighty queen
captures all and in between.
King is like a nervous wreck
waiting to pick up the check.
Olympic mountains hover
after midnight on t.v.,
awaking western watchers
with the threat of victory.
The Russian peaks resplendent
with a snow as white as ours
belie a time when megatons,
not ribbons, measured powers;
when missiles sat in silos,
fully dressed, awaiting word,
and mutual destruction
was the only prize assured.
The voicelessness of mimes in trees,
like toilet paper hung on breeze,
or choking back an ardent sneeze,
the subtle change as droplets freeze,
springs into life upon dead air,
transmission interruptus there:
where once was music shrill and loud
now hangs a huge but silent cloud.
Some spark or neuron has extinguished.
Aural lifeline’s been relinquished.
Sound waves flattened, noise turned white,
hearing distant, severed kite.
Tonight we face our frantic god. Hillbilly period over. Period. Only backfire prevents
soaring. The inevitable machine of want. Waves of personnel, dreaming beaches.
Triumvirate lighting and smoke deodorant. Cooking with gas. The lawn on loan.
Banjo on the brine. Tumbling from the sky comes another basement story. Sick feet
down and rising. Here an industrial guitar takes possession of the voice. Crestfallen.
(cut one)
We stand on clouds, tending our rigid definition of sky. Lonely is the bird averse to eggs.
We ride the downhill grain, pretending toward art. Affection is the second step toward
nature. Naturally, we send our best pinch hitter up there and he belts it on the roof.
All is lost. Our lives are sold as advertising, bones torn out for furniture.
Shirley, Goodness and Marcy are drawing straws for the remains. This powder must be.
(the soul)
We chew cud at the post office, spit blood at the tax museum. Four stars fall
out and shoot right through our eyes. We’re back "in the fold," grown old,
and farmed out for pleasure. Too late for hobo life, too early for mourning tea.
The pasts we have wasted now surround us. Our profile’s on the thirteen
dollar bill. Try dancing in elevators for misdirection. Paralyzing anxiety beckons.
Tonight the weeds will finally take control. Central planning will realize
the ghost it fashioned. And we will be standing in wetsuits on mountains,
waiting for the ocean of regret. Singing songs to old teachers and fictional pals.
Remembering the horse that got us to the path that got us to the end zone.
We must watch as the battle floats upward, enveloping all notion of good haven.
We pledge ourselves to grandpa’s bomb. The fury of the vessel intrigues our senses.
Dance this weigh. Tons of love. The heretic’s heredity. Watch someone watching the skies.
Somewhere. In the archive is the essence of an old war. We gear up for retreat.
Tiptoe through a smoking land. The bull loves the blood. More satanic babies buzz
the vatican. The pope is pasted with advertisements. His cherry blossom skirt reveals
old thigh. We make him eat nutmeg and recite the blues. In big clown shoes and pasties.
He’s wasted on the scent of Christ and we’re feeding him clues. Nothing stops this fear.
On the road to something better, led by saints and stock assassins. Skipping stone
with razor edges. We elevate the mean. Without meaning. We escalate and
expectations fall. Bags of garbage, crack and money are exchanged for body bags.
We are a bagged nation, boxed in by our frustration. Gestating clean designer death.
We dance wildly by the grave, waving coupons and pointing away. Not today.
Our hosts have bled us dry and tossed us in the combat ring. Sycophantic
calibrated expedited atrocities. Monstrosities and their machines. We’ve the means.
Foil of Camelot. Discarded packs of spoontime filler. We are lashed to the massed
hysteria. Chewing the fat news. Pulling away. Conditioned to the constant sound
of sirens and the squealing of the muse. In black shoes. We planned to fight the power,
but the power went away. The story awry. We can only lionize the pain. Rock candy rain.
The cat has used up all her lives.
And leaves us with tears in our eyes.
Bequeathed soft memories of fur.
We’ll miss her knead. We’ll miss her purr.
