NEW YEAR'S POEMS (2009)
NEW YEAR’S POEM
The orange band bends our flight
Quickly, and the day will be bright.
Racing down the runway,
Leaving the headquarters,
In an airplane in the dawn…
Lifting off, we have had our fun;
I am still looking
At the lights of last night.
The orange band bends our flight
To its unearthly, early stripe.
Down there are the grid of residence,
Loops of commercial business,
Our private sins,
And banned, back-alley smoke dens.
We are addicts and denizens
Ending the celebrations.
The orange band bends our flight.
We buckle our belts; we hold tight.
Beyond buildings and high-rises,
Dawn forms her own skylines.
The sun does not give up,
And shines on shifting horizons;
And, I can still see
The small lights of last night.
The orange band bends our flight;
Day after day, it battles night.
___
OXYGEN CHORD
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the navy sea
A pregnant, fluid, shifting mass,
Amniotic and salty--
Even the shorelines pass.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the underworld
Compact under greenhouse gas
Strumming an oxygen chord
Holding back a hot-flash
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the shallow waves
White waters stretch from the crash
Over and over--nights, days.
The sun smiles its silence.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the blue contour
The little boat floats its path
Nothing beneath the lunar--
Nothing beneath the moon.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the woman’s eyes
Painting her attention span
Orange as it marks the skies
Mourning ancestral ties.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the blue waters
From black and blue and back
All fires must burn themselves out
And change in the balance.
___
LIGHT IN THE EYES
The sun’s light is nothing
To the eyes of my love
The sunlight above me
Comes to nothing
But for the light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love
The sun’s light is nothing
But to sustain my love
The sunlight is coming;
Suns are nothing
But for light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light is nothing
But to allow my love
The sunlight is coming
From its center
All for light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light is nothing
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light can’t love me
Deep in the night
But the light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love…
The sun’s light is nothing
To the blind eyes of my love.
___
QUIET NIGHT
The condo sets upshore
Meeting the ocean head-on
With its red-light height
But not its depth
The moon hides in the sky
Behind the white clouds
Drifting in formless flight
Regardless of day or night
Some sneaks through the cover
To sparkle on the water
Like a spot-light plays
For parts on stage
Cicadas chirp shadows
Where the mountain would be quiet
Porch-lights dot the road
To the coastline
The sky is blue and black
And no one sees the starlight
Just an empty lack--
The giant night.
But, sleep until morning
When the sun will bring its sounds
And unveil its sights
To startle dreams.
___
DARK ROAD
The dark road leads ahead
The leaves have blown in rows
Crowding the shoulder of the black-top
And grass shoots up from them
Though men cut the brush
Their machetes dull
In the rain and in the rust
And the forest fights back.
In the dusk, all I can see
Are the silhouettes of young trees
Though I know they are there
Silhouettes are all I need to see.
Across the flowing stream
And from the bridge,
I hear the waters run
Murmuring a song beneath me
Safe from stagnation and malarial bugs
That would carry our poison,
Would we drop like flies,
Doomed for lack of foresight?
Along the fence, the absent dog…
From dark silence sounds his feet,
Works the earth behind me,
And races to confront me--
___
YOUNG LOVERS
Although there is no autumn here
Leaves still fall from the trees
Sometimes, coming out of nowhere,
They spiral slowly through the air
And make their way to the ground
Are they to be forgotten?
In front of the red-sun house
Runs a dirt mountain road
Young lovers walk down
With whispers, delicate hope,
Carefully, with consideration,
Through trees that explode.
When I used to see them
I felt a pang of envy
But now, all of a sudden,
I smile a smile within me
And smile in recognition
As if with some long-lost kin.
___
DEATH OF THE IGUANA
By the highway,
Snaking through the mountains
With rainforest cliffs,
Coastal ramps slant to the sea.
An iguana scrambled from the roadside ditch
And ran to cross it:
The first car swerved
To miss it
But the second one hit
And the third finished it.
Annihilated by the speed,
Weight, and momentum of traffic,
I saw its body jolt upon impact,
And stagger on its short legs,
While straining its claws,
The moment it was torn apart.
Over the next few days
Walking along the shoulder
I saw it lying in the sun,
Old, fat, mature, and motionless.
Its archaic, legend-ed tail
Curled into a dead position
And stiffly in the hot noon.
Its head was severed
And nowhere to be found
Though I would not look for long.
Skin of black and golden green
Artfully designed its coat
Like a mosaic of early civilization,
And ridges acquired through the ages
Spiked along its back
And still pointed to the sun.
It was an ancient creature
Rotting by the side of the road
Until the third day
When the carrion was gone
And only the smell remained.
It too would soon...
___
EROSION
I’ve been building a bank
So the rain
Won’t just wash away
The road
I’ve amended the drain
Rearranged
The loose earth around
Its mouth
And to re-route the rain
In its path
Down the lush mountain’s
Dark hands
I’ll keep working with it
‘Til the rain
Moves consistently
In grooves
It will preserve the road
For a while,
But, prolonged landslides
Erode.
___
ONE FROM THE WATER
They are not without number.
The sands of the shore
Are brown and worn down.
The waters are beyond description
In their colorful depths,
But the shallow water is clear.
I am content to float
Amid the motion of waves
That seem to pass more quickly
Than they have been raised.
In the ocean,
The sun reflects the surface
Lighting a trail into nowhere
Or to another world--
When just the moon is there.
Dwelling under water
Move maritime species
As we move through the air
On this earth of mysteries
They are not invisible
But creatures rarely seen.
It could be quite effortless
To get lost in the beauty
Upon this water-board.
I tend the motion near me
Stingrays splash the anxiety,
And flip over near the entry.
We are not alone in the sea.
Upon the glass-scrap
I look at the sky so blue
And the mountain so green.
Tints of red shimmer through
And from the stalks of limbs,
Yellow tinges the trees,
As clouds pass formlessly
Like some vapor of antiquity.
___
COUNT DOWN
I count down to remind myself
It’s just a number
Not the end of the world
Or the day we’re rent asunder
It’s good to know I’m there
But I can do without
The squeaking metal chair
The creaking of the chair
It’s one technique to persevere
When I could just quit
And quitting’s easier
Although one more misplaced tactic.
I count down to remind myself
We also count up
And there’s no ceiling there
There is no number to our love.
It’s good to know I’m there
But I can do without
The squeaking metal chair
The creaking of the chair.
___
CHANGING COLORS
The moon looks strange tonight
Moving to the horizon
Trading orange for height
Borrowed from the light of dawn
Changing colors, all is quiet--
The moon looks strange tonight
Maybe it is the whiskey
Maybe it was the bone
Pulling the chains within me
And things I can’t postpone--
The moon looks strange tonight
But I don’t feel so alone
Maybe it’s full and bright
Maybe it’s a big gray stone
For fertility rites--
The moon looks strange tonight
It seems renewed and reborn
But it will be all right
Though alien and forlorn,
It looks foreign and dignified--
The moon looks strange tonight
In spite of the passing clouds
It will not be denied
As it keeps on shining out
Luminous and alight--
___
IN THE BATHROOM FOR SOME REASON
It was in your old house
Where we were held
It turned into a mess
And belonged to someone else.
I don’t know about you…
There’s one good thing about dreams:
The dead come walking through,
And the dead come talking too.
I was surprised to see you this morning
You looked so very young
Talking about public health and death
And life-expectancy.
Why didn’t you look at me?
Why wouldn’t you look?
I could tell you were busy
But I could see you.
Was I a child,
Or was I myself?
As I was then,
Or as I am now?
I don’t know about you…
There’s one good thing about dreams:
The dead come walking through,
And the dead come talking too.
___
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
Thank you for running
Thank you for planning
Thank you for becoming
A family man.
Thank you for writing
Thank you for learning
Thanks for organizing
Thanks for discerning.
Thank you for speaking
Thank you for searching
Thank you for seeking
While you were hurting.
Thank you for smiling
Thank you for leading
Thanks for clarifying
Why we’re all bleeding.
Thank you for trying
Thanks for believing
Thank you for not lying--
Thank you for seeing.
___
LIKE ORION’S BELT
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
But from the moment she starts
I think of the other things…
She’s wrapped up by impressions
She sees on TV
And reads about in magazines
Like there is any such thing
I will get to the bottom
Of misperception
The nature of celebrity--
Vicarious projection
The imaginative drive
Helps her follow them
Yes, she loves them dead or alive
It’s as if she knows them
She watches them sing and dance
Play with dramatics
And talk about taking a chance
From staged, industry events.
They’re like a different breed
They’re like the gentry
Some bloody aristocracy--
For her there is no entry.
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
And she thinks she knows who they are--
I think of the other things.
This is a phenomenon--
Mass media
Has fertilized and pounced upon
Since all of us were little.
She thinks she knows who they are--
She knows about them
But none of them know about her
She will not live without them.
She looks across the chasm
Through some endless tube
Though she’s just as real as them
In the end we can’t elude.
And, she can sing like a bird
And she acts all day
And talks with wealth of fertile words
When there is no better way.
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
But from the bottom of my heart,
I think of the other things…
___
STREETCARS AND TROLLEYS
I wake to the crash of laughter
From the cues of sitcoms
The crowd is exhausted after…
And on to the next one.
I can see the flash of applause
I hear the bells of sets
With the bleachers full of tourists
And bored adolescents
It’s less of a commercial break
And more of an ambush
Take me out to the streetcars, Kay.
You jump on and I’ll push.
Get me out of this Studio,
Get me out in the air
So, I’m not an industry boy
I don’t blow dry my hair.
They put him in the make-up room
Before he went on-air
His rosy cheeks are in full-bloom
Reading the lines that are there.
It’s less of a commercial break
And more of an air-brush
Take me out to the streetcars, Kay.
You jump on and I’ll push.
___
NEVER THERE
She said I was a handsome man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But talking to her hand
And now she’s never there.
Now, she’s never there.
She liked my sensitivity,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
Alone in her city,
She had no time to spare.
Now, she’s never there.
She said I was a caring man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But back where I began
Before the brief affair
Now, she’s never there.
She liked her material things,
So, that didn’t get me anywhere
When I had no penny
Although I would have shared…
Now, she’s never there.
She said I was a real good man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But talking to her hand,
And now she’s never there.
Now, she’s never there.
___
THE GIFT OF DREAMS
I’ve awoken with some happiness,
Excitement in the moment,
And enthusiasm to excess.
I have spoken with the dead
Whose time has met migrations
And who have passed over in this
Despite their welcome recurrence.
I’ve rekindled unrequited loves
And done things on the carpet
When nowhere else was available
From the real-time bathroom rugs
To lawn chairs out in the yard
And hot-rod cars, backseat I was…
There's only one still in my heart.
I’ve held counsel with distant forebears
And guarded ancestral posts
Who finally chose to say something
After rolling tobacco,
Bringing in revolutions,
And parting with the essentials
When the Shah was out of pocket.
I’ve wondered long over the nonsense
Through scenes free of logic
Peering in through the distorted lens
With all my love would allow
And I have no idea
What good those dreams will do me now.
Electric minds: enjoy the blackout.
___
NAVIGATING THE BREEZE
The forest covers
Such an incline
Over the mountainside.
To the average eye
It looks just like
Leaves fall from the sky.
And beyond,
Eagles look lost
They’re flying so high.
___
DYING GAUL
I’ve lost all my muscles
And I never was that tall
Maybe it’s just the streets and all
There are times I feel…
Like the dying Gaul
Down on the sidewalk
Where people amble
And there’s no need to talk.
With my back against the wall,
I shut my eyes to people
And lower the unseen shawl
No one ever saw…
Woman-so moved by drink
She falls and can’t even crawl.
So broken in her sling,
I can’t even be helpful.
Like the dying Gaul
Down on the sidewalk
Where people amble
And there’s no need to talk.
___
WE ANSWER FOR OURSELVES
It was just an apple
Growing on a tree
How did it happen
To be forbidden me?
The peelings lay aground
Drying in the sun
Quickly, they turned brown,
And creatures set upon--
The core was discarded
The seeds bore no root.
With rot unguarded,
The scraps would bear no fruit.
But, I wouldn’t blame you.
I will not blame you
Or seek to shame you
For what I came to do…
For what I chose to do,
I made the choice too.
___
JEWELS
In a land where people
And the earth
Were as red as the dawn
There once preyed a panther
As black as the night.
With the culture of them,
With the civilization
And dawn above them
The black panther is gone
The black panther is gone.
In a land of ghosts, feathers,
Animals,
Stories, laughter, mother…
There once preyed a panther
As black as the night.
They caught them in the act,
Rolling the tail, roaring cries...
In the nights of black,
You see them by their eyes,
Like beaded jewels of light.
In a land where my people
Rolled over
The ones already there,
There once preyed a panther,
Fierce and disappeared.
They’ve reintroduced them
Into altered conditions;
Wardens guard the pens.
The black panther is gone
The black panther is gone.
___
ONCE REMOVED
When I sleep
I go deep like a dead man,
And I never wake
Until the cycles are done.
But in the middle
Of the night
Before the morning-time
I woke to a sight--
The moon was full,
And it was bright,
High and wonderful
In a luminous white.
The waters reflected
The glowing satellite
Cool, collected,
And giant at its height.
Sturdy over the sea,
Ghostly in its might:
Strong enough to wake me
In a dream of light.
___
TURN THE ANTENNA
Hey, little butterfly
You are blue and black.
You have the Beauty
Painted on your back.
It’s been many moons
Since you were a cocoon.
Just look what you
Have turned into--
Hey, little butterfly
You have spots and things.
You have the Beauty
Painted on your wings.
You’ve been fluttering
Not so many moons.
What worlds have you seen
And points of view:
Antennae.
___
DE LA VIA
Yo lo veo en su cara--
Tu estas muy bella,
Pero no estas sympatica.
Yo entiendo ya.
Voy a vivir.
Tu estas muy fuerte.
Tiene una vida buena
Y adios siempre.
___
IN LIGHT OF A BURNING ROCK
Oh,
How will the people wonder
When all of this is over
And we have gone under?
How could she have missed it
When you know now I told her?
What was I really doing?
Did I really know her?
It’s not Romantic,
And it’s not hypnotic…
It’s not other-wordly
To come out of your body.
Oh,
How will the people wonder
When all of this is over
And we have gone under?
You…
Can’t help getting older
While the sun goes over…
Like a golden boulder.
___
The orange band bends our flight
Quickly, and the day will be bright.
Racing down the runway,
Leaving the headquarters,
In an airplane in the dawn…
Lifting off, we have had our fun;
I am still looking
At the lights of last night.
The orange band bends our flight
To its unearthly, early stripe.
Down there are the grid of residence,
Loops of commercial business,
Our private sins,
And banned, back-alley smoke dens.
We are addicts and denizens
Ending the celebrations.
The orange band bends our flight.
We buckle our belts; we hold tight.
Beyond buildings and high-rises,
Dawn forms her own skylines.
The sun does not give up,
And shines on shifting horizons;
And, I can still see
The small lights of last night.
The orange band bends our flight;
Day after day, it battles night.
___
OXYGEN CHORD
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the navy sea
A pregnant, fluid, shifting mass,
Amniotic and salty--
Even the shorelines pass.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the underworld
Compact under greenhouse gas
Strumming an oxygen chord
Holding back a hot-flash
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the shallow waves
White waters stretch from the crash
Over and over--nights, days.
The sun smiles its silence.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the blue contour
The little boat floats its path
Nothing beneath the lunar--
Nothing beneath the moon.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the woman’s eyes
Painting her attention span
Orange as it marks the skies
Mourning ancestral ties.
The moon hangs half-mast
Lighting the blue waters
From black and blue and back
All fires must burn themselves out
And change in the balance.
___
LIGHT IN THE EYES
The sun’s light is nothing
To the eyes of my love
The sunlight above me
Comes to nothing
But for the light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love
The sun’s light is nothing
But to sustain my love
The sunlight is coming;
Suns are nothing
But for light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light is nothing
But to allow my love
The sunlight is coming
From its center
All for light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light is nothing
In the eyes of my love.
The sun’s light can’t love me
Deep in the night
But the light in the eyes
In the eyes of my love…
The sun’s light is nothing
To the blind eyes of my love.
___
QUIET NIGHT
The condo sets upshore
Meeting the ocean head-on
With its red-light height
But not its depth
The moon hides in the sky
Behind the white clouds
Drifting in formless flight
Regardless of day or night
Some sneaks through the cover
To sparkle on the water
Like a spot-light plays
For parts on stage
Cicadas chirp shadows
Where the mountain would be quiet
Porch-lights dot the road
To the coastline
The sky is blue and black
And no one sees the starlight
Just an empty lack--
The giant night.
But, sleep until morning
When the sun will bring its sounds
And unveil its sights
To startle dreams.
___
DARK ROAD
The dark road leads ahead
The leaves have blown in rows
Crowding the shoulder of the black-top
And grass shoots up from them
Though men cut the brush
Their machetes dull
In the rain and in the rust
And the forest fights back.
In the dusk, all I can see
Are the silhouettes of young trees
Though I know they are there
Silhouettes are all I need to see.
Across the flowing stream
And from the bridge,
I hear the waters run
Murmuring a song beneath me
Safe from stagnation and malarial bugs
That would carry our poison,
Would we drop like flies,
Doomed for lack of foresight?
Along the fence, the absent dog…
From dark silence sounds his feet,
Works the earth behind me,
And races to confront me--
___
YOUNG LOVERS
Although there is no autumn here
Leaves still fall from the trees
Sometimes, coming out of nowhere,
They spiral slowly through the air
And make their way to the ground
Are they to be forgotten?
In front of the red-sun house
Runs a dirt mountain road
Young lovers walk down
With whispers, delicate hope,
Carefully, with consideration,
Through trees that explode.
When I used to see them
I felt a pang of envy
But now, all of a sudden,
I smile a smile within me
And smile in recognition
As if with some long-lost kin.
___
DEATH OF THE IGUANA
By the highway,
Snaking through the mountains
With rainforest cliffs,
Coastal ramps slant to the sea.
An iguana scrambled from the roadside ditch
And ran to cross it:
The first car swerved
To miss it
But the second one hit
And the third finished it.
Annihilated by the speed,
Weight, and momentum of traffic,
I saw its body jolt upon impact,
And stagger on its short legs,
While straining its claws,
The moment it was torn apart.
Over the next few days
Walking along the shoulder
I saw it lying in the sun,
Old, fat, mature, and motionless.
Its archaic, legend-ed tail
Curled into a dead position
And stiffly in the hot noon.
Its head was severed
And nowhere to be found
Though I would not look for long.
Skin of black and golden green
Artfully designed its coat
Like a mosaic of early civilization,
And ridges acquired through the ages
Spiked along its back
And still pointed to the sun.
It was an ancient creature
Rotting by the side of the road
Until the third day
When the carrion was gone
And only the smell remained.
It too would soon...
___
EROSION
I’ve been building a bank
So the rain
Won’t just wash away
The road
I’ve amended the drain
Rearranged
The loose earth around
Its mouth
And to re-route the rain
In its path
Down the lush mountain’s
Dark hands
I’ll keep working with it
‘Til the rain
Moves consistently
In grooves
It will preserve the road
For a while,
But, prolonged landslides
Erode.
___
ONE FROM THE WATER
They are not without number.
The sands of the shore
Are brown and worn down.
The waters are beyond description
In their colorful depths,
But the shallow water is clear.
I am content to float
Amid the motion of waves
That seem to pass more quickly
Than they have been raised.
In the ocean,
The sun reflects the surface
Lighting a trail into nowhere
Or to another world--
When just the moon is there.
Dwelling under water
Move maritime species
As we move through the air
On this earth of mysteries
They are not invisible
But creatures rarely seen.
It could be quite effortless
To get lost in the beauty
Upon this water-board.
I tend the motion near me
Stingrays splash the anxiety,
And flip over near the entry.
We are not alone in the sea.
Upon the glass-scrap
I look at the sky so blue
And the mountain so green.
Tints of red shimmer through
And from the stalks of limbs,
Yellow tinges the trees,
As clouds pass formlessly
Like some vapor of antiquity.
___
COUNT DOWN
I count down to remind myself
It’s just a number
Not the end of the world
Or the day we’re rent asunder
It’s good to know I’m there
But I can do without
The squeaking metal chair
The creaking of the chair
It’s one technique to persevere
When I could just quit
And quitting’s easier
Although one more misplaced tactic.
I count down to remind myself
We also count up
And there’s no ceiling there
There is no number to our love.
It’s good to know I’m there
But I can do without
The squeaking metal chair
The creaking of the chair.
___
CHANGING COLORS
The moon looks strange tonight
Moving to the horizon
Trading orange for height
Borrowed from the light of dawn
Changing colors, all is quiet--
The moon looks strange tonight
Maybe it is the whiskey
Maybe it was the bone
Pulling the chains within me
And things I can’t postpone--
The moon looks strange tonight
But I don’t feel so alone
Maybe it’s full and bright
Maybe it’s a big gray stone
For fertility rites--
The moon looks strange tonight
It seems renewed and reborn
But it will be all right
Though alien and forlorn,
It looks foreign and dignified--
The moon looks strange tonight
In spite of the passing clouds
It will not be denied
As it keeps on shining out
Luminous and alight--
___
IN THE BATHROOM FOR SOME REASON
It was in your old house
Where we were held
It turned into a mess
And belonged to someone else.
I don’t know about you…
There’s one good thing about dreams:
The dead come walking through,
And the dead come talking too.
I was surprised to see you this morning
You looked so very young
Talking about public health and death
And life-expectancy.
Why didn’t you look at me?
Why wouldn’t you look?
I could tell you were busy
But I could see you.
Was I a child,
Or was I myself?
As I was then,
Or as I am now?
I don’t know about you…
There’s one good thing about dreams:
The dead come walking through,
And the dead come talking too.
___
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
Thank you for running
Thank you for planning
Thank you for becoming
A family man.
Thank you for writing
Thank you for learning
Thanks for organizing
Thanks for discerning.
Thank you for speaking
Thank you for searching
Thank you for seeking
While you were hurting.
Thank you for smiling
Thank you for leading
Thanks for clarifying
Why we’re all bleeding.
Thank you for trying
Thanks for believing
Thank you for not lying--
Thank you for seeing.
___
LIKE ORION’S BELT
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
But from the moment she starts
I think of the other things…
She’s wrapped up by impressions
She sees on TV
And reads about in magazines
Like there is any such thing
I will get to the bottom
Of misperception
The nature of celebrity--
Vicarious projection
The imaginative drive
Helps her follow them
Yes, she loves them dead or alive
It’s as if she knows them
She watches them sing and dance
Play with dramatics
And talk about taking a chance
From staged, industry events.
They’re like a different breed
They’re like the gentry
Some bloody aristocracy--
For her there is no entry.
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
And she thinks she knows who they are--
I think of the other things.
This is a phenomenon--
Mass media
Has fertilized and pounced upon
Since all of us were little.
She thinks she knows who they are--
She knows about them
But none of them know about her
She will not live without them.
She looks across the chasm
Through some endless tube
Though she’s just as real as them
In the end we can’t elude.
And, she can sing like a bird
And she acts all day
And talks with wealth of fertile words
When there is no better way.
When she talks about the stars
I know what she means
But from the bottom of my heart,
I think of the other things…
___
STREETCARS AND TROLLEYS
I wake to the crash of laughter
From the cues of sitcoms
The crowd is exhausted after…
And on to the next one.
I can see the flash of applause
I hear the bells of sets
With the bleachers full of tourists
And bored adolescents
It’s less of a commercial break
And more of an ambush
Take me out to the streetcars, Kay.
You jump on and I’ll push.
Get me out of this Studio,
Get me out in the air
So, I’m not an industry boy
I don’t blow dry my hair.
They put him in the make-up room
Before he went on-air
His rosy cheeks are in full-bloom
Reading the lines that are there.
It’s less of a commercial break
And more of an air-brush
Take me out to the streetcars, Kay.
You jump on and I’ll push.
___
NEVER THERE
She said I was a handsome man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But talking to her hand
And now she’s never there.
Now, she’s never there.
She liked my sensitivity,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
Alone in her city,
She had no time to spare.
Now, she’s never there.
She said I was a caring man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But back where I began
Before the brief affair
Now, she’s never there.
She liked her material things,
So, that didn’t get me anywhere
When I had no penny
Although I would have shared…
Now, she’s never there.
She said I was a real good man,
But that didn’t get me anywhere
But talking to her hand,
And now she’s never there.
Now, she’s never there.
___
THE GIFT OF DREAMS
I’ve awoken with some happiness,
Excitement in the moment,
And enthusiasm to excess.
I have spoken with the dead
Whose time has met migrations
And who have passed over in this
Despite their welcome recurrence.
I’ve rekindled unrequited loves
And done things on the carpet
When nowhere else was available
From the real-time bathroom rugs
To lawn chairs out in the yard
And hot-rod cars, backseat I was…
There's only one still in my heart.
I’ve held counsel with distant forebears
And guarded ancestral posts
Who finally chose to say something
After rolling tobacco,
Bringing in revolutions,
And parting with the essentials
When the Shah was out of pocket.
I’ve wondered long over the nonsense
Through scenes free of logic
Peering in through the distorted lens
With all my love would allow
And I have no idea
What good those dreams will do me now.
Electric minds: enjoy the blackout.
___
NAVIGATING THE BREEZE
The forest covers
Such an incline
Over the mountainside.
To the average eye
It looks just like
Leaves fall from the sky.
And beyond,
Eagles look lost
They’re flying so high.
___
DYING GAUL
I’ve lost all my muscles
And I never was that tall
Maybe it’s just the streets and all
There are times I feel…
Like the dying Gaul
Down on the sidewalk
Where people amble
And there’s no need to talk.
With my back against the wall,
I shut my eyes to people
And lower the unseen shawl
No one ever saw…
Woman-so moved by drink
She falls and can’t even crawl.
So broken in her sling,
I can’t even be helpful.
Like the dying Gaul
Down on the sidewalk
Where people amble
And there’s no need to talk.
___
WE ANSWER FOR OURSELVES
It was just an apple
Growing on a tree
How did it happen
To be forbidden me?
The peelings lay aground
Drying in the sun
Quickly, they turned brown,
And creatures set upon--
The core was discarded
The seeds bore no root.
With rot unguarded,
The scraps would bear no fruit.
But, I wouldn’t blame you.
I will not blame you
Or seek to shame you
For what I came to do…
For what I chose to do,
I made the choice too.
___
JEWELS
In a land where people
And the earth
Were as red as the dawn
There once preyed a panther
As black as the night.
With the culture of them,
With the civilization
And dawn above them
The black panther is gone
The black panther is gone.
In a land of ghosts, feathers,
Animals,
Stories, laughter, mother…
There once preyed a panther
As black as the night.
They caught them in the act,
Rolling the tail, roaring cries...
In the nights of black,
You see them by their eyes,
Like beaded jewels of light.
In a land where my people
Rolled over
The ones already there,
There once preyed a panther,
Fierce and disappeared.
They’ve reintroduced them
Into altered conditions;
Wardens guard the pens.
The black panther is gone
The black panther is gone.
___
ONCE REMOVED
When I sleep
I go deep like a dead man,
And I never wake
Until the cycles are done.
But in the middle
Of the night
Before the morning-time
I woke to a sight--
The moon was full,
And it was bright,
High and wonderful
In a luminous white.
The waters reflected
The glowing satellite
Cool, collected,
And giant at its height.
Sturdy over the sea,
Ghostly in its might:
Strong enough to wake me
In a dream of light.
___
TURN THE ANTENNA
Hey, little butterfly
You are blue and black.
You have the Beauty
Painted on your back.
It’s been many moons
Since you were a cocoon.
Just look what you
Have turned into--
Hey, little butterfly
You have spots and things.
You have the Beauty
Painted on your wings.
You’ve been fluttering
Not so many moons.
What worlds have you seen
And points of view:
Antennae.
___
DE LA VIA
Yo lo veo en su cara--
Tu estas muy bella,
Pero no estas sympatica.
Yo entiendo ya.
Voy a vivir.
Tu estas muy fuerte.
Tiene una vida buena
Y adios siempre.
___
IN LIGHT OF A BURNING ROCK
Oh,
How will the people wonder
When all of this is over
And we have gone under?
How could she have missed it
When you know now I told her?
What was I really doing?
Did I really know her?
It’s not Romantic,
And it’s not hypnotic…
It’s not other-wordly
To come out of your body.
Oh,
How will the people wonder
When all of this is over
And we have gone under?
You…
Can’t help getting older
While the sun goes over…
Like a golden boulder.
___