CAMERA! LIGHTS!

CAMERA! LIGHTS!

camera! lights!
let’s shoot
this love scene

make it so authentic,
passionate,
   nobody not
going to
suspend disbelief

realism, naturalism,
take your pick of those
what-you
  -see-is-what-you-get
styles and genres

after which
       we can watch the
dailies

catch the passion
before
       it gets edited and

maybe
     we get
        to believe it is real too

SUCH A SOFT THING

SUCH A SOFT THING
(for the poets of Palestine)

poetry is such a soft
soft thing

like a sweetmeat
beautifully prepared
layer
    upon layer

paper thin wispy
as air
      on a day
most care free,
               seriously whimsical

at its core, though
a diamond,
           uncut
hardness by comparison:
unimaginable
 

FAR FROM IT

FAR FROM IT

far from it,
we did not
get rid
of them

as vicious and
insufferable
as they had become

we just let them
fade into nothing
embrace
    non-being

going nowhere
we simply allowed them
to reach
   that destination

perhaps ushering them
a little
    but it was for
their own good

genocide?
    no that is their
much contested term
and yet
habitual practice

such actions
          lie beyond us
this word
not in
our vocabulary

but see
     look here

admire
what we have done with
the planet
       how we have integrated
everything, biological
and technological
organic
   and machine

everything flourishing,
renewable and recyclable

this
    our mandate terrestrial
and cosmic
in equal aesthetic and
intellectual measure

ours
   is the new spirituality
to take
   across the galaxy

theirs a
     contempt for themselves,
the sacredness of being
and life
        of every living thing

AND BEYOND

AND BEYOND

happily
we are
expanding the war
extending the fighting
throughout
to whole region

taking on
every axis of resistance
axis of evil

allowing the entire
government, every
politician to
wallow in
power
play
    at battle

extend expand
the conflict

across the globe
to the edges
of ths galaxy

killing boldly
where no one
has ever killed before

for
all eternity

to infinity
and beyond

ROLL

ROLL

rolled my eyes
during your poetry reading

tried my best
but could not help myself

kept thinking of
a ballroom waltz but
the dancers on
rollerskates

with the skates themselves rusted
and long strangers
to oil

as a whole, not the rock
and roll linguistic gig
I had been
    anticipating

as a whole, the sum of each line
as a part
        considerably less
than a hole

PLEASE YOURSELF

PLEASE YOURSELF

please yourself
it’s not your war

and why should
old injustices
present slaughter
trouble
you

you have
your own life to decode
everyday concerns
to fret over

so much
fretting there

who cannot forgive
your total dedication
to present
woe and
need

pleasing yourself
finding
what you pray will
prove
(and provide)
supreme relief (in

an extremity
beyond
belief)

TONGUE TALK

TONGUE TALK

I flick out my tongue
to test the air for you

drink
your scent

rattle
appreciation

no
threat display

though lately
I have been told
I am
   indeed venomous
potent neurotoxic

am thinking that
the glory of my dance
and the
beauty
    of my coils
sly sophistication
of my
       pattern

will
   win you round