SAUCE CODE

SAUCE CODE

Zappa, in my ears
can taste
the satire
in my mouth
(heavenly,
demonic
like a celeste with fuzz
and wah-wah pedal)

something really salty, pillar
of salt
salt of the Earth

except
(thought to savour)
and discovering your capacity
to escape
cistern, be
fountain

be of February
the fixed Gannymede

easy to
throw my lot in
with you on
this issue

designate you
a truly credible source

unless when
you spoke I did happen,
to be Frank, to
mishear you

therefore when you said “source”
could have sworn you said “sauce”.

BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

we came to clean
fix things up
get
things back on
even
keel

save
what we could

would, on behalf
of your planet, behalf
of the Universe

appreciate
an apology

pity
you not able
to deliver it
personally

apart from the mess, could
not
find a single
trace of you

so hard
to accord you
any benefit of the doubt

DIE DAY

DIE DAY

The day I died
they called a stop
to all wars

voted every war-mongering
(and other kind of idiot)
out of office

built a shield, a Dyson
Sphere around the planet
to harness energy,
protect from
asteroid impacts and
all such extinction events

wasn’t there to see it
but my
heart, support
was with you

requiring my death
to get this done

small
price to pay.

ESCAPE VELOCITY

ESCAPE VELOCITY

fact remains
did not see it coming that
you wanted to
touch me

reached out opportunely
and there I was
having
ditched all hope

still
close in my heart
but booster
malfunction, premature
rocketry
igniting

launched me leagues away
what now feels
like light years

close
as we were ever
going to be
and I didn’t see it,
couldn’t see it

no reversing of engines
bound to
that escape velocity

narrowing the distance
between Earth
and furthest star

pain
worth a lifetime
already converting to poetry

PARADOX

PARADOX

Here’s a paradox (paRAdox),
all poetry being paradoxical

this the Cretan
told me
       (all Cretans
being liars)

you thinking you saw me
recognized me

asking me if I were the person
you thought I was
me answering it
wasn’t me
at all

for me not feeling
myself that moment
deciding
     to reject once and for all
the love
I have always felt for you

the hold you have
had over me
               
but here you are
reaching out

      maybe I should
correct myself,  become
the best
     person I can be

no lie, no lie,
not even
    paradoxically.
   

CUT OUT TO BE

CUT OUT TO BE

I wonder using which
fabulous yarn
allowed
this
cloth to
be woven
a fairly crude and
basic pattern,
truth be told

and yet
    add two distinct
sets of simple wood or
worked ivory

and the
    shapes escalate
breed pattern upon paper
constituting a cerebral
geometry
that will
    take us at any angle
through portals opening up
on who
knows how many
             dimensions

and there you I see you
mirroring each other from the getgo
   steady, patient, constructive,
yet never set in
     a frame (game, set
and match)
so
   polarized
gambit greedy as you
spin your web, set
your traps

get your sweet, sharp
fellows to become
the lush
ambush predators
they were cut out to be.

OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE

OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE

This be
the poem

where according to your
reasoned suggestions

I deleted every word
considered superfluous

every image
that did not fit

so please let me
know if it
reads better, conforms
to your high standards
(you
   could scribble your response
somewhere in
the margin

    or on the other
side of the page).

BABEL

BABEL

everybody talking
nobody hearing
nobody listening

not the poets
even the poets
especially
    not the poets

for where
   are the old guys, what
happened those brigades
who came to
Spain, who streamed
in to Catalonia?

those old universalists,
absurd internationalists,
comic characters in
every historical
                       drama

so beautiful their
pipe dream of comradeship,
a lovely insanity
that could not hold
yet
   might have
saved us

not that I am here to knock
the appeal of all those
Caesars and Francos
rewriting the law
from the vaunted
point of advantage
of their
    glorious, golden,
divinely ordained thrones

telling it
      like it is, like it
has to be

polishing a set of shared words
until
    their speech being
all light
and fire

burn like suns
bright beyond question