1, poem, poetry, – Page 131

STILL SPEAKS

dead inside
but a voice still speaks

leaks out stuff
dribbles
of delight

you might
laugh at, work with,

see
how hard it is
for things
to crystallize

one perfect line per
every
waste
basket life

FABULOUS

FABULOUS

if you
are so fabulous

as wonderful
as you say

where
is the wonder?

where are
the fables?

where is the story
that is going to
change my landscape
shift my reality

grip me
grab me

for the rest
of my life?

I catch you sleeping
that very sight
transformative
beneath small, square-
shaped purple blanket

looking
Roman imperial, totally
submerged

and here I am outside
looking in
who knows what
impassable fence my
face pressed up against

who knows
what ultimate, legendary barrier

and on
that shrouded face
what dreams come
strong enough
to leave
some imprint, make
ground-breaking impression?

and so it is
between us
so much spoken
yet everything hidden

deep
beneath the choppy surface
of that text
true leviathans

denizens of the fabulous
most certain to appear

AND THE BASICS

and the basis
for my argument

why I am
taking pains
to argue thus

is the car
in my garage

the flowers
in my front garden

all the family
pictures that adorn my walls

the keys in my pocket
and everything
they open

beyond which
nothing really
of substance at all

HIGH JUMPER

Alan
D

never heard you debate
before

never heard you
live before (well
almost)

stuck in your
chair
but
can jump through
the air
plucking out
conclusion
after conclusion

you should have
become a jumper
could have
become a real athlete
an utter
track star

why limit yourself to the law
to the blase life
of a Harvard professor?

when see you debate
I imagine a whole different
destiny

one where you don”t look
anything so ridiculous,
that totally bad.

RIGHT MIND

REQUIEM

WE SEE

SHE

she
is a
pocket whirlwind

one drop
of her perfume
and tsunamis
reign

ate my heart once
then came
the audacity
to berate
its flavour

pure gut punch
and of how
it is all
put together

I have
said
nothing as yet

WITH APHRODITE

I held
a long interview with Aphrodite

peace
love
sex

these we touched upon
sinking ciders by the poolside
(wedge of lemon
jammed tightly into
the neck of the bottle)

in the course of which
frank and honest
and open-
ended discussion

the goddess revealed much
of her immortal self.

SELFLESS

I wanted
to leave selfless

but there
was the fruit
half-eaten
at my feet

and there was
the serpent
I was already
starting
to morph into

and there were the skyscrapers
and Tarot towers plunging upwards
about to
dominate the skyline

and there was Eve
dark with all
her fresh mythology

against which no option
but to delve downwards
mine
that treasure

soar with the schene
of things now aspiring
beyond the sky
to
name the stars
as they
thus multiplied

on route to our conquest
of the heavens.