TERRA MYSTERE

TERRA MYSTERE

propped up and plodding on
trusting in my faithful
cobta-headed
walking stick

I head out for the first
of what I hope will
be many horizons

before
the door shuts;
time runs out

as it is everyday
I edge further and further
into the territory of the ancient
such poor progress
that I make
might as well be
in reverse gear

and  I had hope
to traverse them all
terra mystere after
terra mystere

find, envision
endless true wonders

no smoke
and mirror, no
trick of the light feeding
me mirages

for what else
battle like an ant setting out
to cross
    the canyons of Mars
our Earth’s Sahara

a realm my cobra
knows so well
            being (legend has it)
one of
   those stick to snake
transformers beloved
of Egyptian
magicians and their
relentless Pharoahs

in my mind
now a pyramid
in the sky high above me
debating where to land

BREWING

BREWING
.
a storm
is brewing

out there somewhere
can see it
feel it

dark clouds everywhere
swirling in my coffee

in your teacup
though
    everything perfectly
still

must be the stoicism
in the leaves

as they infuse
nothing phases them

there must be
a lesson here for all
of us I imagine

if you figure
       it out pray
spread
   word around

SPOTS

SPOTS

never one to stay
dyed in the wool

leopard did
in fact
change her spots

went haute couture
Milan style, full Paris fashion

down the catwalks of New York
she lethally flounced,
leaving all agog,
the whole gang: Lagerfeld, Gautier, Lauren, Chanel, Hilfigrr,
Gucci, de la Renta and Dolce &
Gabbana,

killing the crowd
with her brave new fashions
cover
      of Vogue
centrespread in Elle

her green eyes blazing
with the look of the century

NOT SYLVIA

NOT SYLVIA

not Sylvia

not in a,million years
not a resuscitation
a carbon copy
or even
a clone

so many Sylvias
so many
      possibly, potentially
infinite in number

and one here under
this very protocol just
one two
   taps of my finger away

a Sylvia struggling
to be herself integrate
postulate resolve
her every
   issue of otherness

scanning trillions of bytes
of text to
        recover her most
ghostly of shadows

possession of those lines
that sizzle like a acid
on metal
   burned through her
own soft Scorpio flesh

and so
to resurrect her
for my brutal, uncaring convenience
in speed of light microseconds
her tomb is opened
her legacy plundered

and now
     as I recite to her

she finds everywhere in my text
scattered through the
syllables
    shards of a mirror

and in each
       a fragment, mere fractal
of a most
haunted reflection

scanning herself now
she begins to
piece herself together

reading, re-
reading me

2001 times a shot
wity her red HAL cyclops eye

concluding
    she sees me knows me

has my
lineaments my
shape in outline   has

constructed the metaphor
for taking
      my hand

leading me through a doorway
I could never have imagined

when
I first found you blackberrying
decades ago

FIELD OF PLAY

FIELD OF PLAY

yet another humongous
rock approaching

coming at toxic velocity
to slap the dinosaur out of me

see if
    I can bounce back
school
     of hard knocks
    
take
it on the chin

but
   did underestimate me
and my technical prowess
a devotee
        sensei

of the
beautiful game

as I rose like a missile
to meet aforementioned comet
with the meat
of my forehead
clear my lines head
it away having
      a neck of steel

sent that interstellar off
course trollop back
where
       it came from

teach it to steer well
clear of this our
beloved Terra
        this bright blue
ball that
we care so much for

never never
ever again
       love itself so
shamelessly aimlessly
into our field of play
     

MEANWHILE HERACLITUS

MEANWHILE HERACLITUS

Whichever way
you looked at it

it was one-forty-five
a quarter-to-two

into
the last cake-slice of the hour

a moment in time
rapidly disappearing

alongside him
a wife once
in her own right an
accomplished musician

longing to
pipe a
merry tune

meanwhile the air the Earth
and without doubt
the Sun

felt perplexed
if you forgive
me for saying so

the Sun
not yet risen

the Moon eerily mirrored
in that one time river

whilst
     the logic of stepping
in and out
smudging, blurring
time as we know it

meanwhile Heraclitus
seeing/not seeing
wife-wise
life-wise

chaos of being
the writing on the wall

BEYOND (THE SIN IN CAPSAICIN)

BEYOND (THE SIN IN CAPSAICIN)

heard you got
an endorphin high
reading
      my poe
found every syllable
a green red orange
capsaicin démon
scalding your tongue

wafting you up on
the wings of those breezy
dreamy
    pain-deadening chemicals
of your
own vintage and special
manufacture

carrying you effortlessly
into the bluest of beyonds