FOSSIL

FOSSIL

call me a fossil
but my eyes
are fixed like Medusa’s om
the clock that be
telling me
I got ninety
seconds to midnight

got me wondering
when midnight chimes
what in
    this fairy tale
gets deconstructed, what
gets utterly transformed

and me
    having to make my
own way, own
sorry way

        all the way back home
forsaking the regal palace

as it warps and
shape-shifts and dissolves

as the book instructs
on practically every page
of its
     dense, comple text

trapped between
such
    fiery covers
(colour

        in this instance
saying it all)

SUPER BOWL POEM


SUPER BOWL POEM

woke up
in time to hold off
on the SuperBowl result

worst fears confirmed when
I summoned up courage
to check

    yep Brock loves God
but Brock loves
Patrick Mahomes

(does not seem
to care much about
Head Coach Kyle Shanahan)

and at this
        juncture, out of the blue,
an unruly host of
archetypes made their move
wanted to stick
         around a bit, get
the lie
   of the land in the process
of passing through me

a mad mosaic it was
for a while

      many shapes and
sizes, manners and
demeanours

     jostling up against each other
(Brownian motion)
          excanging, debating,
doing their
dialectic dance, analysis
synthesis
no homogenizing

and there I was in a carnivalesque dream

chatting to the players in
St Francis’ kingdom
of those elevated
                    high above
the realms
of material wealth

peering into the abyss that
a philosopher cum psychologist
had laid
      before me

a tablet broken with the
entire script jagged

and there on the road
a burnt out humvee

and there in the docks
a rusting destroyer

archetypes at home within
settling
     for a game of solitaire

and me
thinking, wondering,
      who does have a
prophetic bone in this
my body

is winning everything?
    and if it is not

will there ever
indeed

      be an end to war?



KYLE AT CHESS

KYLE AT CHESS

After those blown
final quarters think
I should
   play Kyle at chess

across 64 white
black squares

he would
not be at his best

checking on
his playbook
instead of
analyzing the
board

fools mate, scholars mate,
smothered mate
      quick
into the pan
fried liver mate

one, two,
          three, West
Coast, East Coast
         Bobby Fischer
        (merciful) mate

he wouldn’t need to
worry about

the torture of
leading
       heading into an

       endgame, being
outmanouvered
            at the end

GIMME

GIMME

world’s
falling apart

little children
getting blown
to
   smithereens

so gimme that
sweet false consciousness
that would come
with a
    SuperBowl victory

don’t let Mahomes
spoil everything
with
    an insane overtime
charge

this after Kyle left
his best laid plans
in a briefcase
in the
    locker room

this is not
   the script I want,
I need

so write me a new one
bring me that
thick syrupy delusion
that a Niners’
Vegas victory
          would bring

the world falling apart
                         bits
of little
children

how come I always get
             caught this way

how come
I’m not
         so smart
                   

DAWN

DAWN

dawn

but it is never
a true dawn is it?

always just a metaphor
for a thing that can never be

and so that border zone
between soft light
and soft darkness
must surrender

the light proclaims itself
another day, and
big deal

soon the machine warms up
sets itself the task
of fulfilling
        the mandate

day as before, as yesterday,
as every day that has ever been

SALAD DAY

SALAD DAY

I curl up
at the edges

nibble at
whatever stale salad
happens to be in the fridge

(which jokingly I designate
my Salieri salad)

these days
        no one to share a joke
with (on point, or
              off-colour)

no one to
profess to, moths devouring
my academic gown

no one
       ventures here
onto the farm to
   find me in my cave

my tiny
       cave

no visitors here, well,
not since Plato.

CHRISTIAN

CHRISTIAN

they tried to grab
Christian McCaffrey
to give him
his award

but they
couldn’t catch him

couldn’t see him
he was moving so fast
one moment
on the fifty yard
line
   the next in the end zone

where not blocking for
Brandon or Deebo
or taking a
           catch before
firing booster jets