poem – Page 164 – poems 2 die for

STAR

a star
came
close to you
too close
to you

frazzled yoi
left you
insane

eyes bulging
with neon
wild
lurid ultra violence

you mistook
for exaltation

for a sacred
script
uniquely revealed

FIRE

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

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

DUAL CITIZEN

I am writing you
this missive

conscious of the tiny
devil on my shoulder
winged like a bat
trying to
get my poem
to parrot
the rhetoric
that just steams out
of his mouth
hot Nuremberg style

meanwhile, the other
entity meant to balance
this duality
(put stuff in equipoise
to reflect
a Gemini moon)

creature angelic but
in semi-
state of rapture
leaving me to my
own
(and demonic devices)
as it flutters below
the ceiling chasing
less
than celestial light

and so, here it is, a
text which
could have been
more measured, produced
better
individuation

come to your reckoning, I guess
you will be caught
in
   and between,
unsure
    of where I stand
and where
      to put your feet

remember the truisms about
lining and cloud
(Blake’s
little imp)

silver where leaden
but all manner of danger
should
they beam pure gold

I tell you this
with heart undivided
yet
complete dual citizen

AND FEEL

they told me to write
fill
the page

I wrote and
I wrote

but the page
kept getting longer

tried
wtiting in circles
writing into
the mirror

but it
did not really help me

I wrote
and I wrote

page
keeps getting

longer

they told me to
write what
I see
and feel

ONE AND ONLY

imagine
you are one
moment
naked in
the street
in Hamburg

the one before
in Strawberry Fields
with Yoko

the next
being introduced to
Paul

the next being blown
away by a jealous soul
with a snub-
nosed special

imagine a
world become
so non-linear

everything you are and were
revolving forever on a carousel

imagine that
Mr Sergeant Pepper’s
one and
only Billy Shears

EITHER

being the Niners

we are either
going to fail abysmally
or hit transcendental
soar to unseen
new levels

most likely though,
would be
both

one
then the other
in the course of one game

FILES

wrote this poem
for you

because
you think
like a sponge
think like
a machine

will hold it
in your heart
of hearts
stacked and
Dewey-systemed
amongst
all your
digital loves
digital files

NEITHER

what happens
happens

look at this poem
it may go
one way
may go
another

I may take it this way
you may take it that

both of
these roads considerably
less-travelled

only chance of us ever meeting
will be on
a road

neither of us picked