poem – Page 186 – poems 2 die for

SOFT

soft
as a
leaf

haiku
tiny

falling

swept across
the page

by breath, breath
of the spoken word as

the brush
the paint give

everything meaning

BOX SEAT

there is nothimg
in the box

the box
is shrouded
in mystery

someome left
it locked

but now
it has
been opened

the box
is covered with
gold leaf

exquisite
wrapping paper

it must
have been
full

but now
it is empty

shrouded
in mystery

not just
one mystery, either,
a mystery
within
a mystery

once it
was full
(I believe
it was full)

but now
it is empty

EQUATOR

forget boundaries
forget enclosures

here
there are no
prisons for the body
of the soul

there is wide expanse
open sky only

boundless
across the page
between the lines
each and every

three sixty degrees
meridian and back
from pole to pole
twice across
the equator

planet
to galaxy
ocean to ocean

from
the river

to the sea

ANACONDA

reconnoitre
my anaconda

see what proclivity for
algebra

her evil eye
able to solve for the
lengthiest equations

serpentine mind slithering
axiomatically

perfect physique for
quadrilateral equations
pure Amazonian
when
calculus calls

not at all flummoxed
if the ground
should be shifting

Kurt Godel’s theme
of incompleteness
her piece of cake

and if
using her body to
define new systems of geometry
topology

no lever needed
to make her cosmos move

SUGAR MINERS

sugar miners

not for
minors

candy
finders

old joke going back
to the goldrush of 1849

the sweetness they
find down there
a seam so treaty

litigation and issues
of property rights
following
everywhere

but
I bought this face
from a robber baron
could not be
happier
at the game
history played

the dice loaded, the hired help
packing

alternate narrative notwithstanding

this is the way
it has always been

REPUBLICAN

Oh, baby,
you are
so good
so good
to me

take me
to infinity
in a slow, stately,
crazy
turbo-
charged carriage

and we ignore
the clouds, the crowds,
have
no time for people whatsoever
no need to wave and smile
wave and smile
were we
the celebrated figureheads
of some constitutional monarchy

no we screetch and caterwaul
roar and cry

like king and queen, which
we are but
of our animal kingdom

the power to take and shape
and give
back equally

fair just re-
distribution no royal
could dream of

our sweet template for
complete republican

Oh baby
you are so good to me.

ICARUS INSTINCT

I barged into
the temple of
artificial intelligence

stormed out
after dismantling and
indeed liberating
a host of automatic
telling
and vending machines

flew up to the firmament
with the eye for aeronautics
of an ancient Daedalus
deluxe

soaring Sun-ward like his son
determined that the destiny
should be
becoming child
of the cosmos beyond which
no sense to aspire.

OFF AND ON

onoff
offon

everything flickering
in binary systems

philosophical dualism
thrown into
abyss of doubt

let me write to you
confide in you

channeling all that cybernetic
info that
needs to be channeled

after which
what need for repentance
if night of noise abounds

and chaos fractal
as we
write each other
narrate each other

co-author
fist in glove
hand in hand

full spectrum considered
from flatest of descriptions
to surreal interior
account

Oh
head reeling, top spinning,
all is ellipsis
topographies
of envelopment

spiralling in
and out

of control
entropy and prosodies
of free
and bound energies

physical and psychical
temperatures going up
and temperatures coming down

MONKEY BUSINESS

’68, year of the Monkey
what if there were
no Space Odyssey

no Moonwatcher to watch
the students of the Sorbonne
turn France
upside-down

overhead, somehow lost
in the inaccessible recesses
Overlook labyrinth
of HAL’S digital memory,

there is no
continuity error in space
no ninety degree offset
in every planetary alignment

no fabulous match cut,
best there
has ever been

and incredible other
incredible leap by
the Kubrick imagination

Star Child spawned of monolith
floating back
from Jupiter down to
our so shabby planet

to tell us
that the cosmos is our
mirror and our future

written
as if on a screen by
end of
the journey, last self
our evolution

pure promise of our becoming
true
immaculate machine

RATTLER

they kill
the ones that rattle
louder they rattle
more sure
their death
a fact

Oh, the rapturous ones,
you who do
murder all
these creatures

as soon as you say lord
I am your ambush preditor
whipping up
a juicy cocktail
I am determined to instill

and strike I will without warning
for you have sorted me
by selection

no doubt
you see
me as your devil
think
I could well just be
pure devil

this my utter evil nefarious plan
not thing
delivered unto yourself