written in a dentist’s chair as things got ever weirder
applying numbing jelly
for yet more numbing juice
the quadrant on the telly
was scanned for 3D use
a bib atop a belly
forestalls a leak’s abuse
and sandro botticelli
bullwinkles with a moose
a subject met a verb
pretended with a slur
put emphasis on i
let meaning be denied
ecstatic yet unsure
A hint for puzzled readers: Not all koans are questions. And not all murder mysteries involve death.
the hook at the end of the cable of the crane
rises. the strap tied to the hook stretches
and creaks. the cargo enwrapped in strapping
stirs and scrapes along the gravelly ground, then,
swinging into the air, is briefly silent as it
dangles aloft and slowly
spins.
..
a few seconds later and a dozen feet in the air
a flaw in the strap gives and stretches and snaps
and the cargo falls and crashes, wood-
box corner first, bursting the box, and the metal
inside clashes and screams,
ruining the delicate mechanisms,
destroying the precise arrays they described.
..
the crew chief swears,
the crane operator stares,
and the project manager slips into his office
to weep.
a mare drops her foal in a light rain and the
foal gains a stance like a doomed tripod and blinks
away raindrops and takes hesitant steps and takes in
the rained-on field and her blood and bone say
this’ll do
she returns to her mother and her mother gives suck
..
is there love between them?
look at them
and learn of a love beyond your ken
been away from the studio &
three pieces needed glazing
so i did them all in atlantis aqua
a pawn a bishop and a knight on a dragon
then looked for clay of mine and found some
and made a bird with four variably-sized eggs
there’s an hour of session time left
but wrapping things up now
makes for a leisurely cleanup and a sooner reunion
with a sweetheart who’s waiting at home
darkness 1
someone is dying a bit at a time. pieces
of their psyche have withered as the pain mounts
and the curtain begins to draw closed.
..
darkness 2
the school is in lockdown. not a drill. footsteps
click smartly in the corridor as if the feet were clad in hobnailed boots. ms. brashton puts her finger to her lips to signal total silence to the kids under the desks and tables. it scares some of the kids to see ms. brashton’s eyes roll so wildly.
..
darkness 3
he has to walk to work on sundays because clock-in is at 5am and the sunday bus does not run early enough.
half a block before he gets to the bridge over the river a drug dealer wearing a highly visible construction worker’s vest wheels up on a stolen bicycle and says “you want anythang?”
God help him, he does. but ha shakes his head.
“suitcha seff,” says the drug man skeptically and wheels away.
..
light 1
at last people emerge from the blind-cornered corridor. he asks a congenial-looking couple if they had been on flight 3201 and one of the women says yes; he relaxes slightly. people come out in clumps, then a hefty stream, then odd pairs and singletons.
at last SHE appears, smiling gamely against her exhaustion. they embrace.
..
darknesses 4 and 5
in lanes five and six babs (bowling alley bitch sadie) and fetl (fuggin edwina the loony) mix it up. soon all four of their ears are streaming blood from pulled pierced earrings. Babs lands a blunt-force punch to fetl’s breadbasket. fetl whooshes out air and collapses in a heap
in lane 41 a man hoists a ball from the ball return chute and pulls it up to his chest; but that small spike in his exertion makes something break in the man’s chest. The ball drops from his inert fingers and he falls to the floor.
..
light 2 through 4; darkness 6
three children were born to three sisters in the space of three days. they became two jameses and a margaret, who would become betty. fifteen years hence there would be a death in the family, and a bitterly contested will. a james was bequeathed half the fortune of the deceased, but the will did not specify which james.
..
gray of light 5 and darknesses 7 and 8
it is dawn. a kitten
meanders through a parking lot. a car
whose driver is texting on her cell phone
almost runs the kitten down, but she is nimble.
the driver, shocked
to be so near becoming felinocidal, stops,
puts down her cell phone, opens her door
and entices the kitten into her car
and they have a nice life together for many years.
alas that the little girl
searching for her lost kitten in the parking lot
of the apartment complex where she lives
is bereft
and consequently
lives in darkness.
to donna sue atkins
ever and forever are our sisters
and never is negated with a deed
with some grit in our endeavor
we will fulcrumize our lever
and our world will shift will perk up and take heed
..
we do better with our betterment and vistas
of enlightenment delight us right before us
lovingkindness is a plus
yes and ever be it thus
as our voices harmonize in blended chorus
the convenient folding table that i unfolded
and put stuff on just for a moment so I could tidy up
became loaded with more and more stuff
as the moment stretched from minutes to months
..
it is like an archeological dig
of the one-person Sculptor Wannabe culture
prevalent in the mid 2020s
..
i am a clumsy, unorganized archeologist
i just don’t dig it
but the love of my life is coming to town
so dig i must
to clear the table
to fold the table
to vow
never to dig myself such an above-ground hole
ever, ever, EVER again
someone in hong kong sees me
according to my wordpress analytics
and I wonder what that person sees
in my digital scribblings
and who that person is
and if the benefit of returning to “Home page/Archives”
day after day
includes an acquisition of a better command of english
or a better grasp of american insanity
or both or neither.
it may be that the person is an expatriate
and knows plenty about english and insanity.
it may be my quirky illustrations and murky calligraphy are intriguing.
..
the author of childhood’s end, arthur c. clarke,
once speculated about the future in imaginative ways
and then delivered the boggling punchline
“The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
..
if that being in hong kong is a person,
i wish that person well
and offer their seeing of my posts as proof
that observation alters reality.
..
Buckminster fuller greeted people not with hello
but i see you.
i am glad we see one another.
Woman of My Dreams
The Fate that Oversees things deals a card
Which wafts upon the breeze to you afar
Of suddenness of froth of filigree
Mad hopes compel a voyage out to sea
And bring you merriment with love’s sly charm
Now Aye & Thou–Yes!! HOPE! & that Disarms
Note: This week I asked the woman pictured, Donna Sue Atkins, if she would marry me. She said Yes.
Also: Donna Sue and I are old-school Hippies at heart. The classic Peace sign, faintly depicted at upper left, is said to be a meld of the semaphore letters D and N, to symbolize Disarmament Now. We believe that worldwide Disarmament would be a giant leap toward a sustainable civilization. So please, dear readers, think of the last word in the poem, Disarms, as having a double meaning.
One with Clay, Image and Text 