after eliot ness died
leaving his third wife and first
and only adopted son his co-written book
was published and sold a million
and a half copies and robert stack
portrayed him starting in 1959
with walter winchell doing rapid-fire
narration.
the death of eliot ness by heart attack at 54
did not leave the net love felt and expressed
by humanity
appreciably diminished.
the same goes for the net anger
and hatred.
This complicated mess started out with a simple idea: let the poem and image demonstrate Complexity. It took about two hours to make. Along the journey issues of motif and loss of resolution due to smearing and overwriting came up. “Don’t worry,” Inner Voice assured, “It will all come out. And what doesn’t can be dismissed with yet another ‘It’s Complicated.'”
If you spent as much time looking at this thing as I spend making it, you will certainly see a determined-looking, perhaps nude young woman at left. you will probably see a cat. you may see two or three faces and/or necks and/or upper torsos. You will see the tip of a spear, and if you follow the spear shaft you will see someone wielding it and holding up a shield. But what I really hope you will see are two obvious rhythms and one subtler one. No matter how Complicated something is, a pattern may be discerned.
It’s Complicated
Invading realms marked Tricky Dick’s
Investment bankers Sic sic Sic
In f l i g h t s of impresario
Inventiveness sounds Gong & Om
Intending-harmers draw a map
Ingesting H A T R E D ‘ S plate of scrapple
Then R E A S O N faits her accompli
Threads denimmed Platinum très chic
Theatrics stemmed, the brouhaha
Thence T E A P O T S, D O M E S & apparat
The threnody will S W E L L then fade
Thus tying off a Celtic braid
Strange things are on the up. A wrong-headed man has opened fire, his targeted victims members of the LGBT community. He happens to be Muslim. A wrong-headed man running for President accuses his probable opponent of wanting to do away with the Second Amendment, which I will undoubtedly slightly misquote from memory as being, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
Yin and yang. Straight and gay. Gun-toters and gun-law-touters.
Bisexuals are said to “go both ways.” At least one of my best friends on Earth is bisexual. At least one other is homosexual. Any others are keeping a low profile, and who can blame them?
Lassie was a girl-dog whose movie and TV portrayal was often made by a boy-dog. Collies have concealing fur.
The folk song “Did You Ever See a Lassie?” Has another verse, unknown to most nowadays, that starts, “Did you ever see a laddie . . . ?”
My card advocates staying home and traveling afar at the same time via our E-Ticket ride on the Planet Earth. Since the Sun hurtles toward the Sagittarius constellation at 60,000 mph, the pattern the Earth makes through its tiny subsector of the galaxy is a marvelous slinky-shape, enhanced by the subslinky of the gravitational tether of the Moon. YouTube has video of this, and it is a joy to behold.
Here are the words to the messy double acrostic, made, I hope, more sensible via prosification.
Hie thee away to another land. It will be strangely fey and grand. By this time tomorrow Earth will go Headlong through a spiral arc–yes or no? Elliptical pathways in centric array respond to the pull with a hip, hip, hooray. Telemundo, tell Alice, then it gets intriguing: Nest nesting in travel and you will be singing.
One with Clay, Image and Text 