COLDSLEEP
January 1981
Snow wet
talc sheathed arms and fingers
stretch barely
at a somnolent sun
YOUR TV PROGRAM WILL BE ON EVERY
CHANNEL WHEN WE CAN’T CHANGE THE STATION
February 1981
Violet beam sheathed in silver
thousand petal
rose
in full bloom
over our heads
clear channel reception
shout singing in
a thousand voices talking perfectly
through
the thousand faced one
who glows
you were, was, will
with us always
to help us prepare us
for our induced onslaught
when the tiny circle
crawls
out of our vomit-rubble
to salvage existence.
REBIRTH
March 1981
Roaring surf
careens cacophonous
against the land lake
it’s raw power
pealing
away man made
rock like an onion.
Multitudes agape
cry-scream in supplication
knee bound
their option on redemption
long overdue
not taken up
their contracts suspended for 2000 years.
Dusky silver gray murk
crashes
through the remaining spaces
between
the last
crumbling
tottering
concrete giants
girders dangle forlornly
life long since washed away
the lake returns to the womb.
THE BIG ONE I (EYE)
August 1981
Your one eye
is in my gizzard
tickling me
all too
roughly
you play until
the desired twitch is produced
Now
you’ve got me
where you want
all consuming
and
all consumed.
BIRD SEARCH
August 1981
The live carpet
green flesh
vibrating golden
between the upthrust strands
glowing golden brown
light,
true
it came
bright
mile a minute eyes
golden breast thrust out
searching the plush pile
it found another
singing happily
they searched
together
but never found
the morsel in question.
JAMAICAN STATION STEPS
August 1981
I descend into its gaping maw
seething mass beside me
stale sickly sweet
reek of human spewings
weeks old
still preserving the owners’ territory
in the one place
they can
before being
crapped out
the other end
into the living compost heap
still half
alive
moving without minds.
BUMS
August, 1981
His gritty grimy gray stubble stood out
the most striking feature
visible
on his sallow blank
face
busy with reckless inactivity
he sips relaxedly on his last unearned dimes and nickels
drinking them
slowly, reverently
as he gazes dully
into the decaying pile of human rubble
surrounding him
he smiles and thinks
we are one.
CONSUMED
August 1981
Electronic doors bow forwards in reverence
as all
are sucked in magnetically
the gaily colored vacuum cleaner like stimulation
drunk up earlier
from their all seeing eye
gives them
the electric impulse
they didn’t think
they need
planting the seed
in their brains
sprouting later
into a full ripe red fruit
that when bursting
will cost them
consumable funds
of their minds new owners’ will
keeping their minds ready
at the flick of a switch
to perform
the one eyed wonder’s
every whim
transmuting it
into their ardent desires.
FALL
October 1981
Crystal dew alight
crisp underfoot
graciously return again.
LAKE
October 1981
Shimmer glittered droplets
reflect
spotlight the island
floating against
lapping wavelets
the island is
guided
in a directionless spiraling
seeking end
on the shore.
WAVES
July 1982
Panes of glass
melted blue green
shatter rhythmically
to reform again.
CRYSTAL
July, 1982
Transparent
ring of clarity sounds
going within
love issues forth.
MINING IN SOUTH AFRICA
August 1987
Sweat drips off noses
sopped skin shirts
dripping pain and dirt
they go down in the hole
scratching themselves and the earth with
shovels and fingers
searching for the priceless riches that itch
only to keep the bugs their immigrant owners
and give away the gold and diamonds.
VAN THE INNATE MAN
October 1987
Pugnaciously plugging
he implores us to
heights of healing
hammering away with
sometimes brutal sensibility
painful to some
He mercilessly mercifully returns
daily monthly yearly
with new information
to tenderly help the sick get well
and guaranteed to set the chiropractic world on its ear
the ever-present anarchist wobbly in him grinning inside.
His artish dancer self
tangoing with his patients
rhythmically searching and researching
their notated supine selves
for the true cause of disharmony.
A liver, a lover
a giver, a glover
who would cuff and cudgel chiropractors
and any and all others
to defend all patients
from selfishness and politically motivated health care.
His subtle depths discreetly
covered by a pugilistic exterior
always jabbing
to prevent anyone
but the most persistent
past the ever-present guard
to see the inner pain and
divine capacity for love of others.
His sandpaperly “New York Smartaleck
Tough Guy” delivery
rubbed against the grain
then with the grain
leaving me smooth
when I looked through him
into his glass heart
too easily broken by
the fighters in his life ....