songanddancegirl

WHAT IF

WHAT  IF  PINK     RUNS  OUT ?

Girls with pink hats & matching coats

approach me  each time I walk into the       store

Gliding blandness   evil Olsen-twin sneers

They never say a word just eye me quizzically

Last night as they approached   I could barely

breathe   What can this dream possibly mean ?

Are these nameless  faceless Pinkettes  a divine      sign ?

Will this be my fate  should I take a job at a store

named after a french rat ?  Always hard to know

Yet that shade of pink calls out tantalizingly            Poet   Poet    climb aboard !

__

Spring  2013

HEY BLUE

HEY      BLUE CANADIAN

Hard to believe Spring is so        deeply

embedded    You get  used to

darkness   and to ice   You fight

the transformation   Depression    sets in

Rigor mortis in your pockets

You may walk into the river   Ouse

Man on motorcycle blaring Mick

curses me   deservedly    I do not      saunter    only plod

Every Spring this woman calls me

talks too long  asks too many questions

May I bring you groceries ?   Can the

seasons transform backwards     please

It’s far too light    and green         Talk to me

__

Spring  2013

GLASNOST

GLAS     NOST

A woman sits down

& imposes herself on me :    I love your redhair

Are you writing poetry 

Or  a real story ?    I remain   Canadian    polite  

She is Russian  & her name is        Rose

She finds the coincidence :

Spring (me)  &  flower  (her)  

brings us   closer 

All my friends have the names of flowers   One is Winter !

Her son  one of 6    writes poetry

But guess what he does for a living       *guess ?

Poet-nerves now jangled

Write something great  really great       Rose implores   her eyes filling with tears

Portent  or lament ?   Canadian poet

reeks of nice  needs more steel in veins      & new haircolour

Excuse me !    Sleek man in perfect black

shoes alights   from perfect black car      Is that Cherry Red ?

I say nothing   I promise nothing    as he lifts me from my chair

__

*(accountant)

Spring  2013

MONSTER

A  MOST  SCURVY    MONSTER !

Kidnapped within blocks of each other

One year apart         at  14  17  20      now  24  27  30

Gina  Amanda   Michelle

Amanda’s mother died while she

was in  captivity     Amanda had

a daughter    now 6     We  saw her

sitting on her mother’s knee in the     hospital

What happened to my Daddy ?

We saw Gina’s father on his front

lawn    He said to the media:  Tell the

world  America has a problem 

There is no photo of Michelle  a blank

square sits   where her face should be

Often  held  in separate rooms  a tv  pundit said:    They are a family

In rusted shackles bound   for eternity

The name Ariel Castro will live on in infamy

__

Help me.  I’m Amanda Berry .  I’ve been kidnapped and

I’ve been missing for ten years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.

Spring  2013      Songanddancegirl              Shakespeare    The Tempest

STRANGE

STRANGEFRUIT

Fountain spiggles

Man with hose   squirts

as man with pole   steady’s      the world

In Syria   chemical warfare

In Boston  legless boy  wheelchair     bound

In America  the many  say:    no  burial

for young terrorist   crushed under brother’s   car

Grass covered in dandelions   School term done

Pure slim boys sit around wrought iron tables     praying for a future

I want to go home    Poetry causing palpitations

Man with hose   bludgeoned      Man with pole

singing a tune    Poet warped by violent video   games

*Reading this may cause paranoia

__

Spring  2013

UNCLE SAM

UNCLE  SAM     WANT’S        YOU !

Pretty girl sits at table   dress fluttering

in the breeze   How much knowledge

has she   about the plight of   U.S.    soldiers ?

Raped by the 1000’s   some brutally

I wonder if Obama knows ?  I did not

until yesterday    The woman in charge

of the task force said:

Soldiers should use the buddy system

__

*About 19,000 men and women suffer sexual assault each year in the U.S.

military. Only about 3,200 assaults were reported.  About 10,700 of those

cases ( 56%)  involved male victims.

Spring  2013

HAL

HAL      RE-VISITED

Doors to soul      Roots of empathy

A telephone keypad does not have       eyes

A computer hasn’t a heart    Desensitized

to violence and love  we grind ourselves

against technology    but feel no  empathy

Because the human creature    the human   conscience

has been stolen   compromised   snatched

while we were busy making love   to  HAL

__

And all the roads we have to walk are winding

And all the lights that lead us there are blinding

There are many things that I

Would like to say to you but I don’t know how

Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me

(Gallaghers)

Spring  2013

HOWL

HOWL  RESTRAINED  BY  DECORUM

STOP  cruising me  Leonard Bernstein

lookalike    I am here in this garden

cobbling together   a new identity

The cement pond in front of me     (at U of T)

is being patched for Spring

Easy to be  a pond ?  a hammer         a nail?

Inertia or pause ?  Could be

auto-immune   either right itself

or T cells will have you  for breakfast

Girl scurries by   on the fly   in yellow mini

couldn’t give 2 shits and a holler for middle

aged fodder   Body not its own worst enemy     yet

Busy plotting world domination with redcoated

frenemy     Faux Leonard inching closer to she

with half spread wings

__

Spring  3013      Songanddancegirl      Walt Whitman     Simon & Garfunkel

PRICK

PRICK   ME

Staring at the floor   for

47.5 minutes   Cold morgue

of a place   Bring me your

limping  your decrepit  your    hanging on by a thread

Neighbourhood blood lab

Dehumanize the dehumanized

Pretty girl from Dhaka  eyes         glazed over

Number 17!  she intones  in

dead monotone

Once alive  skipping stones in

a holy river   but no God ever

visited these concrete rooms         nature is forbidden

No windows   just trapped

blood specimens  shifting on

sore haunches

In mind’s eyes  becoming animals

who howl at the moon  Fully high

in the May 2^nd  sky    Dhaka girl        confides

during ECG:  I’d rather be outside

Only 9 more hours of bloodletting      to go

__

By the rivers of Babylon

Where we sat down

There we wept

When we remembered Zion            (Melodians)

Spring  2013

REMEMBER

REMEMBER      ME ?

Almost a woman  mystical princess  like Jasmine

without the Genie    10 and likely bi-polar  though

too early to know  for sure    Cluster of symptoms

chased you here    and there     Mother psychotic

beautiful & blackeyed like you    What about the       Dad ?

you ask     Did he disappear too ?    

You arrive at sessions with a guard   who pries

fingers off of   my arm    You laugh hysterically      Why are you so calm     therapist ?

I am trying to hold you  fast   & cling long & hard

Maybe one day you’ll cave   and drag me home          behind you

__

Spring  2013