songanddancegirl

UPDATE

EVIL  ASSISTANT     UPDATE*

She’s here again today  but do my eyes

deceive me?   A ratty dishabille now her

most prominent feature  I have time travelled

She must be 33

Hair a matted bob  not clean   Skin pasty white

Hasn’t purchased Chanel lipstick  since 2023

Worn camel coat   Her mother such  high hopes

Evil’s meanness no match for her 2^nd husband’s

He kept 2 families  like many a French President   says she

I sit one table over   now 73

And while: Most poets dry up at 50 (Mark Strand)

I remain  somewhat moist & mostly  chipper

__

*(The Wild & The Innocent  January 15  2014)

Late Winter  2014

INNOCENT

THE  WILD  AND  THE  INNOCENT

She is blonde   in several shades   17

Talking about Chanel lipstick & body size

She would be pretty but for a mean spirit

about the eyes   Set the prom on fire if she    could

Beautiful grey wool coat & shiny black boots

Aquascutum scarf   Her mother bought tickets

for the Opera tonight: Cosi Fan Tutte   

What will she be in twenty? Positively wreaks of  evil assistant

Like the one who closed a bridge in New Jersey

killing one & stranding thousands   Of course

there were signs     It’s all in the eyes

__

Late Winter  2014

ANGEL

ANGELOLOGY

Father Renzo Lavatori  leading Catholic Church

Angelologist assures us that:  Angels don’t have

wings   neither do they look like cherubs   However  

they do exist     So glad he cleared   this up

Father Lavatori is also a  Demonologist    He feels:

The door is wide open for the Devil   due to secularization

& materialism   He does not mention fame-whoring or

terrorism

That is why you see queues outside the exorcists office in churches  these days  

I cannot help but think of the 3 or 4 wars & at least 2 genocides

in my lifetime  (thus far)   We have the Taliban   who shoot girls

for attending school   and in Syria  Bashar al-Assad  father of 3

favours chemical weaponry    Clearly the Devil is in ascendency

What to do Father Lavatori?

The next time you feel the brush of wings at your ear  or a shadowy

presence beside you  Welcome The Messenger!  (angelos in Greek)  

Children who have not known a step-father’s fist  or  suffered a

 fractured clavicle       These are the  immortal  angelos!    

__

I looked over Jordan and what did I see

Coming for to carry me home?

A band of angels coming after me,

Coming for to carry me home.

(African American spiritual song 1909)

Late Winter   2014

HYBRID

HYBRID  HIPSTER  FROM  THE    EAST

Man who shovels snow:  I am from the East

& I know WATER  Ma’am    Long hair  scraggly

burning light in eyes   40 something   lumber jacket  

A carpenter by trade   But hurt my neck    glances at shovel

Begins long essay on WATER   riveting East Coast Montaigne

You Don’t Want To Mess With Water   Aprill  (introductions made)

Once a hipster out of the Miramichi  now down & out in Toronto

Can’t you see him gliding down our streets    long hair glistening

Like that other carpenter from the East  who walked on water

occasionally

__

Late Winter  2014 

GURU

NO     GURU

I think too much  feel too much 

want too much  hope too much

I ask you: Are we essential to eternity?

This has proven to be  unlikely   21st Century

tsunami of un-hope in the air   Little girl hops

by    panda-hat  strings fly   strange fear in eyes

All of this ice looks like revenge

__

Late Winter  2014

NICE

NICE  GUYS  ARE    FINISHED

She left her mother on the floor  hoping

she would snap out of the stroke   Her eyes

glazed with   Fear-of-God     Would there be

retribution?  Or just slow seeping of self-respect

Wolf at door of bad daughter’s  psychic fortress

Fighting  her absolutionist’s diatribe   she cried:

No I Did Not Do The Best I Could

Human’s have the ability to self-anesthetize in

situations of extreme trauma   One may leave the body

and hover near by    My child clients often exclaimed:

I didn’t feel a thing  Therapist

Humans who are missing this chip   eventually go mad

__

I met my mother walkin’ down the Jericho road
Tears in her eyes and her head hung low
And she was walkin’ down the Jericho road

Steve Earle  Jericho Road   2007

Winter  2014

BLUE

PACIFIC  OCEAN    BLUE

Last night I walked all the way to

a Pacific beach  saw the water lapping

on the shore  lap suck  lap suck

Walked through the hinterlands with

a posse of girls behind me   birth-gunked

and new     A pilgrimage of sorts

An eccentric manalyst said: Bring this picture to life!

Does this foreshadow the Great Escape?

Or do I stay   old & cold on the shores of

a polluted Lake?

__

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing,

be nothing.  Elbert Hubbard 1856-1915

Late Winter  2014

SCHADENFREUDE

SCHADENFREUDE  IS  NOT  FOR   SISSIES

Harm-joy  is the pleasure derived from other’s

misfortune   kissing cousin of envy    A Dioscuri

of evil   Like when Brad left  sad-Jen  for Angie

& Tiger crashed his SUV

Studies show that even monkeys & dogs measure

themselves against their peers    As do poets:

The book of my enemy has been remaindered.  

(Clive James   poet)  

Take vegetarians   their very existence from a meat

eater’s point of view   is a moral irritant  (Richard N. Smith The Joy of Pain)

Or note the Conti St. Hobo’s glee:  Gnarly laugh  then  

I shoulda known better    a red-headed woman & a 

bald-headed man   When we passed his cup without

filling it up

Fat-Cats now back in the Great White North   jazz-thirsty

Wind & ice storms reign supreme  Hobo still laughing on Conti St.

__

Late Winter 2014

GODS & ATOMS

IT’S  LIKE  BELIEVING  IN  GODS  &  ATOMS

A new sense   a 7^th sense   (6^th for

extraterrestrials  and the unborn)

is brewing inside   Molting  crawling

wet & birthnew   around the tables

where I sit & cobble   It feels like a

reeling    a  realing   if you must know

Sit still don’t breathe   A phrase drops

shiny & dangerous   Who knew you had

it in you?  Who says you do?

__

What the author withholds the reader supplies.

Tom Grimes   Mentor  2010

Late Winter  2014

GAMBLIN MAN

MY FATHER WAS A GAMBLIN MAN DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS

I am still in the Vieux Carre´  marching by day among

the carnival crowd of old white Floridians   My Russian

cabbie tells me that New Orleans is SAFE   as long as I:

Do Not Walk Past The Traffic Light Over   There

I am grit-ridden   & in beauty overload     feet hurt  hip may

need replacing   But it is here that I stayed    & swayed by

the scent of sewage & bourbon   I did not get on my plane

So when you see me  sylph-like on the icy streets of Toronto

pass your hand through me    Go on    make my day

__

Late Winter  2014