songanddancegirl

FACE

PLEASE  REPATRIATE  RENEE ZELWEGER’S  FACE

I want to plumb  with dreamy morbid ardour   the

tentative   half finished  half born  thing   that is

middle stone age    fear loss vanity serenity chaos

wisdom defiance freedom self-loathing  +botch

O this longsinewydance through claustrophobic

corridors   of memory

Who is choreographing this show?  Hope the camera

man adds a touch of glow to our peaked pallor  now that

we are 1/2 way there    Where?     Is death life’s final

scorekeeper?  Or is life  death’s funhouse?  What’s the

frequency Kenneth?   What’s the score?

When the glorious Mrs. Reaper appears  will she be your

grandmother’s doppelgänger?  Before she spirits you through

the eye of the needle  she will want to know: Who must you

say good-bye to  before you go?   And your entire life will pass

before you    a la Ebenezer Scrooge

__

A final sense of being right out in the cold, unkissed.

My psychiatrist can lick your psychiatrist.

John Berryman  A Stimulant For An Old Beast  1959

Mid Fall  2014

O CANADA

WHEN  CANADA  GOES    IT’S  ALL  OVER*

For Cpl. Nathan Cirillo  the Reaper looked like

Barbra Winters  former Naval reservist   His angel

of death   She told him: Everybody loves you  We’re 

all trying to help you  Your parents are so proud of

you    But they could not stanch the blood from holes

in his chest

Who was CSIS kidding ladies & gentlemen?  Leaving

those young soldiers to guard the War Memorial  without

bullets in their guns   The editorials everywhere say: We are

still standing   The True North strong & free    Except  NO

it’s not

Yesterday I heard a racist slur  on Yonge St.   as 3 young girls

in black hijabs  crossed my path some scraggly Canadian screamed:

DON’T BEHEAD ME

__

*New York Times Columnist  Robert Cohen

Mid Fall  2014