songanddancegirl

CYBER-HEAVEN

IMAGINE  THERE’S  NO    CYBER-HEAVEN

Verno Vinge   science fiction aficionado said:

By 2040 we will merge with our computers

cast off our bodies   realize immortality

the Singularity will be upon us

This idea is now embraced as fact  but will we

still be Human?  Have we ever been?  Or have

we remained that mutation slouching out of Africa

millennia ago?

Will there still be:  war  serial killers  gangs?

(who slash hundreds in the subways of China)

Wasn’t religion supposed to be the opiate of

the masses?  Stone tablets the first glimmering

of the human conscience?

Remember  the Savage  in Brave New World?

Last remaining old world Human   wound up on a

rope  in the shower   Ditto for David Foster Wallace

brilliant young man of American letters  on his front porch

There is no evidence to suggest that our constant interface

with technology is making us happier   braver    Studies show

that we trust techno-gadgets more than our instincts   Take the

couple who followed their GPS  into the wilderness  & died

though surrounded by paved roads

Long passive from relying on the machine  human creativity

disappears   The God in the machine pricks up his ears   & returns

to the Mothership    finally weary of our anxiety  & depression

Abandoned here some of us loot  looted art   & begin a movement

to rehabilitate Heaven

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Winter  2014

SIBERIA

LEFT  MY  HEART    IN  SIBERIA

Cool Polish ladies dance the night away

I want to dance with them   too shy    so I

watch transfixed   My grandmother’s Poland

did not look like this

Lightening Lee  & Little Freddie King headline

tonight    Lee is effusive   spits a lot  mainly in my

husband’s direction   He gives me a faux red rose

bordello scented   I cannot take it home  I may be

arrested at the border

Little Freddie wears red   He is 4 foot 7  and sits

close to the Polish ladies   on a bench   He is cool

incarnate   Plays the guitar like the devil knows

his name

Later I kiss Lee on a moist cheek   Margaritas have

flown freely    He whispers in my ear: ditch yer bro

&  yer husband  Red    Come with me

Never  go to New Orleans  gentle reader   I implore you

For though The Saints  may pray for your sorry-ass soul

In your chest there will reside a heart shaped hole    

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Winter  2014

REVISITED

LOVE IS BLUE    REVISITED

There is youngish woman today

gazing at the Gutfreund sculpture

enraptured    She lives in machinery

head-gear   oxygen packs hanging

on her  chair    She is pale    almost

blue   like the statue    But she is here

Woman in chair has broken into song:

You’ve gotta live  a little   die a little

She is inches from me  smiling   pretty

She is saintful  grateful    & somehow free

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Winter  2014   A.G.O.  Jean Metzinger  Woman With Fan 1911-1912

METROPOLIS

MODERN  METROPOLIS

Mother & daughter in front of a Picasso

1900  Paris night club scene  in motion

Candles flicker  faces blurry around edges

Women triumphant  no she-goats in sight

Daughter  many shades of blonde  examines

the piece   6 inch stilettos  fur tails hang    asymmetrically

Leopard print dress   drum tight

Mother sensible coat & shoes  hair several hues

of blonde  too   Both have a bald spot mid-head

Mother’s   more progressed

Daughter eyes me menacingly  her beauty creeping

toward the exit   Mother was always more interesting

Lingers in front of Kandinsky   as daughter poses for

art patrons   not beguilingly

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New Technology in mother’s era:

cellophane

elevators

pop-up toasters

mustard gas

automobiles

hand grenades

Winter  2014   Art Gallery Of Ontario  The Great Upheaval  Picasso

WEDDING

NICE  DAY  FOR  A  WHITE  WEDDING?

battered gowns of ochre   orange   finally stripped

away   the reveal:  dark brittle crinolines  brought

down by wind & ice   now covered in shimmering

white  10 more cm  late into the night

magnolia dresses months away   citydwellers wild eyed

with migraines   slump toward spring   this year they will

remain slightly mad    this year some   won’t make it back

__

Hey little sister who’s your superman?

It’s a nice day to start again (come on)

It’s a nice day for a white wedding

It’s a nice day to start again

Billy Idol

Winter  2014

SMELL

SMELL  THAT     SMELL

He was red  from head to toe

Gnarly red   Red stubble on face

The door behind which he crouched   pulsed

You knew something   someone

lay  in wait

His grin lascivious   yellow teeth

He reeked of hell   & frankincense

In the battle that ensued  he kept coming

at you    Plates flew in every direction

You bashed a few over  his red head

And later in a dress of blue on the elevator

at Loblaws   you spoke in tongues

Your lipstick   MAC  Diablo

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Winter  2014

NIHILISM

NIHILISM   NIHILISM     NIHILISM

Tennessee Williams said: The sound of

the clock ticking on the wall is loss loss loss

Andrew Oswald economist at Warwick U

has been studying human happiness for 20 yrs.

He has concluded that all primates have mid-life

crises  & get happier in old age  *(except for Ted Nugent)

Rust Cohle  the psycho cop on True Detective

thinks that it is an act of incomparable hubris

to put a soul into a human body   Into this shredder

he says of human life

So what does your ticking clock say?

Mine today: apologize  apologize  apologize   (already)

ted nugent ted nugent ted nugent

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Winter  2014

BLUE

LOVE  IS     BLUE

In my summer haunts   an icy pall

as I pick my way down a hill    It feels

like days ago under hazy sky I walked

with slow defiance

Now The Great Upheaval  tempts us

indoors   where the A.G.O.  cleverly?

leads us toward:  war-sounds   

Then to gift shop crammed with Art Deco

In the centre of the show there is a

jagged affair   A love that has turned blue

Breath held through embrace   No escape

Flowers will bloom where seed spills   Soon

winter will be  jettisoned   indefinitely

Art patrons dash for the exits   & limp out

onto streets    It is  -17

Somewhere in the distance  as melancholy melts

a woman with a polka dot dress  & cubist face

raises her head    and screams

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Winter  2014  *Embracing Figures Blue Patina  Otto Gutfreund  1913

INNOCENT

THE  LAST    INNOCENT

Ruby is from Africa   Congo

Everyone  needs  one friend

to remind them of  the child

they once were    Unless

someone is   her brother   A boy soldier by 8

I encounter her at Planet Car Wash

Ruby blurts out her story in sub-zero

un-glory  on a mouldering February

day   Strangers always do that   I must

have catharsis about my eyes

Yesterday I read in T.O. Life:

I feel for all new Torontonians  300,000

without power in the ice storm  200,000

in the July flood   Better go buy a flashlight

Harsh coming from wine soaked editor:

I invited my neighbours over for wine in the

storm    We were so bored

Ruby said on the day they took her brother

they also took her mother   & made her a

mattress slave    A little ice    A little water

Sub-zero weather  for her a second innocence

Ruby never gets bored in Canada

Ruby I will save you   tomorrow

__

Winter 2014

PEOPLE

LET  MY  PEOPLE    GO

We are a desert people   Never knew

if we’d make it out   40 days + 40 nights

Felt like 1000  (go know there were locusts)

There is a twist of irony to all we say

You just never know if you will survive the day

Ma   I’m going to San Francisco tomorrow!

Man makes plans   God laughs

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Winter  2014