songanddancegirl

NO ONE SUSPECTS

NO ONE  SUSPECTS  THE  DAYS  TO  BE    GODS*

There are 3 bright red tents   in the park today

Looks like that caravan   pre-hurricane   where

the sham-wizard lived  seducing pretty runaways

I read in the paper today  that an artist will take you

into the red yurts at midnight   You will don a lab coat

and have a 2 hr. experience  (like no other)   You will

never be the same       All for 25 bucks

I have a suggestion:   Leave your house   You do not

need to erase your tracks    You will never find this

self  again      It will never  be the same        (oh & keep your bucks)

This is a simple exercise  I did not invent it    You may

even find God    And if you do not      listen to the Count’s

April in Paris        and wait –

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* Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spring  2013

CHILDHOOD

CHILDHOOD’S     END

Victor & Rolf of Amsterdam  made  20

beastly dolls   Human hair & porcelain

skin     Walking mini-zombies

The tiny blonde & blue-eyed girl  stomps

upon my foot   Her mother buys her candy      Open my lolly   now !

I know she is    alive    doll eyes   all aglow

On CNN last night they asked: Do you

think the photos of the Sandyhook  20

splayed out on their gymnasium floor

will further   gun control legislation ?

Somehow there is a connection  between

the macabre taxidermic trolls    and the

bullet-ridden children    Others will have

a more benevolent take     no doubt  –

__

And I have made an image of the monster here

The noise of war in its head  a babe laugh in its belly    

Allen Ginsberg Lysergic Acid   1959

Spring 2013    Victor&Rolf  Dolls    Luminato Festival    ROM

ASK ANYTHING

ASK  ANYTHING     OF  ME            EXCEPT

If you are searching for meaning   turn back

Your mind will rail against this poem   There is

a  biological imperative to  know   the difference

between a jaguar   and the wind moving through

the bush  beside you   Why not take a wild & carnal

pleasure in the taste of these words ?  And if they

are tasteless   spit them out    immediately

__

Spring  2013

I DO

I  DO  AND      I  DON’T

Do you think happiness is easy ?

Is there any such thing as a          happymarriage ?

Isn’t life itself like that new pair

of shoes   one faded right from

the start   the other  slowly

catching up  and  now   faded too ?

Do we really need more night   more      shadow

or is it  silence  and more rain ?   I can

tell you that the passage of 9 yrs.  feels

like 3   The abyss eats time  and no matter

how sweet  (sweet)  Jane was  she just turned      45

I ask you   what did Lou mean when he said:        life is just to die 

__

Spring  20103    Songanddancegirl      Lou Reed 

AUTUMN

AUTUMN   WINDS

Melancholy has installed

herself  in the park today

Fresh cut grass mingles

with street    Girl with     salmon

hair  & salmon jeans  sits

like a young Persephone

In 4 months time she will

descend into the crevice over

there   Hair now pomegranate

red    while Hades waits    hot to trot      

upon his   unmade bed

__

Spring  2013

CHEAP FASHION FIX

CHEAP  FASHION  FIX       BLUES

It’s crazy  blue    deep river blue

without clouds   goes on forever     in every direction

Hovers over Bangladesh where

1,003 crushed    beneath floors      added haphazardly

Globalization was supposed to be

the great  equalizer         Don’t abandon them now

the papers read   Can it be  that a

3 yr. old child knows 100 brands

but cannot call a plant by name

While  freegans  bodydive in dumpsters

& share communal meals   Scavenging

is benighted  Consuming is for the blighted

And in the West everyone lies to their therapist

__

“Skies are blue inside of you   The weather’s always fine

Everybody’s happy now  Yes everybody’s happy now”

Aldous Huxley    Brave New World  1932

Spring  2013

YOU GOTTA LOVE

YOU  GOTTA  LOVE      SOMEBODY

I know that I go   on   about this   But you

gotta love your hipsters    Ted Hughes said

that all poets have their  obsessional knots

and hipsters are one of mine   Daniel Bergner      (What Do Women Want?)  

(what have you got?)   calls his Brooklyn street:    hipster-ridden

My hipsters are repeatedly & relentlessly

goddamned beautiful    Take the young

Bardot lookalike across from me     Open

bleeding cuts on her feet    De rigueur  bare      in cobalt deck shoes

Skinnyjeans skinnyjacket  hair dirty-rooty       platinum

She fondles her bon bons lovingly ($24/doz)

Pale yellow  minty green   I imagine that when

very young  she was already crying over     humanity

__

Spring  2013

THIS IS

THIS  IS  THE      END

Doors closing   and opening

New Age prophets say: when

one door closes  another opens

And on the otherside  there will be

sunshine & tulips   in your        favourite colour

Can this be true?

Others say:  big things  are in store

But I don’t know if I have the stomach

to explore   a new metier    Why should I?

This one has served me  well

And what is this fascination with   re-invention?

I may choose to un-become   to eat

breathe   and sleep    If the tree falls

who cares if it is heard?  It will   decompose

When you see a tree  you never ask       what it means

So please do not foist upon me   your

need to hear  trees fall    Basho wouldn’t

__

The temple bell stops –

but the sound keeps coming

out of the flowers

Spring  2013    Songanddancegirl     Doors     Basho

SHE’S SO

SHE’S  SO   FINE         GENERIC

2  women beside me   talk  art  movies

books & jeans      (they fit like fucking sausages)

Their banter is manic   performing for the plebes

Louder still   with shrill laughter

While the park at our feet is emerald   wet   fragrant          ! QUIET PLEASE

How long do you think this will last?  The solstice is

near past   and that giant yellow moon will soon  appear

Now they talk about dead acquaintances  whose ailments

were  poo-pooed     I either need a tranquilizer  or an Uzi

One will obliterate   the need for    the other     He’s husky  not fat   Is Michael husky?

I pass into a netherworld now  where neither lush park

nor    yellow moon can reach me    and winter cannot

arrive  too soon    Frozen empty streets   de-nuded of

smart repartee     on languid afternoons

__

*(note to self:  stop saying –  fucking    bullshit      and baby) 

Spring 3013

IF LIFE

IF  LIFE  GIVES  YOU  A      LEMON

Her name was Lemon  and she was

a giantess   at least as big as her piano

With a name like that  why on earth

would  she  call  me    sourpuss?  

Later     much later   I learned this was

a   projection    For underneath mounds

of  sunny-funny  kindergarten teacher  lay

a cruel and sour  dictator

While I was     dignified    quiet    and 5

She said if I’d only smile  (a lot)  she would

call me  smiley    I just wasn’t sure that I could

So   I traded my Elmer toy  for absolution         (he now sat on her piano)

Miss Lemon sang with an open mouth

a huge   round   orifice   where I feared

Elmer   and perhaps a few of us might       disappear

I had no choice but to swipe him back

and smile a cheshire grin    Lemon  O Lemon

you taught me well     to fear pianos    & hate school

But later   much later  when my 5 yr. old client

complained: The teacher treats me like a donkey

I accepted her disdain   and taught her that :

Power tends to corrupt  and absolute power    corrupts absolutely*   

But mostly I taught her that  no donkey

was she     and nor would she   ever be

__

*Lord Acton

Spring  2013