songanddancegirl

WALL

WRITING’S ON THE WALL

He thought I was talking about the Stevie song

so he serenaded me with  very superstitious   +

then went into a rousing  isn’t she lovely    Stevie

was the furthest thing from my mind

I had said  putting too fine a point on the word  decaf:

jittery enough  can’t walk under trees  when ginger-

bearded barista morphed into Stevie   Slightly endearing

mostly not  but I went along   No energy to decline his

bonhomie

Saturday  30 yr. old Pierre  removed by 6 degrees from my

family  was killed by an Oak afflicted with  summer drop   a.k.a.

water rot in giant branches  leads to a POP  + a crash    Pregnant

wife pushed out of the way

Note found at make-shift shrine:  You don’t know me but i held

your hand while you died   Arborists weighing in as city lawyers up

Tree drop a gruesome exit    Wonder has gone missing from the park

Citydwellers discomfort in outdoor spaces increased exponentially

See how close they sit    Aloneness on grass a worse fate

This  while the Summer blockbuster  Zero K  asks:  what’s the point of

living if we don’t die at the end?    The holy grail of life is not death    It

is living as though you won’t succumb to:  summer drop or a warm gun

face radiant with resurrection  which is still free

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*There exists in Scottsdale Arizona a facility called: Alcor Life Extension

Foundation, where fees range from $100,000 for just your brain

(neurocryopreservation)  to $200,000 for whole body preservation.

The baseball player Ted Williams is there.  Life everlasting belongs to those 

of breathtaking wealth.  (Don DeLillo  Zero K  2016)

**There’s green money, and oil in drums.  Our faulty eyes, our telltale heat,

Our hearts ticking through our shirts.  Of course life is ours.  If it’s anyone’s

it’s ours.   (Tracey K. Smith  Pulitzer Prize  2011  & AAC addition of word: life)

First Day of Summer 2016  

SHOWER

MI CASA ES SU CASA   BUT FIRST A SHOWER

Every time I open the screen doors up here on the 4^th

floor of urban townhouse  painted a now dirty putty

the noise level is extreme: drilling jack hammers beeps

of backing up trucks +the occasional ice-cream man

singing   These  neighbour Bob  daily tries to sabotage:

They keep the goddamned motor running day + night  

I don’t care where the children of artists get their fucking

Hagen Dås

Think besmirched Tuscan villa where decadent hipsters

slouch in Indica clouds   Weed dispensaries in grey area

since Mayor Tory od’d: man the THC levels are off the

map in nouveau mary-jean   The streets of our city have

reached  a new level of mean

The microcosm in the macrocosm   A platitude used by my

clinical supervisor 20 years ago today (add Israeli accent for

authenticity)

So when the aliens come all green-skinned + midget   we will

not welcome them with open arms as was thought mid 20th C

We will instead eye them suspiciously  + wonder what diseases

they bring

Later freeze drying them  after experimenting on their unborn

foetus’ (alien stem cell research)  But in the end it will all be okay

For unlike the naked ape  they do not love  nor worship a God

created in the image  of an AK-15

__

*the film Psycho proved Hitchcock’s biggest, though the studio

refused to underwrite it. Critics remained divided when the low

budget film had its debut. But audiences immediately responded

to a level of sex and violence previously unseen in North American

cinema.

Spring 2016  a time of bacchanal +bloodlust

JOY

PERP ATTACKED JOY&SAFETY THAT WAS PULSE NIGHTCLUB

It is still a crime to be gay in more than 75 countries  +a capital

offense in at least 13  Nazis hunted gays relentlessly  See how far

we have not come   Huge swath of humanity still on the run   Hate

crimes provoked by sexual orientation remain as high as ever  Should

you think that everything is better  look more closely

See the savage backlash for same sex marriage   See the savage shooting

spree: Pulse nightclub  Orlando USA  America’s latest killing field   Perp

also scouted Disney    An equal opportunity hater?     Let’s look deeper

The shooter claimed he was inspired by ISIS  who fling homosexuals from

tall buildings   Yet Omar Mateen was frequently seen at Pulse    He was

known there

Perhaps his rage was against his own impulses  against his confusion  +self-hate

Perhaps 50 men+women died for his shame?   As I write the Angels are screaming:

BUILD THAT WALL!  to finally protect heaven from earthdwellers   Angels do not

differentiate based on labels i.e.  race  gender  sexual orientation  religion   therefore

many more of us will now sign up for that one way flight to Mars   Yes   Heaven was a

wonderful idea   in theory

__

Some like to imagine a cosmic Mother watching through a spray of stars

Mouthing yes  yes  as we toddle toward the light  Longing to sweep us to her

breast  she hopes for the best   (Tracy K. Smith  Life On Mars  Pulitzer Prize)

** A 2012 study: Journal of Personality & Social Psychology showed the 

most hostile respondents toward gay people were more likely to have

repressed same sex desires. Feelings of shame can lead to self-hatred

and lashing out sadistically, at those in whom we see our most hated

selves reflected.

Spring  2016

RIP 50 men+women massacred at Pulse  18-50 yrs. old

Edward Sotomayor Jr. 24  was shot in the back while protecting his boyfriend

with his body.  He loved Alice in Wonderland and was always smiling.  We aren’t

going to be scared vowed George Tuttle, his best friend. He would want us to

celebrate with pride. (Globe & Mail June 14, 2016)

MARVELLOUS

IT’S A MARVELLOUS NIGHT FOR A MOONBATH

A FANTABULOUS NIGHT TO MAKE ROMANCE

She sits on the pavement W. Queen W.   half naked

vacant smile   Spitting image of an aunt   She is about

68   My father’s age when he died    Young?   Depends

which side of the great divide you inhabit   Today I read

that ageism is the new bigotry

And mandatory sensitivity classes have been ordered for

anyone under 30   Do not trust this demographic  especially

if they have called you cute  or said: Good for you!   It’s okay

to rebuke them   even a swift kick will do   Go ahead and try it

They expect you to be  docile  creaky-arthritic  +immune to

vigorous use of your limbs  as in:  dancing   taking slap-shots

sexual acrobatics   +flying too close to the sun  which used to be

a young man’s game   But now a mottled Icarus   with 1/4 left   the

sun is not so fearsome

It is the moon  +the 7 sisters   It is darkness that beckons    The

pineal gland (except in hagfish who don’t have them) is stimulated

by a moonbath   It is the gland regulating happiness  pleasure   mystical

ejaculations of the soul (google this)   So  lay nightly with satyrs+nymphs

And take pleasure in your acquired wisdom to know the difference between

your ass and a hole in the ground  which a lot of 30 somethings do not

__

*one of the by-products of ageism is acute bitterness  + hoarding euphoria

Next time someone says: Good for you!  vomit at their feet and plead for sex

+candy

__

Spring  2016

HYPNOTIZE

WITH AUBURN HAIR AND TAWNY EYES   THE KIND OF EYES

THAT HYPNOTIZE

My lipstick was the colour of the Aurora Borealis  on

January 17th 2016   Photo tweeted from the International

Space Station   A gorgeous neon pink  Ditto the skull hanging

around my neck  (there are some really macabre skulls in Mexico

said my bro)  His travelling companion had cast aspersions on my

sanity

I could likely use a little less sanity at this stage of my development

Still semi-conventional on the outside  +hothouseflower on the inside

(Do Not Think: Stella! )   Back to the Aurora inspired lipstick on the eve

Scott Griffin  a Thurston Howell III lookalike  awarded $75,000 to a snotty

poet from a class I took at U of T: How Avant Garde Is Your Poetry?

She glared at the rest of us middlebrow plebes  +read out reams of plotless

albeit raw  +beautifully wounded poetry   I certainly applaud her turn of phrase:

when I was

out already

She has given me the courage to one day use the C word   In fact my mother may

cut me slack  now that I have cited Liz as a pioneer in laying the vagina bare   On

the night of the readings last week I found to my dismay  while stalking Ondajte+

Toews  that drinks could only be had for cash   In a brilliant flash of necessity is the

mother of Tequila  I realized that across the street at Virginia’s Wolf   my credit was

good

The anejo purchased for $18 was burning a hole in my gullet  when a young man with

perfectly tipped hair asked how I was enjoying the:  dating event for 25-35’s  

You mean year olds?    Ya   

I downed the dregs noisily  +wildly searched for a bookmark  used to appease young

+old men alike  who decide they’d like to marry  or stalk me   I scurried back to poetry

central where the former Governor General’s husband proceeded to leer in a way that

made me feel for her   Once glorious in spangly shoes  now cankles in Clarks

Clearly the mean poet’s windfall has brought out my inner famewhore  who craves

recognition  better shoes   and more tequila

__

Spring 2016

HIGHER

I WANNA TAKE YOU HIGHER   BOOM SHAKA LAKA

The One That Got Away Fish Shoppe  the sign said  as I

sat on the 501 car  seriously spinning my wheels   Seasonal

slump   Weather changes  +winter haunt that smells of schnitzel

+ tears abandoned for parks where citizens stand too close to me

I want to scream:  Read my body language  rubes   extraverted slaves!

What I am doing is intimate  the consummate cliché    Poet in pink

lipstick (MAC/Pussy Heaven)  sits beside peonies  + writes ditties under

cobalt sky   Canada geese have shat on everything   Grasping at the one

word that will elevate me to Can Lit royalty:  Justin  moose  trees  hockey ?

But these are NOT my native words    I serve an obtuse alchemist

I have never seen a moose   I did not vote for Justin   I feel certain that trees

are full of bugs+ticks   I AM A FAILED CANADIAN    Did I mention that the

National game gives me hives  all the screaming + high fives   + the ball is so

small   I much prefer the American game  where giant men glistening with

sweat in skimpy outfits jump

__

Spring 2016     for LeBron

SLIPPER

THROUGH A GLASS SLIPPER  DARKLY

One chunky black sandal askew in mud beside

elementary school   5 inch block heel all the rage

Visions of urban Cinderella with grimy foot  Or

carried off by 32 men  favela basement  Rio   Foot

pristine  Her teenaged dream to raise son 3  (had him

at 13)   as shattered as her pelvic bone

__

It’s not my uterus that hurts.  It’s my soul.

16 yr. old gang rape victim

*Now under police protection due to threats on her life

May be moved to another city  Head investigator let go

thought she was asking for it  Olympics begin August 5th

If the rape culture doesn’t get you  the Zika ridden mosquitos

surely will

**The victim is from a low-income area west of Rio and at 16

is the mother of a 3 yr. old – according to her lawyer, evidence 

that she was already a rape victim.  (Globe & Mail)

__

#niunamenos  June 3rd 2016 march for victims of

gender violence Buenos Aires   300 femicides in

Argentina in 2015

Spring  2016

IDIOTS

ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS  OPEN FOR BUSINESS

1876  Orillia   A gentle group of survivors work

through their pain  on a TO stage   There are tears

+humour too   They conduct themselves with dignity

In a world where a man with orangutan-orange skin

his finger now inches from the trigger  believes that

the giant silver back gorilla  Harambe  was rightfully

shot   After a 4 yr. old visited his reeking cell

While his own 3 yr. old son watched   the 400 lb. gorilla

straightened the human boy’s pants  +proceeded to fling

him against a wall +drag him through a moat  +take him to

a corner   As women shrieked   +Mommy called: I love you!

In another incident in the USA yesterday  parents punished a

6 yr.old boy by leaving him at the roadside  in bear country  He

has not been seen since

Of course orange donald was correct in the matter of the gorilla

In a world where we have captured+corralled developmentally

disabled children  +magnificent creatures from every corner of

land+sea   The .2% difference in DNA between modern man  +

giant apes gave us power   +orange donald

__

Spring 2016

POETS

DON’T TELL ME WHAT THE POETS ARE DOING

2 men list by  brothers for certain  perhaps even twins

their gait speaks of alcohol  so too red faces  gazes semi

blank   though clothes expensive  we are after all habitués

of the Art & Design District

leather jackets  white piping  designer jeans   despair in faces

could be artists who’ve made it?   now can’t remember hunger

drove one to paint jesus as a jesus freak on a corner in Galilee

the other to dredge words up out of a dank soul   words like:

you minions of the un-alive   you who are so moored in your own

bullshit  you find it hard to roll clear   un-do    un-see    un-learn

__

Spring 2016     for Gord Downie

WAYS

OF UN-HAPPY WAYS

Justin revealed his inner thug yesterday  when

in a mad rage he stridently strode across the aisle

+elbowed a member in her breast  (not a euphemism

for chest)  So does he need anger management  or

impeachment?

How would Canada remove our boy Prime Minister

whose posse surrounded him with delusions of grandeur?

It made all of the deep gazing  +tears at the swearing-in

akin  to a Bloods+Crips  initiation   One tall blonde with

vacant eyes  +slash of mouth  looked as though she’d break

some bones

Who are these people in tight fitting Hugo Boss  +sleaziness

about their pouts?   These people are not your friends   +they

clearly care less about Canadian built tanks crushing resistance

in Riyadh

__

*mass psychogenic illness is a curious phenomenon whereby

multiple individuals react aggressively to stressors such as

fear.  One such manifestation is KORO, where men perceive

their penises shrinking or being stolen. It is always preceded

by storming into crowds +wild elbowing. Women may be afflicted

as well.

Spring 2016   Tanks in Riyadh