songanddancegirl

OUTASIGHT

THE LIBERALS ARE BACK & WE THINK IT’S OUTASIGHT

Fall canopy floating to earth all around   Hoarfrost on the

ground Trinity Bellwoods Park   Gold wolf plaintive howl

Hunger in the eyes of scratching men  One practising Tai Chi

far too close to me   Bruce Springsteen needs a new plane  asking

us to shell out dollars again   for re-treads of: The River   Can’t

we retire too?

Perhaps get through  this election day with conscience intactus

Everybody’s gloating over voting stratagems   In 3rd year Poly Sci

Professor Smith of the natty bow tie  said: In the West we have 

delusions of democracy  while in the Bloc they know freedom’s

just another word for  Bolshevik  Menshevik  Putinik

Tomorrow the lilting rhetoric of Justin Trudeau will ring out across

the Nation  sans the pirouette   This son lacks imagination  Spouter of

safe diatribes  inch to the left  inch to the right   The fountain in the park

is stuck on ON today  water more pristine than anything we have seen  since

August

Soon the voting station at the park’s edge will close  +West Queen Westers

flock home in droves  Tonight top-knots will unravel as craft ale flows like

a River   In Tuesday’s pale dawn light  lumberjacks+sailors will lament   while

the rest of Canada hold hands   Stratagems be damned

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Fall 2015

WORD

WHEN I USE A WORD IT MEANS JUST WHAT I CHOOSE IT TO MEAN

NEITHER MORE NOR LESS  (*Humpty Dumpty  Alice in Wonderland)

I thought that I might like to be the Writer in Residence at

Al Purdy’s place  in Ameliasburgh  Prince Edward County

Past tense   All of those un-poemed words floating around

+Eurithe’s un-moaned moans   Ditto Al’s jism on the wall

Now they will never accept my application  though Al would

applaud the word jism  He was not one to shy away from the

vernacular  “This poetry is the voice of the Canadian vernacular” 

If you say so Margaret Atwood   But who you calling  King of the

Vernacular  Peg?   Queen of Dystopia  High+Mighty

Al Purdy+Charles Bukowski enjoyed a correspondence filled with

vomitous pith   Sometimes one must kneel astride the porcelain

in order to kiss the sky

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And you  you bitch  no irritating questions re love and permanence

Only an unrolling lifetime here between your rocking thighs

 (Al Purdy  Song of The Impermanent Husband)

I don’t know of any good living poets. But there’s this tough son of a bitch

up in Canada that walks the line.  (Bukowski on Purdy)

Fall 2015

PEARLS

CASTING PEARLS BEFORE

focus  focus  buddy  focus  he is 3

she videos his every move  he will

never not perform for the camera

always be self important  tiny narcissist

in training  surly when applause is drowned

out by authenticity  never quite there  blank

stare of the underthetabletexters   you think

you have fooled me?  i have been saying the

same word over+over again for 46 seconds

& it rhymes with bloodsucker in a not wholly

tangential way

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Fall 2015

CRAZY

WHO’S GOT ERE A RIGHT TO SAY WHEN A MAN IS CRAZY & WHEN HE AINT

fall deshabille  all around me   today in golden shoes

+halo  bordello dorothy   black fishnets  seams askew

man in slippers slinks behind me  slack jawed  very

As I Lay Dying   if i had a son i’d name him Vardamon

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My Mother is a fish. 

Vardamon Bundren 8 yrs.

 As I Lay Dying  William Faulkner  1930

Fall 2015

ALICE

GO ASK ALICE WHAT THE DOOR-MOUSE SAID

Something over there  Looks like you will reach it

So close  There!  You keep walking toward it   Is it

moving?  Or are you standing still?  The Immanent

Life   The one you would reach if you could  is just over

there  beyond the Immanent Grove

Just decide what you want to be  once+for all!

Maybe better to know what you don’t want to be (laggard

luggard  haggard  maggoty)  than to know what you do?

For magic resides in the true naming of a thing

Pretend one thing is another  +illusion fools the senses   while

delusion steals your name   Wouldn’t you rather be your Immanent

Self  than the self tarted up in the glass?  Mirror Mirror on the wall

Ego delusions of a Hag    The mirror always lies

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NEUTRINOS

NEUTRINOS PASS THROUGH YOU LIKE BULLETS

Ephemeral ghost particles matter   Heads in the stars

Voices from afar  call our names   Nobel prize gives

millions to many  to prove an unproveable idea  Hate to

acid rain on the science party  but while neutrinos matter

so too do:

rivers+lakes

guns

mental health

climate change

world poverty

seething refugee camps

war+terrorism

Yes  the nature of existence matters  +we already have so many

nice Creation myths to choose from  How about a Nobel for student

Serena Moore  44  in a wheelchair   Killed by the Oregon shooter

Her service dog survived   Nobel Prize  Science  2015:  Awarded for

experiments exploring flavour mixing +other peculiar properties of

neutrinos. There may even be a fourth flavour out there.

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The Neutrino Observatory  Sudbury Ontario

Fall 2015

VOTING

STRATEGIC VOTING IS FOR SISSIES

The gold wolf is in his glory  at  Trinity Bellwoods Park

Are you?  Are your glory days ahead?  behind?  squandered?

Are you jaded +jaundiced?   Are you ponderously plodding

toward a salty Nirvana?   If I tell you that there are a pair of

Chanel brogues  black+gold  at the end of the tunnel  will you

believe me?  That there is a chopper coming at the end of your

worst day  whisk you away!   And also that there is a God  so be

good   You wouldn’t believe me  would you?  Most of my readers

are atheists  a poll on wordpress has confirmed this   also that

someone has visited  SUCK  (Oct. 6)  326 times  since yesterday

+ it’s probably Justin Trudeau

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Fall 2015  * i will be wearing these to the polling station on friday

SUCK

SUCK  IT  UP  PRINCESS

There is a small wolf curled up in a blanket

in the fetal position  Makes you want to crawl

in there with him  A.G.O. Toronto  chillygrey

Fall day   The docent’s lonely  +he is chatty

Worst nightmare  Brings on a virulent vertigo

Everything seems to these days   Move head too

quickly  +reeling like a drunken chicken (favourite

dish at Henry’s Hunan Palace)  So where is Paradise

on Earth?  a sign asks   It is away from the chatty docent

+lonely art patrons  one gesticulating in front of: Folded

Blanket With Hanger  in delicate pinks+blues   Cellophane

lifted seductively   Provokes poetic licentiousness

Touch me  please!   Docent slides hand onto shoulder   Help me

find everything I have lost  won’t you?   Yesterday a neurologist

suggested an old school Tricyclic for sleep   Cures everything   Go

ahead  google it   The list is endless  ponderous     When I asked

about a nightcap  young woman doctor  United Church escapee

conservative  sensible  unfunny  said: That’s how old Hollywood

killed themselves  

I ignored her   There are certain things you cannot cure doctor

Like driving to her clinic   Car in front of me with Sons of Anarchy

sticker  +Damn The Father  Ram The Daughter  emblazoned on trunk

Also a comely girl  bent over    Secretary at clinic pressing a sleep apnea

machine into the hand of a sleepless man while on the phone   Called him

honey    As in: Honey strap this baby to your face  

Then an aside to me: It’s amazing what they can do these days!   Isn’t it

though  Get you to drive halfway to Barrie Ontario in desperation   Only to

decide that a Tegroni will do just as well: 1 oz Tromba blanco  1 oz Campari  1 oz

Sweet Vermouth  2 dashes orange or grapefruit  Chocolate bitters optional

Docent pushing tongue in direction of ear   Have no fear    Here is a partial

list of what Tricyclics can cure: chronic pain  migraine  irritated bowel syndrome

insomnia  chronic hiccups  pathological crying or laughing  + provide respite

from: the anxious work of maintaining your sanity  While all around you people are

preparing to vote   for Justin Trudeau

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He’s not the smartest guy in the room.

But he knows how to reach a room.

(Bob Rae   former Premier of Ontario)

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Liz Magor  Folded Blanket On Hanger  A.G.O.  

Fall 2015

DISTINGUISHED

HOW ARE PERSONS DISTINGUISHED FROM NON-PERSONS?

ANT 6055H   a graduate Anthropology course asks   & then goes

on to ask:  What kind of person is pre-supposed in acts such as

promising  praying  or pledging?  Is the self performed  and if so  what

are the moral implications of this?  Likely the Pope has come to mind

A performance of the highest order played out last week  when he met

secretly with refusenik-clerk  jailed for barring same sex couples  brave+

loving   from marrying   Kim Davis of Kentucky said: I teared up when

the Pope wanted to meet a small person like me  it was humbling and

such  It is doubtful that Kim even knows what humble means   This sounds

more like hubris to me

The Pope gave her   +her husband Joe  plastic crosses   then he blessed them

The main thing is: Pope Francis brought them into the Holy See in secrecy

Is it blasphemous to say he knows not the meaning of duplicity  mendacity

Did he pull the wool over the eyes of an entire continent?

Likely he took advice from the Horned One  who by his very nature is divisive

warring  +homophobic   A hater down to his red toes   Was a time when the Great

Horned God was wise  before humans projected all of their shadow onto him  then

made his poor brother pay the price for our sins

Should the Pope reclaim his shadow  he will easily see that the world needs many

many more LGBT couples  fearless enough to enter into holy matrimony  Something

that the Pope nor his minions are ever likely to do   While the ranks of the sexually

abused by members of the clergy  have grown 10 fold in the 20th century

Pope Francis did acknowledge their rapes  +is the first Pope to use this word   Yet

how many hundreds of accused priests will be tried & jailed?  He failed to give these

details   or plastic crucifixes to the victims he met

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Ignorant of what they are not   unaware of things they are

their memory is lost as Eden   their anger the same as fear

And I am still alive   and I am still ashamed  

(Al Purdy   The Others    + On Being Human)

Fall 2015 

STRANGER

I AM A STRANGER HERE ON THIS PLANET EARTH

A man sits beside me with 20 white tees spread out   He is

writing slogans across the front of each   At first I think he is

a maker  the name for artists in my sohipithurts hood   It slowly

dawns that he is

I PLAN ON LEAVING IN ONE WEEK  GIVE ME ONE WEEK GUYS!

He shouts to people on the street    Where was I?    It slowly dawns

that he is raving mad  I begin to worry that he may blacken my eye   Now he

is on the other side of the window looking in at me   I am at a cool cafe called

Crafted    YES   this moment has been precisely crafted for me  by a hand unseen

The very same hand that placed me oh so indelicately in this picture  crown first

SMART PERCEPTIVE GENIUS!  he shouts  Except that I am not  I do not have

all of the 6,299 answers  Only ONE   as it grows exceedingly difficult to not worry

86.7% of us suffer from anxiety  while the rest are investing in selfie-sticks for

Christmas

If just one person knows your name  inside+out   If just one person will comfort

you when the night weasels come    Then you are in the top percentile

JUST ONE MORE WEEK AND I’LL HEAD OUT!   a rheumy cough then

a cackle  OMG! he is doing the jerk    You are in the top percentile of those most

likely to succeed

Now he crosses himself multiple times + does a Michael Jackson moonwalk

THAT’S HOW ARCHANGELS ARE BORN  THEY SUFFER  THEY ARE

BRAVE   Be BRAVE    As for me  I think he thinks that I am insane  sidelong glances

then  I AM A HOLY HIT MAN!   Heart bangs against ribcage

Please don’t bludgeon me risen Michael   I have so much living to do   One of my pet

projects is to    I WILL RE-INSERT JOY INTO THIS WORLD!    I run for my life

through the Art&Design district  trailing clouds of what I might have been

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Fall 2015    Morning after: SUPERMOON ECLIPSE