songanddancegirl

BASKING

BASKING  IN  YOUR    H1N1

Man clearing his throat & retching

Must be the flu  I glare at him menacingly

We are both in purple   Now connected by

microbes  making a bee-line for my nose

I hold up my Americano   defensively

While he  coughs all over his hand

Were I his executioner I’d have no mercy

Not like *Madame du Barry’s   When she plead:

One more minute Mr. Executioner  he gave her 3

Man in purple’s microbes continue to hit me

Loose cough   Hand wipes away debris

Come on Mr. Executioner   drop that Guillotine

__

I’m an outlier. I don’t do vaccines.

(Man in purple to his mother Jan 16. 2014)

Winter  2014    *mistress of Louis xv

LIFE

LIFE    EVER LASTING

Existential therapists say: All anxiety is about death

And since we are beings unto death  (Heidegger)

this makes sense   From the moment we are born

we are busy dying   Beginning in adolescence  brain

cells are jettisoned by the thousands

But the human Ego  hell-bent upon survival has even

passed laws  against dying   In Texas a brain-dead pregnant

woman is being kept alive  against her wishes

Whereas in Belgium legislation is underway to allow terminally

ill children to be euthanized   no matter their age     Ego grows

it’s conscience     Who knows where this will lead

5 yr. old  Malakhiwe Goniwe  an imbangi  (spiritual poet)

presides at births  weddings  & funerals   He recently told his

mother:  When I meet my Maker  I’ll stop being afraid

It seems that one poet is free    The other desperate to be read

clutches at immortality

__

People live too long nowadays. I’ve lived too long.

I had a ten inch waist. Now I’m just wasted.

Anonymous

Winter  2014

GHOST

GHOST OF HISTORY LIES DOWN BESDIE ME

The sign said:  No Jews Dogs Negroes

Public bathrooms  at the beach  1941

Toronto   Rows of boys in classroom

London Ontario 1931   The one in the

back row  Black hair  blue eyes   Sea of

blonde   Runs & runs   Some days outrun

Puts up dukes

__

You’ll be dead again tomorrow, but in dreams

you live. So I try taking you back into morning.

Myth   Natasha Trethewey  2006

Winter  2014

SAINT

SAINT  SATCHMO

White cathedral   Black spires pierce

cobalt sky   Wrought iron   Crumbling

stone   Chipped paint   Jazz hounds

Lumpy tourists

Sun has set  Light slanting  No shadows

Circus barker dances   Solitary girl   Raggedy  21

Voice hollow tin can   rings out over inky  Quarter

There is a house in New Orleans  they call the Rising Sun

Feet walk in other direction   LOUIS ARMSTRONG AIRPORT

Slight chop   Bridge over Ponchartrain ends

Ice welcomes   Colourful outfits fade   Tinny voice

wakes me at 4 a.m.   these days

I’m goin’ back to New Orleans   To wear that ball and chain

__

Deep Winter  2014

MAGGIE’S SHOES

DON’T  WANNA  WALK  IN  MAGGIE’S  SHOES   NO  MORE

Last night I walked a mile in a famous poet’s shoes

Now all wet & sullied   She the first to publish me

So had my promise been muddied?  Writing whimsy

& deadpan   Genuflecting at the BIG BOXY BOOKSTORE

Oh how can I return the shoes?  They will need to be dried

& polished   And what about the soles   now filled with holes

and crusty   Or maybe I’ll just  KEEP THEM

And in a perfect ruby-slipper world   I will own her genius

__

Late Winter  2014

UPDATE

EVIL  ASSISTANT     UPDATE*

She’s here again today  but do my eyes

deceive me?   A ratty dishabille now her

most prominent feature  I have time travelled

She must be 33

Hair a matted bob  not clean   Skin pasty white

Hasn’t purchased Chanel lipstick  since 2023

Worn camel coat   Her mother such  high hopes

Evil’s meanness no match for her 2^nd husband’s

He kept 2 families  like many a French President   says she

I sit one table over   now 73

And while: Most poets dry up at 50 (Mark Strand)

I remain  somewhat moist & mostly  chipper

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*(The Wild & The Innocent  January 15  2014)

Late Winter  2014

INNOCENT

THE  WILD  AND  THE  INNOCENT

She is blonde   in several shades   17

Talking about Chanel lipstick & body size

She would be pretty but for a mean spirit

about the eyes   Set the prom on fire if she    could

Beautiful grey wool coat & shiny black boots

Aquascutum scarf   Her mother bought tickets

for the Opera tonight: Cosi Fan Tutte   

What will she be in twenty? Positively wreaks of  evil assistant

Like the one who closed a bridge in New Jersey

killing one & stranding thousands   Of course

there were signs     It’s all in the eyes

__

Late Winter  2014

ANGEL

ANGELOLOGY

Father Renzo Lavatori  leading Catholic Church

Angelologist assures us that:  Angels don’t have

wings   neither do they look like cherubs   However  

they do exist     So glad he cleared   this up

Father Lavatori is also a  Demonologist    He feels:

The door is wide open for the Devil   due to secularization

& materialism   He does not mention fame-whoring or

terrorism

That is why you see queues outside the exorcists office in churches  these days  

I cannot help but think of the 3 or 4 wars & at least 2 genocides

in my lifetime  (thus far)   We have the Taliban   who shoot girls

for attending school   and in Syria  Bashar al-Assad  father of 3

favours chemical weaponry    Clearly the Devil is in ascendency

What to do Father Lavatori?

The next time you feel the brush of wings at your ear  or a shadowy

presence beside you  Welcome The Messenger!  (angelos in Greek)  

Children who have not known a step-father’s fist  or  suffered a

 fractured clavicle       These are the  immortal  angelos!    

__

I looked over Jordan and what did I see

Coming for to carry me home?

A band of angels coming after me,

Coming for to carry me home.

(African American spiritual song 1909)

Late Winter   2014

HYBRID

HYBRID  HIPSTER  FROM  THE    EAST

Man who shovels snow:  I am from the East

& I know WATER  Ma’am    Long hair  scraggly

burning light in eyes   40 something   lumber jacket  

A carpenter by trade   But hurt my neck    glances at shovel

Begins long essay on WATER   riveting East Coast Montaigne

You Don’t Want To Mess With Water   Aprill  (introductions made)

Once a hipster out of the Miramichi  now down & out in Toronto

Can’t you see him gliding down our streets    long hair glistening

Like that other carpenter from the East  who walked on water

occasionally

__

Late Winter  2014 

GURU

NO     GURU

I think too much  feel too much 

want too much  hope too much

I ask you: Are we essential to eternity?

This has proven to be  unlikely   21st Century

tsunami of un-hope in the air   Little girl hops

by    panda-hat  strings fly   strange fear in eyes

All of this ice looks like revenge

__

Late Winter  2014