songanddancegirl

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

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*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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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#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

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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

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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

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*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

CHILD

I CAME UPON A CHILD OF GOD

frizbee wizes by  grazes my liquid fire hair

hipster doesn’t care  he is too beautiful for

civility  he laughs exposing perfect teeth that

gnash on vegan delicacies

it must be generational   i prefer a grubbier

woodstock mud on soles of feet kind of man

this well groomed boy toy wouldn’t put a Nike-d

foot on Yasgur’s heap   the smell of pig  only in

restaurants that do a mean charcuterie

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Spring  2016

MAGIC

A STRANGE MAGIC

Immortality is BIG right now! declares our

culture vulture Russell Smith in the Globe & Mail

Does he jest?  Or is this a re-invention of death with

arty arrogance?  Russell goes on to wax poetic about:

the value of death itself     I read recently too  that

Catherine Deneuve has paid seven figures to replicate

the scent of her 25 yr. old sister  killed in a crash  in ’67

The value of death is its power  if i may be so bold  its

magic   Our troubadour of boxes  urns  +cremains   What

scent would you pay a King’s ransom to replicate?  Your

dog’s breath?  Your husband’s inner thigh?  A baby’s head?

Brisket in the oven? (a fatty shetl staple)  

Scent of fear as you watch urn with sister-in-law’s cremains

placed in a cubby-hole with dandelions by a wailing 6 yr. old boy

who knows his days are now numbered   The wailing went on+on

Scent of boys tears mixed with decomposing clouds of glory  wafting

It is a fact that humans are immortal until the age of 6

The value of death is the curious feeling that everything is beautiful

You know   the one that you have at funerals  + the next day you resume

dreams of becoming   a drunk   a beggar     a holy-fool

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born like this

into this

as chalk faces smile

as Mrs. Death laughs

we are born like this

into this

into these carefully mad wars

(Dinosauria, we   Charles Bukowski  1920 – 1994)

Spring 2016

DEEP

O  DEEP WATER

My body chemistry has alchemically morphed

Destroyer of silver jewellery  +a whole lot more

Brain cells by the score  memory a dot on the

horizon   But I am not flaky   I am not like Grace+

Frankie   a cringe worthy Jane Fonda + Lilly T.

Do I protest too much?  Maybe   But mark me   I

remember every stone  +blade of grass in ravine

of childhood Arcadia   and lately  I have experimented

with walking on water

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Spring 2016