*VACATIONS ARE NOT FOR SISSIES
It is my duty to comment on mundanities
because I have just been perhaps for too
long in the city that never sleeps I returned
to lilac laden parks & an unmade bed And the
dread of another holiday growing by the minute
Please don’t make me have so much fun
$200 dinners & a roaring surf have made my life
a purgatory A desert so real I will likely die of
thirst That is if my life doesn’t kill me first
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May 2012 *12 days in NYC
GIRLFRIEND BREAK-UPS OCCUR EVERY 3.5 SECONDS
We had past our best before date probably
by year 3 But continued to flog the carcass
with a combination of sexual repression &
ennui After year 8 over a plate of garlic
nan Your middle finger flapped close to
my left eye You dropped a 20 on the table
and left without saying goodbye
3 years later you called during a snowstorm
and thought that a celebratory reunion was
in order O my long lost lovely I seriously
wonder if you are not a borderline personality
gone berserk at the Indian Rice Factory
__
*girlfriend break ups cause 26.5 % of heart attacks in women
June 2012
THE BEST SOUND COMES FROM OLD ICE
There is a 100,000 yr. old iceberg in Uppsala +a man
carving it into musical instruments the sounds of which
might even soften the hearts of ISIS Though they would
have to be human for this & not Nazi re-treads on a mission
There was a time when humans venerated age Now the young
rejoice in the simulacrum of Barbie Doll smooth Doll parts
Hairless +perfect Defects banished in post-millennial Barbie’s
through surgery All of this in service of quest for the perfect
selfie in what may be an emerging selfie-economy
Dr. Sam Rizk who specializes in Rhinoplasty says: Too many selfies
indicate a self-obsession and a certain level of insecurity that most
teenagers have (human nose does not stop morphing until 26)
They come in with their iPhones & show me pictures of the nose they
desire Sam notes a 25% increase over the past year in his Manhattan practice
Mirror Mirror on the wall show me a face my mother can’t recall How is it
that Renée Zellweger morphed into Kim Bassinger with a few slices of the knife
There should be laws to protect the Renées from petrification Now the slob beside
her feasts What wonders is she sitting on? Barbie catatonia at odds with rapture
Insentient beauties worship dead Gods says Poet raging naturally
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Winter 2014
ROSA PARKS IS ROLLING
Last night on tv the mother of Eric Garner 43
choked to death by police for selling loosies* spoke
eloquently: Protest calmly Have dignity My boy
had none Big black man asthma 6 cops Use your
imagination Father of 5 married 27 yrs. Don’t they
give tickets in New York City?
Esaw Garner widow did not accept the officer’s apology
Hell no, the time for remorse was when my husband was
yelling I can’t breathe He’s still feeding his kids and my
husband is 6 ft. under
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*loosies – single cigarettes
Winter 2014
WALKING AROUND IN CIRCLES DIVIDED SOUL PROMOTING BINGO
3/4 moon out at noon first day of December 2014
Girl with backpack just bought beggingman a coffee
Tell me if you need more sugar And as she knelt
beside him he began to scream+rock I don’t give 2
shits & a holler Head hits plate glass blood all over
West Queen West
The road ahead looks narrower+bumpy no longer tended by road crews
Phlegmycoughman chokes+spittles+rattles behind me
now pounding ceaselessly on handicapped door opener
So far Bloody Monday is moving along at a rapid clip
already 3:30 Gill Rosenberg Canadian/Israeli kidnapped
by ISIS today First woman facing decapitation radio says
The road ahead looks narrower+bumpy no longer tended by road crews
Fecalman beside me wafts a scent decidedly decomposing
The road ahead won’t have signposts There will be fewer +
fewer choices Hardscrabble hours in a chair At least it won’t be
uphill anymore Downhill from here on in The summit was 8yrs.
ago The beginning years of descent still felt like ascent But now
you know better
So aim that sled +your droopy face will begin to glow tiny tongues
of heat will creep across your frozen feet You won’t think so much
about re-invention or escape There will be consolation You will not
suffer fools who make definitve statements But mostly you will look
serene +nibble vegetables with carnality
__
Winter 2014 for Kelly
WHAT IF RILKE WAS A JERK?
Trying to open the vanillaalmond biscotti have to
resort to my poison pen I finally tear a hole through
voluminous cellophane with a bit too much force Hit
my Venti de-caf it hurtles hot-hipster-drink all over
Pulitzer winner John Berryman drips too onto Christian Bök
The bastard used every vowel one at a time in every word
in every poem +won $65,000 to boot A blind man walks by
his white probe on a single wheel He knows nothing of me
+my 3rd degree burns
Yesterday they charged Jian Gomeshi with crimes so heinous
he could spend generations in The Big House You’d think he
would have sprung for Eddie G though doubt Connie Black
would agree Xmas carols waft from the speaker above me
Rufus Wainright winges about a hot bath on a frosty night Poet
tries with all her might to disappear into a wormhole +write poems
using only consonants: why fly by my shy pygmy nymph?
But I fight to stay awake I fight not to fight I fight the losing battle to write
People on the other side of the street can feel the red-hot sparks of
mounting anger They stop +stare If one more morose mo-fo gives me
the Toronto glare I swear that I will propel myself through the window
+declare: I write to stimulate the old dead beast So buggeroff mes cheries
__
Winter 2014
TOMMOROW TOMORROW I LOVE YOU TOMORROW
Today I read something like: When you look in the mirror
the Devil stands beside you and shows you the worm
inside the rose I was riffing on shaving my head as I
struggled with my coiffure It certainly would be easier
An older look to be sure my luncheon friend demurred
But the worm was whispering:
You are entering the Sublime Decline fair rose!
It’s true Yesterday I dozed briefly as I drove the local
highway Dangerously flirting with the long repose
It may very well be time to hang up my eyelash curlers
After all it is my dream to swim with the Dolphins soon
And not kill them with Nutriesse 564 A red so vibrant it
screams Victorian whore or Annie And not in a good way
__
April 21, 2012
IN THE JINGLE JANGLE MORNIN I’LL COME FOLLOWIN YOU
Hands up if you are:
a holy mess
an un-holy mess
not on duty
cancelled
inoperative
vanished
Without resorting to hyperbole all of these are true for me
The indifference switch has been thrown Metamorphosis
button broken
Every morning at 10:15 he has a Molson Canadian at 10:26
a Marlboro 11:24 2nd beer+umpteenth butt Mostly he stands
out there & tries to catch me naked Jeans biker jacket Lanny
Mcdonald ‘stache My cool guy from rooming house on corner
does not realize that I am Coma-Woman A cardboard rendition
of a once emotionally turbulent operating system
So is this dormancy?
40 winks?
Or perma- torpidity?
It really doesn’t matter much to me Under the spell of reverie
Of life flashing before me constantly This gorgeous transfixion
in slo-mo
We all seem to complain that Bob Dylan is incomprehensible
in concert these days Maybe we simply no longer hear the
nasal nuances No longer care where the answer is blowin
So fixated are we on the questions Where will we be in 20 yrs.
has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning Hands up if this is
the most depressing poem you’ve had the pleasure of reading
Arlene Kogod Center for Aging Mayo Clinic: For example, we don’t
want to have a situation where we say, cure cancer and then you
die of Alzheimer’s or stroke. It would be better to delay all of these
together.
Now there’s a scientist on her toes reading the zeitgeist massaging the
numbers Smart as a tack Bring it Arlene
__
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship
My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin’
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it.
Bob Dylan Mr. Tambourine Man
Late Fall 2014
MAYBE SHE SITS WITH HER MOTHER RECOVERED+WHOLE
Joe cried at her funeral & for the next 20 yrs. had
roses at her crypt twice a week DiMaggio was
famously private now his love letters won’t be
Sotheby will auction the: Lost Monroe Archives next
month Norma Jean’s mother died in an asylum +she
bounced between foster-homes Used +sexually abused
Muse to powerful men No stranger to the casting couch
Marilyn referred to herself as: HER With those huge doe
eyes perpetually in startle mode Monroe was a pop culture
black hole Martin Nolan the auctioneer said: It really gives
you the chills when you see the intimacy +personal nature
of the stuff As though she were an IT Well Martin the detritus
of a life always reeks of intimacy but then you may be missing
a chip or 2
This reminiscent of the 12 yr. old girl who asked me: Do you think
getting shot hurts? With most people in a permanent state of OFF
the great de-humanization is occurring as we consume disaster tv
+must be reminded that: YES a human life is personal & that being
shot likely hurts a lot As one Canadian woman tweeted following the
Gomeshi affair: I’m along for the ride and not liking myself for it.
It’s a time waster and an energy suck. It’s an obsession.
Yet perhaps the floodgates have finally opened In every corner of the
free press there are references to rape+abuse Today is World Toilet
Day & the U.N. tries to raise awareness about the dangers to women
+children in outhouses &fields where they are regularly assaulted
Might we predict a seismic shift for humanity? Perhaps too soon to know
54 yrs. ago they carried Marilyn Monroe out of her home with dirty sheets
+pillbottles a personal scene of overdose? Tomorrow fans will fly from all
corners of the globe +spend more than 2million$ Marilyn’s collectibility
has skyrocketed in recent years Among the artifacts of mid-century
debauchery is a watercolour she painted for President Kennedy
__
Oh there been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
Sam Cooke 1963
Late Fall 2014
BOOTY CALL OUT
A young handsome hipster crossed Bathurst St.
beside me He said: I will protect you Now I sit
at Brioche Dorée with signs that say: Continually
look for ways to be greener If you’re afraid of butter
use cream It even says: Brioche pronounced bree-osh
I do need that dude to protect me from pop-up Normandy
+ it seems a few Toronto Hydro guys close by
They are wonderfully polite about ogling me One is impish
persistent & Gandalf-esq He might make the perfect man-pet
The media is giving terribly conflicting messages right now One
feminist columnist spent 13 paragraphs extolling as empowerment
the virtues of Kim K’s: oiled naked ass on the cover of PAPER (who
knew such a big arse could be so flawless)
In the same newspaper another proto-feminist from Harvard called
ogling a form of public shaming I don’t know though my new man-
pet is so compact I suppose that I could grab him by the throat +apply
pressure until the police come And this is where it all falls apart as I of
course would be the one arrested
Rebecca Dick/ Children’s Hospital Pittsburgh is studying: cyberdating
abuse & found 41% of 14-19 yr. olds reported such abuse in 2012 including:
harassment stalking +threats more common among girls with a clear link
to offline abuse+sexual assaults
Seriously Kim’s bare ass cannot be construed as evidence of women’s
empowerment! More likely a narcissistic ploy to get more coverage
Clearly it’s about the size of her bank account So what chance does little
North West really have of ever escaping the infamy of her mother’s well oiled booty?
__
*Headline NOW MAGAZINE: How did sexuality become
the single most crucial way for women in pop culture to demonstrate
their power?
Late Fall 2014
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