GRAVITY FEED Part Three

3.
You saw them then,
                                                the
material
encouragers,
                             whiffletree
between
weary horses, cart
full of cauliflowers,
plodding through the harrowed
fields, glebe they say,
of memory,
and maidenheads for sale in frightened countries,
Eighth Avenue in evening shadow,
eggplant hurried supper
seminarians back to the book,
book,
             that sly theology the eyes believe—
and dear god the things we do to each other.

GRAVITY FEED Part Two

2.
Wait for it is what I do
other for the other,
                                      the
others.
Bathing
                   Beauties
of Rockaway,
the spill
of love left over when Time is done.

GRAVITY FEED Part One

1.

Gravity feed the maw awaiting —
think of clever things
then think away.
                             The
sound you hear
                             is
all you are.

OF THE ALWAYS Part Ten

Verbum ut pictura
See through what I say
to what it is saying,
tell me to tell you
a wider story,
one with monsters in it
things to look at
but bel repair,
a mother who grew
flowers from her secret places
and you have to understand
because I don’t,
I’m just an ambassador from the night
making girlish scribbles
in my father’s ledger book

some words intruding on your breath.
FIN

OF THE ALWAYS Part Nine

Equivalence is all—
find something you’re equal to
and sleep with it
where else could dreams come from
or come true?
And when I say you it’s art I mean
who else would put up with my prattle?
You were on an island in the Indies
reluctant to be
                                      O
be there not
but it’s hard to leave
a place you aren’t really at.

OF THE ALWAYS Part Eight

If only I could sing that
purple kaddish for the living
but none of the words
taught me tune—
the always
was still waiting
still heavy on my palms
fruit overripe
here, I give it to you
sir or madam on the other star
I mean coming down the stairs.

OF THE ALWAYS Part Seven

Because it still is there
it still is them.
In the movie nothing moves
but colored light—
everything you think you see
is me.
And Pilate wept
his wife clutched her temples
the Sabbath crept upon them
wrapped in ignorance
to give them ease.

Give them peace.

8 September 2014

Supermoon tonight
and it looks up to see a
Superearth—
that’s you and me, darling,
alone among the apple trees.

OF THE ALWAYS Part Six

The evidence accumulates.
Sun on the terrace
on a different planet
we have not yet organized.
When you get worried
recite Saint Paul:
Do not accommodate
yourself to the system
but renew the way you think
and then he’s young again
old house new skin
badminton court out back
two maidens clad in white

a flying shuttlecock.

OF THE ALWAYS Part Five

Each part
the history of the whole world
each line
                   an
epic
a movie in 4-D
waiting for the aisles to clear
when angels
saunter by to sell
those special cigarettes—
you have to see them,
it’s not enough to listen to me,
the fives are strife
of one color or another,
the girl has a sword
clutched between her knees
it’s as real as a cartoon
a word’s a proffer
invest in it
                             a
word’s a door

yank it open and disappear.