List Poem (with doodles
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if this is a poem hook intothousands of thousands years
lilt and mystery
common space of the kind the word a bone handed over child hidden under small rock in thorny Africa the bone dipped in blood eons later bone will become adz shaping tool wood stone sop to silence later a name
on a plaque 'here lieth . . .' the first. time in print! really only the living are owed refle(ct)xive chatterstill from hand to hand the bone invisible among the labials
which brings me toSpreading the Wordalready the avenue slumps yawns intoBlack Hopethe jumbie beads red & black pod alert curls away into the ruinsStruggling for Wingseven the sunlight falls aslantThis Gatehouse Heavena white sunset and we [End Page 1048] Twigs Bent Under Godnow the male flower the bent knee the green breastSpare Changewhat is paid to hunger and need orLoose SugarfutilityTalkinflamed country rubble loose changeThings Seen and Unseenparallel worlds a rumble in the jungleSong of the Broken Stringours comet winging towardGuardianor God hidden inThe Landscape Behind Doorsin quivering air inThe Law of Falling Bodiesfeathers of bright silenceCircle Dancerswe tramp through days inCorrespondence
expecting volcanoes ofInfidelitiesstill these threeFuel Woman Flashy Apple Hot Moonunder the paltry gaze onlyGhostly Demarcationswith you who quiveringStopsunfurls to encirclesThe Black Drumcomes home to your own heart and weFalling together wein this arc towards whatever all this Elementary my dear Watson! [End Page 1049] (clue: cotched in the midst of a haven of nudish titles to chew on in American Poetry ReviewMay/June 1997)
motto: never throw words out
'found'as if that whispered breath don't grieve youlike an accidentas if you don't ride the hazardous daysan astronautclinging to a candlein exhilarating space watch me flare burnoh well!
now i search for the word in a post card record of museum hours slumped on le banc before "Toilette" and Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner
finally i find the constant customerpadded washed nails and shoesshining in his lubricious corner whileKirchner's slim youthful beautypoised stiffly before a mirror glowof tanned skin of bright ruffled whiteagainst the narrow tilted blue worldlute to the eye her slip liftedby ebullient breast out of harsh black linesfluent shadows her startled palmsawkward vulnerable at bouncing black hair
how avoid being boxed inthe dresser's tight blue curvethe watcher's eye [End Page 1050] now time surges thunders downon dreams like matchsticksand out of the mirror slack agedroops back at her with tired raccoon eyesdespite creams powders paintand the wrinkled valiant hand dabbingat the face is her hand
obvious i suppose
yet i can't help thinking of that old spoil-sport watching the flapperscupping time in a palm his careful malicious foresight those smallelegantly placed jars shadings and shadows deepening his bluesangling his lines rosy pinks greens of his carpet pretend normalwhile the brush stroke stalks circles pens still i knowfor any artist (the real thingblood and bone is meat. and drink [End Page 1051]
