Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems

Contents

Contents New Poems Fog Galleon 3 At the Screen Door 4 Moonshine 5 Salt 6 Changes; or, Reveries at a Window Overlooking a Country Road, with Two Women Talking Blues in the Kitchen 8 Work II Praising Dark Places 13 A Good Memory 14 Birds on a Powerline 23 Fever 24 Little Man Around the House 27 Songs for My Father 28 from Dedications &Other Darkhorses The Tongue Is 37 Chair Gallows 38 Translating Footsteps 39 from Lost in the Bonewheel Factory Looking a Mad Dog Dead in the Eyes 43 1938 44 Stepfather: A Girl's Song 45 Apprenticeship 46 Light on the Subject 47 Beg Song 48 Passions 49 The Dog Act 51 For You, Sweetheart, I'll Sell Plutonium Reactors 52 vii Contents The Nazi Doll 53 Corrigenda 54 from Copacetic False Leads 57 Soliloquy: Man Talking to a Mirror 58 The Way the Cards Fall 59 Annabelle 60 Faith Healer 61 More Girl Than Boy 62 April Fools' Day 63 Untitled Blues 64 Back Then 65 Blasphemy 66 Safe Subjects 67 Black String of Days 69 Villon / Leadbelly 70 Elegy for Thelonious 71 Copacetic Mingus 72 Letter to Bob Kaufman 73 Woman, I Got the Blues 74 Newport Beach, 1979 75 Gloria's Clues 76 Charmed 77 The Cage Walker 78 Addendum 79 Epilogue to the Opera of Dead on Arrival 80 Blues Chant Hoodoo Revival 81 from I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head Unnatural State of the Unicorn 87 Touch-up Man 88 How I See Things 89 The Thorn Merchant 90 The Thorn Merchant's Right-Hand Man 91 The Heart's Graveyard Shift 92 Boy Wearing a Dead Man's Clothes 94 The Music That Hurts 96 When in Rome-Apologia 97 The Thorn Merchant's Wife 99 The Thorn Merchant's Mistress 100 After Summer Fell Apart 102 viii Contents The Brain to the Heart 104 Audacity of the Lower Gods lOS The Falling-Down Song 106 The Thorn Merchant's Son 107 I Apologize 108 1984 109 Dreambook Bestiary II3 Jonestown: More Eyes for Jadwiga's Dream IIS Landscape for the Disappeared II6 Good Joe II8 In the Background of Silence 120 For the Walking Dead 121 Child's Play 122 The Beast & Burden: Seven Improvisations 123 from Toys in a Field Ambush 129 Monsoon Season 130 Water Buffalo 131 Le Xuan, Beautiful Spring 132 Please 133 from Dien Cai Dau Camouflaging the Chimera 137 Tunnels 138 Starlight Scope Myopia 139 Hanoi Hannah 141 "You and I Are Disappearing" 142 Re-creating the Scene 143 We Never Know 14S A Break from the Bush 146 Tu Do Street 147 Communique 148 Prisoners ISO Jungle Surrender IS2 Thanks 154 To Have Danced with Death ISS Report from the Skull's Diorama IS6 Boat People IS7 Missing in Action IS8 Facing It IS9 IX Contents from February in Sydney The Plea 163 The Man Who Carries the Desert Around Inside Himself: For Wally 165 Rocks Push 167 When Loneliness Is A Man 169 A Quality of Light 170 Gerry's Jazz 171 Boxing Day 173 Protection of Movable CUltural Heritage 175 Blue Light Lounge Sutra for the Performance Poets at Harold Park Hotel 176 February in Sydney 178 x Contents ...