"SHE LOOKS LIEK SHE STEPPED OUT OF
THE MIDDLE OF SOMEBODY'S BLUES!"

I met a traveller
from a Martian land
who was mortified

that his mask had slipped
and that I could recognise
him/it for what he/it is

"****!" he said
"I paid good money
for this...

guarantied genuine
human
disguise!"

his face flickering
on & off on&off
breaking down into static

"Got it in a sale
it was going cheap
thought I'd got a bargain!"

I laughed
being as I was
from Mercury

and that I must
have a spare
in my emergency alien pack

"Well howsa
'bout that"
he chuckled

and so
faces
in place

we set off
to find us
some real-life earthlings

the Disco ball
turning turning
like a little silver planet

Blondie screaming:
"Ehhh, she's so dull, come on,
rip her to shreds!"

CRAWLING OUT AND FALLING UP
( for Linda )

Her first puddle
"There's rain lying dead
in a hole!"

She's only ever
seen rain fall
not trapped in a *** hole.

"Why doesn't it
crawl out
and fall up?"

Indeed?
I see it happen
in thought if not in deed.

I have to admit
I'd never thought of it
like...that?

Now she's all
grown up and
doesn't even remember it.

We meet a modern
day puddle and
she's puzzled...when I say:

"Why doesn't it
crawl out
and fall up?"

"Oh Da...!" she sighs
"How do you ever
think of such...things?"

*

Henri Nouwen once said:

"Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving.
We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life...all of our life."

Or a way of seeing her world as only she could and letting you enter into her state of mind so that a mere puddle became a wondrous thing to behold....my child was always teaching me ways to see and to treat the world seriously as the sacred thing it is.

She had love for everyone and everything....I did my best to learn from her....she was my mentor.

WHEN DEATH COMES, IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES
(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )

I once knew a man
who knew a man

who had seen
F. Scott Fitzgerald

drinking a milkshake
in a drug store

(vanilla or chocolate
he couldn't be sure)

flicking idly
through a magazine

( no he didn't know
which magazine )

in the company of
some blonde.

"I'll never forget
what he said!"

"Let's go to the supermarket
Shelia!" he said.

And that's it?
"That's it!"

His voice caressed
each syllable

as if
he were on stage.

But he was like a man
becoming a manakin

like in that episode of
The Twilight Zone

you know the one?"

In a future that had as yet
to happen.

"I don't know what I had
expected..."

The man who knew the man
who knew the man

who had seen and heard
F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"Maybe a Gatsby or
a Gatsby

who had survived the novel's
tragic ending

and wished
he hadn't!"



Here now
at home

Mr. Fitzgerald
sits in his armchair

eating a chocolate bar
checking out next year's

Princeton
football team.

suddenly like a puppet
yanked on a string

he stands up
hand on mantlepiece

like some bad acting
in a silent movie

before falling
to the floor.

He will never
get up.



Nick and Gatsby come
stand by his dying.

So do Monroe Stahr
and Kathleen Moore

even though
words fail them.

Yet they now
more real than he.

Monroe reads
some last scribbled lines.

"There was a flutter
from the wings of God

and you
lay dead.

Your  books
were in your desk I guess

and some unfinished chaos
in your head

was dumped to nothing
by the great janitress of

destinies."

Gatsby
closes his eyes.


*

WHEN DEATH COMES, IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )is of course the wonderful poem by Cesare Pavese.
Monroe and Kathleen are from Scott's last and unfinished novel THE LAST TYCOON.

I also knew a guy who knew a guy who peed beside Richard Brautigan. He was so in awe as to who was at the next ****** that he peed all over the top of his shoes.

GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN

night ****** the light
out of the sky
until it became the dark

the heart attack
said only one word
"Come!"

and he came
because he couldn't help
but come

the heart attack
smirked
at his obedience

he stepped into
the dark
seeing the world fade

but he thought
of her smile
and

came back
to himself
saying only one word

"No!"
he said with a smile
and again "No!"

the heart attack
left in a rage
furious it should be so

"Well...well...!"
smiled Life
"...good to see you again!"

TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS


there was only
the shortest of distance
between their lips

but no distance
between their thoughts
their hearts

she eyes of green
he of blue
always the same seeing

above them
the Milky way flowed
from one head to another

as if the universe
joined them together
in its blessing

stars so near
one could believe
that one could pluck them

the insects of the world
serenading our nearness
with their nearness

the campfire cackled
bit into the dark
the dark afraid of it

the fire seemed to be
always to have been here
the dark grown about it

words had vanished
only their bodies
doing the talking

translating she into him
he into her
until they became one

SKIN & BLISTER
( for Junie )

We grin & grimace
drop candle wax onto our fingertips

as the storm
rattles our window pane

angry that we won’t let it in.

All night  it rages
toppling chimney pots with a crash

smashing slates
it strips from rooftops

as we safe
giggle & peel off

our waxen
fingerprints

hold them
(tiny whirlpools)  
in our palms

those whorls of self
unique to each.

I wearing my sister’s
fingerprints

she... wearing mine.

The absolute ******* grind of it,
each inch upholstered rough,
sandpaper cushions and *******,
this is school my loves:
best days of your life,
except the frequent crying
and wishing for an end,

but then
the dazzle blather
of someone excited by your subject,
your patient, pent up words
heard
and your bitten cynicism scuffs enough
to see your old electric truths beneath