last summer we did a project where we had poetry displayed on the insides of busses.... here are a few short entries as today i called in dead and deaf to work and will shortly be going back to bed...
the formatting will be all messed up, but i think i can make it work...
(a haiku)
Jealous of my house guest sleeping on the couch 'til noon...
(based on a true story.... shudder)
"I've had my cheek bones raised eyes widened
love handles tucked inner thighs smoothed silicone breasts implanted removed and then replanted I've had 2 face lifts 3 skin peels & 1 nose job They took fat from my butt & injected it into the wrinkles in my face My jaw was too big so I had it sawed off moved back & bolted back in place�
�Waiter? Check please�
(a true story)
It was: the beat of the sound of the song of the street as cars drove by the sound of beat of the of the street as a light shone high the beat of the street as some slid wide past the bum on the red line while the others said the reply: no - sorry - no & then beat was broken
as I watched her red hair blue coat black pants beautiful reach into a pocket pull out what looked like everything she had & hand it to the homeless man.
It was: old vinyl skipping, no replaced by a� capela selflessness.
(an old love poem...)
U
U earth bound basement shackled shadow
U sky flying cloud crying shine
U ocean dwelling sea deep wave
U star shooting night streaking wisp
U U taker of gifts gifts-un-takable
U U giver of thoughts thoughts un-thinkable
U U teacher of lessons lessons-un-learnable
U U learner of teachings teachings-un-taught
U U perfect perfect red-blonde-blue black & white
angel
lying naked in our bed
U yes you
I love
(a true story told to me by my grandmother)
1964
6 years before me 4 years before he showed her the world my father hitchhiked 80 miles from Boston College to Progress Avenue walking walking walking left hand extended thumb outward against November leaves of red yellow orange & blue sky
November leaves crunching beneath his feet
I would have given anything to see her eyes
as she opened the door�
(an old piece)
I should tell you I was sitting on the old chair Rocking Feeling edges paint chipped arms Remembering when I was sitting in that same chair 1 apartment ago 1 year ago looking out at Brown Street & then you covered in March sun light & my eyes pouring over you little flecks of dust you only see in the morning & late afternoon light & dust only adding
I should tell you to look outside this window That woman with the motor scooter is pulling up
the city behind her glowing sunset Maudlin & red hearth & fire kiln from the television the fish tank just inside shadows against curtains
little bubbles skipping up the glass
I should tell you to listen to the sound
of constant twilight just outside this window Evening hushing distant highways & breeze a car alarm
side street footfalls mixed with engine lifter nock
a dog bark a door close engines rushing away all distance a soothing gentle mantra ...humming... "Can you hear the city waking?"
Echo�s Tricks of sound on old wood an old house
somehow your floor is rising The old wood of a Worcester Mill the oil of 50 years of work honest work sanded & varnished just enough to leave enough character for office workers to admire or poets to notice
I like your floor it's not so glossy Just like your teeth; �take care of yah teeth!� my Grandmother always used to say�
(about a bar in the city near where I grew up)
South Main Street, Worcester Massachuesttes
A Blues Club called Gillreins is slang ghetto slang real as real as music can get at 2:30 am on a Saturday back to the bar count lost hours ago but I'm still watching... fret by fret notes dance out smooth note slow notes sweet as blue, from lips smoke wisps rising: a cloud of guitar melody alone in the scratch of steel string yard bird speaking simply above the sharp edge of street domino stabbing what could be your soul cream rising to slap you back steal your wallet replace the chain w a chord
& hand it to that man on Wickendon corner with only a cup of change & little else just so he spends the bills � right.
My eyes make me listen ears making me hear I�m day dreaming trying to relearn the smooth notes slow notes sweet as blue but they slip smoke wisps rising:
I�m watching slow hand dance away fret by fret on the fingers of the 18 year old I always wanted to be...
(old road trip)
long road long road driving fast flying on to grand canyon rented red bird flocked in grass 90 miles left to go 90 miles an hour 90 minutes from flagstaf
nothing nothing but green fields a lonely mule and a sign and a sign!
of Fred Flintstone
(about a street near where I live)
Walking past the sole proprietor's shops
bakeries Restaurants- noxious in the worst possible way - to an empty stomach, Thayer street is walking awake pedestrian impossibilities a delivery truck blocking half the road stress gridlock & parallel park, but it's also tiny stores, small stores, stores owned by people it's nick knack, & window shop - dollar fifty bottomless cup friends on every other block!
Thayer is RISD, RIC, Ivy Brown, Spikes Junkyard Dog, where if you eat 6 dogs in an hour or so, you get a T-shirt 12 & they'll call the hospital for free It's College hill book store open late as any bar & I'd rather get drunk on words any day if the words fail you, there's Spirituous Fermenti where you can pick up the material to do your best Kerouac impersonation, or plagiarize Bukowski for that matter�
Me
walkin by my reflection in windowed street light,
cigarettes & gum on concrete stepping past afternoon street Guitars playin for their cases Guitars! playin the same songs over & over & over an old blues horn man makin me wanna moan "Blow man,
Blow man, Blow!" stead I drop a dollar, grin along my way, stay with the street life, the street life
it's a sweet life when you can walk with no worries at all.
(about the business district where I work)
On the corner of Westminster Joe, one of the downtown spare change collectors says to me,
"You know this city used to be an island?"
I say, "Really? How much do you need today?"
"No really, before they uncovered the canal, we used to be standing over water
& if you live here long enough you'll never be able to leave Psychic forces from Lovecraft's grave bend a special type of gravity - horizontal That's only attracted to metallic minerals Leached from the cities pipes, So DON'T DRINK THE WATER!..." "& this must be why getting to Boston takes so long, getting home seems to be a breeze & why Providence the TV show is so popular"
