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American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Box of Dream Stuff

Box of Dream Stuff

 


I

 

On the water   in the pickup truck

he plays his American tricks.

High above the kayaks

time slows and it is too late to scream

when only yesterday the dream had me.

It is an itch emblematic.

This ain’t the Mudd Club

& everyone’s forgotten about the baby.

but it’s a season of heavy gray and rain

and we can no longer dance around it

peeling off large sections of head skin.

So I get the urge to break glass

where a wave has propelled us.

He is going to kill someone.

Mama told me not to come

 

II

 

Barbarita!

 

Here at Hugo House thinking

of you & Scotland & how

the rainbow exploded

inside me w/ the essences

Charlie prescribed. Shooting

star indeed.  Felt lighter

late last night after

the massage before Jesse

Minkert’s story about living

hairpieces & the responsibility

of their care.

 

III

 

Beyond the agony of the garden

in a low-ceiling’d room,

close by a window

above the sitting room

at the corner of Broad and Marshal streets

maybe the sun rising above St. Paul

or maybe the sun setting

toward Kensington Gardens

under The Printing Office

under The Sculptor’s Studio

is this where we will see god

or have other visions of divinity

on our way to becoming        

obsolete constellations?

IV

 

How he learned to hurdle

best he could not with dreams

unveiling the shooting star

to the heart chakra and still

       earclip celphones

           avalanches, waterboarding

but not able to get traction.

An outlaw here as well, reinforced

say Grahhr.   GRAHHR!

with every time he hears himself

on the ice, driving, in the dream

and other petroleum fantasies.

past the vast parade

finds a way past viagra

which had not made it

of reason but peeled skin

or a burn past the numb confederacy

 

V

 

Amanda –

                OK, no weather,

but no beach either. Why

not grass?  Sandburg liked

the work it did after

war.

        I liked its cooperation

when the youthful storm

of hormones blew into

my midwest loins.

                               Yes, we

found the soft golf course

grass and the mosquitoes?

Well, let’s just say they

cd smell blood.        

 


VI

 

On the water   in the pickup truck

Mama told me not to come

he plays his American tricks

he is going to kill someone.

High above the kayaks

where a wave has propelled us

time slows and it is too late to scream

so I get the urge to break glass

when only yesterday the dream had me

peeling off large sections of head skin.

It is an itch emblematic

and we can no longer dance around it.

This ain’t the Mudd Club

but it’s a season of heavy gray and rain

& everyone’s forgotten about the baby.

 

VII

 

How he learned to hurdle

or burn past the numb confederacy

best he could not with dreams

of reason but peeled skin

unveiling the shooting star

which had not made it

to the heart chakra and still

finds a way past viagra

and earclip celphones

past the vast parade

of avalanches, waterboarding

and other petroleum fantasies.

but not able to get traction

on the ice, driving, in the dream.

An outlaw here as well, reinforced

with every time he hears himself

say Grahhr.   GRAHHR!

 

VIII

Amanda,

 

Here above False Creek

(of course) Raven’s wingbeats

keep time aboriginal,

we yearn for a Spring light

distraction as camouflaged

by skin, long to be a water

fall   or until that at least

be its uncommon ROAR.

 

 

 

IX

 

Better an obsolete constellation

than to never have burned

lost in the numb confederacy

the candidates, out their blow holes,

call freedom. I lift my own gift

economy on this urge that rises

goddess up from the perineum

a nutrient manifesting as enthusiasm

but only in a way a crab would recognize,

sideways. Sidereal. The line in the sky

goes from Fa Tsang to William Blake

to Whitman, then Whitehead & Williams

you look Puerto Rican she said, but no

his Cuban mother loving the way he cursed

like an uncle lleno hasta el borde de ron.