May29pob

stolid sunshine: out of town & lost in the funhouse of tokyo in
the blue rain of winter

thank God tomorrow’s memorial day.

     i need a holiday like a virtual desert

          needs virtual rain,

     and the blazing red iridescent flowers of my mind

          shall be drenched, not drowned.

thus, i pick up somebody’s lost phone,

     and call one of the numbers in its memory

          to see if it might be possible to trace the owner.

forgive me, but i’m thinking of the cat in the hat,

     and the science of water balloons

                         gone flat.

all in a day’s drag queen: in truth, she stays away

the bald eagle perched on my shoulder

          digs in his talons:

     ”where’s the peregrine?” he says boldly,

          ”i’ve been waiting.

               the tea’s on the table in my nest,

          and i’m serving up fresh kill duck.

she’s a meaty one too. her blood is still warm, the heart was

     still pulsing when i came down to you.

          but you know,” he whispered shrilly in my ear,

               ”i don’t think the peregrine trusts me.”

          and then he looked away.

be plain, and hold a bit of onyx in your hand (that others may
or may not see)

giving up (without giving up)

     without letting go

letting go whilst still holding on

     tough, proud, & as guileless as a dragon (or dragon slayer)

     and as full of flame.

and now

sitting at table (gentle souls)

     battling the shadows that gather in the rain

astronaut’s still life & foundation

i never did fall

     i stood up and sat down

mercy be! for i crawled through the void

     to the wall of stars neither at dead of night

          here on earth nor in outer space

but that comet grazed my eye and sung of me as a clump of moss

     discharged by a cruel and tender blue whale planet

               of a retired sun