kept folded in narrow creases,
vermin parables for rot-paper effigies
writ down as paragons in the cheap potboiler of continuous torrent and industry.
Down at the harbor,
salt angels wave goodbye to ships laden
with cream-skinned babies in barrels,
alive in a circumscribed commerce
of palm
and funeral
and coral-colored sunrise.
We peddle our peculiar zodiac at stations
where all trains have evaporated,
the green and violet of bruises rain themselves clean,
and ballads are sung with lark tongues lodged
in mother throats that cannot exist,
but which sing and sing and sing.
Come, find our graves in the rockery,
lend us new deaths by instant contract.
Arrange us on new stars aloft by decree,
and kill the old deities by stoning via television.
The night horizon will slide us
to the harbor,
to the arms of sirens
who will sing us, exploding,
through dust-hearts and lie-lips
to the stuttering surprise
of creatures too perverted and vile
to carry the note that we plot, on charts,
like a poem slipped beneath the door of permanent astonishment.
________
for Kerry's word list and Izy's prompt for the last day of April.
From the first line, this careens desperately into the maelstrom of chaos which is our present moment on this planet. It's hard to imagine a better catalogue of all the ills, mental and physical, which afflict people, and which they joyfully inflict on others. The second stanza alone would break a heart, and from the Hare Krishna Jeezus undercurrent of religion gone hopelessly wrong, to the killing mantra of deliberate selfishness at any cost that runs through til the chilling end, this is indeed a poem fit to be "..slipped beneath the door of permanent astonishment." And an exceptionally fine one to bring its sulpherous glow to embellish the perfect illustration of a hellish month.
ReplyDeleteBrava! Very well done indeed to blast your way through the list. I love the rapid fire pace of the poem and so many wonderful images contrived from 30 words.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite part is this stanza:
We peddle our peculiar zodiac at stations
where all trains have evaporated,
the green and violet of bruises rain themselves clean,
and ballads are sung with lark tongues lodged
in mother throats that cannot exist,
but which sing and sing and sing...
Keep on singing!
From first to last, so, so good:
ReplyDelete"We made our own zodiac from prayer books and beating-sticks"...
"like a poem slipped beneath the door of permanent astonishment."
Wow! Ending April with a bang! I especially love the lark tongue in the mother throats that sing and sing and sing.........Fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI thought I needed more understanding of both Mike Pence and the Mayo Clinic, so I Googled him and found out about his visit there and its apparent high-handed idiocy. And for the rest ... things are not perfect here, but this makes me even more glad than I was that I don't live in present-day America. (Maybe if we slip enough poems under a lot of doors?)
ReplyDeleteAnd who knows, he might be a carrier. Shows part of what is his matter.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY MAY DAY!!
Try to remember school days with your Maypole and the joyful Nay Day dance.
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ReplyDeletePS Trump is also a Gemini... (hides head in shame of association)
ReplyDeleteYour poem hits hard from beginning to end. I feel breathless for just reading it. Thank you for being you and letting us read your amazing poetry.
ReplyDeleteShay--You took a moment of idiocy and made it explode with the sheer awfulness. I hope after our next presidential election, the awfulness and idiocy will disappear.
ReplyDeleteI hope...