Too many fled
Spillways mouths
Oceans swill
May flies
Swamped
Too many words
Enough
Said it all
Spoke too much
Tongue tied
Talons claws syllables
Ships set sail
Anchors aweigh
Adrift such flame
Molten metal
Scimitar swiftness
Swallows at dusk
A vernacular
Unspeeched
I've said it all
And then some
We've said too much
And then some
Gongs of regret
Soaking it in
The choir of silence
Rehearsing
a brown hare (liebre marrón)
dances
diaphanous (diáfano)
as willow wind (viento del sauce)
whispers
to Ganymede (Ganimdes)
perched on a silver birch (abedul plateado)
whose broad bean (haba)
of muted lavender (lavanda apagado)
waits
* I walked into a hardware store and randomly collected paint samples. Pratt & Lambert Paints calls the strips of paper Color Narrative (tm). Then I randomly chose from my deck of 7 and arranged the words as above, with 11 words of my own added.
That was a rumor of crocus
Creeping under the myrtle
A promissory note
In the key of hope
Aside the stale snow
Stubborn against melt
That was a robin
No doubt at all
Its singular song
Perched on a wire
Strung from Kyiv
To Kalamazoo
Its clementine breast
Battered and beating
That was sunlight
They say piercing
Cumulus and doubt
A miracle or mirage
They say mingling
Shadow and blaze
I start with a lie. That's too strong. A falsehood. How about a miscalculation? The year has not ended. That's a fact. We are not at year's end, not fully, not yet, not now. I start with the half life of a half truth. I start with a start, a stutter start. I stutter my strut of a start because I have nothing to say, nothing to say except to lament the rubble and ruins, the strewn limbs and blood rivers of Putin's nightmare backward lurch into history. To think that World War Two was over? And to honor, I can't find proper synonyms, the bravery, heroism, patriotism, valor of Ukraine, its people amidst the smoldering slaughter, that mother on a gurney outside the bombed maternity ward they later said she and the baby died, that image to remember, like the silent scream freeze-frame shot to the head in Saigon, or the white man brandishing the US flag against the restrained black man, the soiling of old glory, Stanley Forman, and so on, ad nauseam, till death do us unite. Even before year's end I want to flip the calendar, turn the page, close the books, hurry before there's more, hurry up, there's time, and that's both horrifying and hopeful is it not.
oh say can you see
a pox upon our land
a Pax Americana
no not never
oh my can you spy
a flag swirling
in the bed of a pickup
a rebeling with a cause
if hatred is so called
fear by any other name
as sordid and as sour
as the banner of the hour
this far north
this far gone
an uncivil war
a confederacy of none
a lunacy of race
and riot and roar
a sound and a fury
of democracy
out the door
The paperwork is in place
Ready for processing
Before the spiraling expiry date
No it isn't
It never is
Like Tony Soprano
All due respect
Reaching across the table at the Jersey diner
The jukebox's Journey's Don't Stop Believin'
No not yet
Affairs are never in order
Not quite
Prepared for
That rudest of rude interruptions
All due respect
gimme an L gimme an I gimme an F
(and an FU2)
gimme an E
womb tomb BOOM
firing squad lethal injection guns and no butter death penalty electric chair let 'em fry more guns carry conceal reveal life penalty choice no choice gimme me a gun Johnny got his give me a bomb cradle to grave
through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault
mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa
pro-life pro-white pro-gun pro-men pro-right pro-wrong pro-lie
wave the flag
wear it
wrap yourselves in it
sashay in it
sway away
lipstick smeared
ear to ear
grinning gamely
smiling widely
in your robes
your Robespierre robes
Reigning Error
rain of righteousness
razing democracy
raising theocracy
Amen.
it becomes a shorthand
a savage synecdoche
for which we have no synonyms
except blood nightmare shred death
and sinews of sadness singing
an aria without words or melody
a broken record
Columbine Cleveland Chardon
Red Lake Nickel Mines (Amish)
they become a shorthand
these slaughters that stream
one into the other flooding
our jaded memories
Sandy Hook Parkland
Santa Fe (Texas) Oxford (Township)
Uvalde (now) (this) (again) (AR-15) (again) (kids) (children) (innocents) (once) (again) (thoughts and prayers) (makeshift memorials) (flowers flowers flowers) (teddy bears) (magazines) (again) (clips) (bullets) (this) (now again)
[silence]
sobs cries wails sobs screams cries sobs
[silence]
. . . and then the inevitable onslaught of cliches promises jingoism flag-waving theories speculations loner angry boy boy boy male man young troubled loner rage pent-up why why why NRA July 4 lobbyists money money money marketing male rage against the what the who my rights my rights my rights protect me from me the land of the free
except for the cost
the incalculable cost
[silence]
[ ]
[ . . . ]
Memorial Day
stick together
more or less
some more than others
hummingbirds a thousand
and penguins eighty times that
we're talking feathers here
not rathers or druthers, mind you
feathers
birds of feathers
feathers of birds
tough as leathers
smooth as lies
thick as thieves
coats of armour
anti-harmers
so, what of humans
what of us
unfeathered and untethered
flights of fancy
fighting nights of fire
what about us
humans, unwinged and unhinged
skinned alive
or skinned dead
humans, if only we could soar
where would we fly to
who would we be
and how
tell us, oh Phoenix
for Thomas F. Coman Sr.
Just one
Of a kindness
Unseen
These days
A mensch among men
Placid amid the storm
Sheltering steadiness
Rising above it all
Anonymous not clamorous
Good and faithful servant
Well done
Done well
Light perpetual
Shine in silence
So be it
Be it so
Ever and anon
Shore-ward sailing
remember that yardstick?
(more like two of them)
a metric that mattered
(so we were told)
social distancing
defining where
one aura began
another ended
(I should have said era)
up there
aboveground
not that 6 feet
for god's sake
and then today
or was it yesterday
(time has become so timeless)
as I walked by the school
elementary, so primary
colors, I saw those chalk outlines
body shapes
pastel designs
I am sorry to report
that reminded me
of a TV crime scene
(a not-very-parenthetical aside
I am told)
all kidding aside
I wish I didn't go there
don't you
I wish we all did not
go there or anywhere
like that
on a field of blue and yellow
sky and gold
on plains of wheat
and cities of old
an ancient rain falling
fresh as blood
and raw as meat
a lone baby crying
an aria forgotten
and a mercy unsuckled
a prayer still screaming
how foolish we thought
we felt so retro
that war was
just
a thing
an ancient artifact
a boomer anecdote
a cold memory
a hot flash
war so old-fashioned
framed out of history
texts and rubble
sepia photos
black and white
either or
infants' limbs
family shrapnel
silent shards
blood so loud
we thought
that was all over
war and peace
a novel idea
it was just beginning
the recurring nightmare
an endless loop
a rosary of mercy
we need
and want
a garland of roses
we pray
beseech
beckon
we beg for
peace
now
in our time
this now
this time
cancel culture
as in what
culture
such as it is
or was
or will be
world without end
canceled check
balance overdue
canceled cells
cancered sells
checks in the mail
chain mail
ancient artifacts
like paper
and facts
themselves
cc: blind copies
can-can culture
no can do
yes we can
bel canto
incantatory
stories
ad infinitum
they said it was the shortest day not a D-Day but a December diurnal one a solstice they said something about the sun earth nexus something about the failing light flailing to find itself on the upswing stretching out the light the definition of day and now I am flailing to see that in my February-drenched rearview mirror the one with the solstice memory the one with the solstice promise winking at me the driver me the one masquerading as something someone whose name escapes me
nice not the first thought
nicene being
its adjective twin
yet nicene enough
insense and all
maker of all things
of all that is
seen and unseen
(that infinite comma up there)
think about it
all that is
both seen and unseen
shrouded by skin
shaped by veins
eternally begotten
not made
faith more than creed
creed more than doubt
a twig
to stand on
seen not seen
felt not felt
in time
forever
except I hate absolutes
or is it fear
any thing
solid liquid air
possible
might
could
would
should
anything be possible
including me
or you
excluding no one
anything's possible
it's been said
so I've been told
even this
these words
bursting into
nothing's impossible
kingdom queendom
come
worlds without end
in thralldom
a million miles away
give or take or
take or give or
hullo hello halo
within one's orbit
climbing the gravity ridge
from Earth
Sun's thermal grasp
one last gasp
before nothing
before everything
O second Lagrange point
en pointe
"riding up and down and over and along the shallow saddle contour at L2"
cresting on words
Webb's scope and scale and view
what a trip
the 3 a.m. knock
text or call
screen flash
DO NOT DISTURB
disturbed forevermore
there's that
essential tremor
who wouldn't shake
straight to the grave
hands heart feet soul
shoelace signature shaving
rendered impossible
who wouldn't
feel those quakes
down to one's essence
having heard the news today
oh boy
brother, who wouldn't
but what about
all the others
so-called nonessentials
the barking dog
curling cat's ears
birthing every hellish fear
in ordinary time
the never ever reply
those Carrara marble moments
cold and hard
Van Gogh granite
smooth as sin
hiding the fissure
threading through
our ancient bloodlines
I always
want
need
surrender
I always
don't
want
need
always
hope
harbor
harvest
always I
bow
before
what is
world without
end
amen
