NOW WE UNDERSTAND

Now we understand that poppies hum

slumber, cities chant slaughter,

holy men hawk hatred for votes and gold,

bubble gum replaces B___  as the virus

reinvents itself and bides its time.

Fat men in fatigues and jungle gear

wave flags with bloodshot eyes,

and manure manifestos measure our resolve.

What can be done but to remember

somewhere a slow bassoon plans moonlight,

somewhere a sleeping drum dreams Brahms.

(Clicking on photos enlarges them.)

NOW THAT MY LAUGH

NOW THAT MY LAUGH

past seventy

is settling

more or less

deeper in me,

and the prospect

of a lemoned

martini

nullifies the fact

that my glasses

slide a little

down my nose,

I don’t care

anymore

if I can’t

play Bach.

 (Clicking on photos enlarges them.)

NOW I KNOW

NOW I KNOW

just how

the trombones

should sound. . .

like the cellos

when they’re

imitating

Rimbaud.

(Clicking on images enlarges them.)

NOT THE DAISY

NOT THE DAISY,

white eared and pure,

but that daffodil,

ignoring

all the others,

staring at me

unabashed

in yellow,

may be all

the challenge

left.

(Clicking on photos enlarges them.)

NO PHANTOMS TO CHOOSE

No phantoms to chose between tonight,

Nor other egos

Which yesterday’s perspiring glass

Stained forever silver, silenced, even though I move,

Grimace or shriek, with or without the pious tablets

Pulsing me to sleep, black, locomotive-like,

Parallel to one night’s drawn blind death drowning,

Chest heavy, sharp, high-clawed to dawn

Solemn waked with sun, streaked, still soft

Amber anchored in the noises of the street,

Part distant, insistently today and not that last

Night’s courageous loss of instinct

Which did not let me die again.

(Clicking on images enlarges them.)

NOT NARCISSUS NOW

NOT NARCISSUS NOW,

physical in flesh

or firmly phantasized

mental, as if the model

who has other dreams,

(no doubt, no doubt)

sweats solely for the artist

and not for the light

that glistens

across his chest

as a new

religion’s ancient

reflection, discovered

again and again.

There must be no doubt,

one has one’s

own reflection.

(Clicking on photos enlarges them.)

NOT

NOT

may

I pray,

But will.

Enough. . .

let’s

tempt

the gods

again.

(Clicking on photos enlarges them.)