Chapter 1

There was a woman. The cost to love her was your life. No other payment but a sending off, a revolver cocked to your temple’s side.
There was no spite in your death, just business.
Hell of a business to run.

I was protecting someone. Never been one to stick around, but this drag had carried for the past year. That gang-owned joint lay but two doors and a cold alley away. Popular place, maybe not the classiest but it had its patrons. Packed with your essentials: pool tables, dirt-licked walls and chairs, mean folk mixed in with the nice. Old fashioned joint with a history. You could almost feel it when you walked in. That small pressure when it’s about to rain? Felt like that had been building up for a decade there.
Some Madonna owned it. Names elude me, but she was just another front; as was the barkeep, the hired bouncers and those mean-eyed slingers that spoke loud in company, silent alone. Heh, almost like an old-fashioned saloon. Who the hell am I in this tale of cowboys and crooks?
I was holed up in that apartment block for the winter. Stiff drapes covering a stiff cold that seeped through the cracks anyway. Cold chills to wake to, and the whiskey don’t warm a **** thing. Maybe it was the ache of a past flame that led me to her. That old touch had languished and misted away in the night of some long dead memory, leaving an old kiss from a young lover on my shivering body. It grew faint with every year’s passing. I struggle to remember this keepsake.
Every night.
I was a no name protector protecting a no name ghost of a man. Yeah we knew each other. I’m no stranger to keep past talking terms . . . but, hell if I remember his name, how we got into this **** situation and why. Mind’s a little off. Been like that for years.

It was a stumble through the wrong door at the wrong time. Some spiteful voices in the back of the joint or the back of my mind telling me I’m headed for hell and ain’t coming back. See, every day is a crossroad, and I happened upon the worst one yet.
I remember that flaking paint; grime-covered white on a moulding door **** near off its hinges. That suited me, and I hated it. Maybe I grew sick of wandering the same way and turned my life on its spinning head. Spun me all the ways I couldn’t face. Saw a glimmer that fate had readied for me. Don’t think I’ve looked at anything with such eyes since; nor have they looked back at me.
The room was a cramped, dilapidated hellhole like every other room, but with her laying on that bed of hers . . . she was the only clean thing in the whole of this cursed city. Save, she wasn’t clean. No such thing exists; no such thing as clean since your adolescent innocence, and even that went up in flames. Hell, in a city like this I wouldn’t be surprised if the skeletons we kept so tightly locked in our closets outnumbered us ten to one.
Should have remembered that when I saw her, but my mind lay a blank canvas and I couldn’t help but fill it with all the details of this pretty bird. Even those that weren’t there.
No Name yanked me out quick. Never seen him so pale, ghosting further and further from a human being. He’d been running so long I don’t think he even knew what he was running from anymore. His past? Some cop chase from years back, ending with blood stains and shaky hands? A dead kid in the arms of a suicidal wife? Maybe he’s running from himself. Fear in the capacity we contain, and fear in the ways we unleash it around loved ones. I don’t blame him for running. If I was a worse man I’d run from him as well.
Now No Name has it all figured out, even if he won’t let on; and that bird in there ain’t part of the plan. Cash cash, first train out to some no name city for this no name man. In this together, he keeps repeating, like some broke down record player that only plays one song. Well I guess we share more similarities than I’d like to think so.

One night, about a month after settling in that old apartment, I hear raised voices. Not uncommon, but something about this still night woke some fear inside me. A fear I needed to meet with my eyes, a score to settle with myself. Sounded like some ******* outside was hoping to bring down the sky with volume alone. No type of gentleman, just a no ***** kid who doesn’t know the difference between command and screaming like a babe.
One gets you respect. Now, the other. . . .
I open those stiff drapes with stiffer fingers. Brush that layer of frozen breath and mist to find some mid-twenty good for nothing punk holding a struggling figure. The apartment ain’t exactly ground floor but even up here I can spot the difference between a gent and a sally. Some broad was in trouble.
Grab that six shooter, old man. The holster smooth from years of wear, small frays on the weathered jacket rubbing against goose-pricked skin. Comfort clothing that never really brings comfort. Not anymore. Guess I’m as bad as No Name. I’m just repeating routine.
Out the hall, no doors left in this apartment block. Stolen, broken, ain’t exactly your family fun lifestyle we’re living. No Name’s holed up in this fortress of upturned furniture and dresser-barred doorways. Lights flicker from between the cracks. The devil ain’t gonna bother with the door, I tell him. He doesn’t reply. Maybe he’s a religious man with one too many sins above his head.
There’s another yell and I feel my blood rise, hairs picking up static, a storm brewing inside that clenched stomach of mine. Take a tumble down the stairs in my haste. **** crooked balsa wood. Those stairs are gonna end me one day, I swear.
Ground floor. I slam that kitchen door and it cracks against the brick wall outside. ****. No Name’s gonna burst an artery. Call out for that ******* punk but he’s already eyeing me up. Only a few steps away and I can see the white in his eyes. No . . . those are his pupils. Wide, all cloud-like, he’s ******* dusted up. . . . Almost like looking into the past. Thrice-cursed ****. I’m in trouble.
This ain’t some lover’s quarrel, some twisted ****’s thought of a good way to end the night. This is a dusthead addict and I’m out of my league. His mid-snarl distorts and stretches past his cheeks and that devil grin sends an electric jolt from the wires of my brain to my heart.
This six shooter is as good as a pea gun against a Smiley.
He’s spouting some glossolalia drifts, layering it like an abominable duet. The coked-up boy in me yearns to understand again, but stiff joints and washed-out dreams have made me a cynic. Ain’t no beauty when you’re tearing things apart to see it. ******* Smiley’s on the edge and he’s ready to pounce right off. If that broad’s sobbing didn’t **** at those heart strings of mine I’d be running for my ******* life.
I lift that pea shooter and aim it straight at that devil smile.
He howls. Glass shatters from above. Some black monstrous thing comes speeding at me. I leap through that apartment doorway in time to see ******* Smiley consumed by it. All sharp, all solid that beast slams into Smiley, screaming loud enough to wake this dead city twice over. Smiley thrashes, he splays out to the ground, the beast’s seared flesh erupting in front of me. A piece slices past my cheek and I’m on the ground in tears. I hear No Name scream an incomprehensible curse above. I’m bawling now. Through my tears I spot that chunk of flesh. ******* balsa wood. Thrice-cursed balsa wood.
No Name had thrown a piano out that barricaded window of his. Tears of pure comedy, that’s what left my face. A Smiley taken out by No Name, I’ll never live this down. His mangled body lies under polished wood. Someone’s yearly worth gone in a second of frantic panic, reduced to twisted wires and cracked ivory. To see something so beautiful destroyed in seconds makes me wonder if the Smiley had gotten the better of us after all.
That broad’s in shock. Splinters covered every inch of ground save that around her; looked like a comet, trailing emptiness behind.  Should have noticed it then that something wasn’t right with that scene. Perfectly unscathed beauty sitting there with not a single scratch nor splinter on her, but I was too **** amazed I was alive. Knelt close to her and caught a whiff of some exotic scent on her skin. Some flower. Saw her face and it added another colour to that filling canvas of mine. This pretty bird from the joint. The one men died for. At least No Name had saved one life worth saving, funny it happened to be the one who could take yours in a night.
Names elude me, but the way I remember her . . . the way I remember her is Blossom, for when she came into my life she gave colours to my black and white memory, colours I didn’t know existed, and my black and white morals took a turn down some dawning grey-blurred alley.
So I’m a ******* gentleman and I walk Blossom home while No Name shifts furniture above us. Scrapes of hard wood against wood, filling that void in his once impenetrable bastion. I told you No Name’s got it all planned out already. Guess I’m just here for the ride.

On my sixteenth birthday,
my uncle gave me a balsa wood airplane,
or rather, the wood
that comes together to make one.

While I started out strong,
assembling most of the fuselage,
it would go unfinished
and stay a skeleton.

Most of its life
collected cobwebs.
My uncle drinks whiskey
in the pool at night.

I think of the airframe
still waiting to be put together,
waiting to fly
to the other side of this.

if she could be a tree ag'in
never seen a balsa growin'
don't know about light wood

I am more acquainted
with the hardwood species
and as I speak

There in the woods, a balsa
tree floats off into the atmosphere
so light

your hair appears darker
when wet.
black, corded,
thick as puzzlegrass.
a companion in contrast
to frosted
cupcake blue eyes and
incense burning
in the ashtray.

memories thrown
in the laundry pile
with the wet towel
swirling upon
your head.
your smile
bitter as asparagus,
staining my *****
for the next two days.
your frame
soft and slender
as balsa wood.

I’d eat your air
freshly oxygenated
and bend you into
an arc.
the waves would split
on your bow
and shower my face
wet
dark
corded
thick as puzzlegrass.
then
from your finger
the standard of a
dove leaving
olive branch in
mouth
into the frosted
cupcake blue
sky.

a miracle in
the eye of the
waning storm.

Wound up a rubber bands
Balsa airplanes high on a breeze
Dandelion wishes
Wildflower **** bouquets
Squeals carried on the wind
A lazy swing in the warmth
Never ending declarations of love
With the sweetest of all smiles

Aloft upon some distant shore
The seabird sets her wings to soar
The salt sea tang of crested breeze
Or howling gale of winters freeze,
Through oceans, mountainous or not
Or sea Sargasso flat and hot,
In dancing wavelets sparkling clear
Where hunted mackerel school in fear,
Where natives in their dugout boats
Caste out their nets and balsa floats,

That tiny bird will soar adrift
Negotiating each wind shift.
One wonders how a thing so small
Can fly against the wind at all;
But sweep she does and plunge and veer
In gracious symmetry to steer
Across the oceans vastness too,
To land right there, right next to you.
In squawking lightness, dancing swings
Sea bird alights ….and folds her wings.


Marshalg
Mangere Bridge
8th. December 2007

Invitación al llanto.  Esto es un llanto,
      ojos, sin fin, llorando,
escombrera adelante, por las ruinas
        de innumerables días.
Ruinas que esparce un cero -autor de nadas,
obra del hombre-, un cero, cuando estalla.
Cayó ciega.  La soltó,
la soltaron, a seis mil
metros de altura, a las cuatro.
¿Hay ojos que le distingan
a la Tierra sus primores
desde tan alto?
¿Mundo feliz? ¿Tramas, vidas,
que se tejen, se destejen,
mariposas, hombres, tigres,
amándose y desamándose?
No. Geometría.  Abstractos
colores sin habitantes,
embuste liso de atlas.
Cientos de dedos del viento
una tras otra pasaban
las hojas
-márgenes de nubes blancas-
de las tierras de la Tierra,
vuelta cuaderno de mapas.
Y a un mapa distante, ¿quién
le tiene lástima? Lástima
de una pompa de jabón
irisada, que se quiebra;
o en la arena de la playa
un crujido, un caracol
roto
sin querer, con la pisada. 
Pero esa altura tan alta
que ya no la quieren pájaros,
le ciega al querer su causa
con mil aires transparentes.
Invisibles se le vuelven
al mundo delgadas gracias:
La azucena y sus estambres,
colibríes y sus alas,
las venas que van y vienen,
en tierno azul dibujadas,
por un pecho de doncella.
¿Quién va a quererlas
si no se las ve de cerca?
Él hizo su obligación:
lo que desde veinte esferas
instrumentos ordenaban,
exactamente: soltarla
al momento justo.                                   Nada.
Al principio
no vio casi nada.  Una
mancha, creciendo despacio,
blanca, más blanca, ya cándida.
¿Arrebañados corderos?
¿Vedijas, copos de lana?
Eso sería...
¡Qué peso se le quitaba!
Eso sería: una imagen
que regresa.
Veinte años, atrás, un niño.
Él era un niño -allá atrás-
que en estíos campesinos
con los corderos jugaba
por el pastizal.  Carreras,
topadas, risas, caídas
de bruces sobre la grama,
tan reciente de rocío
que la alegría del mundo
al verse otra vez tan claro,
le refrescaba la cara.
Sí; esas blancuras de ahora,
allá abajo
en vellones dilatadas,
no pueden ser nada malo:
rebaños y más rebaños
serenísimos que pastan
en ancho mapa de tréboles.
Nada malo.  Ecos redondos
de aquella inocencia doble
veinte años atrás: infancia
triscando con el cordero
y retazos celestiales,
del sol niño con las nubes
que empuja, pastora, el alba.
 
Mientras,
detrás de tanta blancura
en la Tierra -no era mapa-
en donde el cero cayó,
el gran desastre empezaba.Muerto inicial y víctima primera:
lo que va a ser y expira en los umbrales
del ser. ¡Ahogado coro de inminencias!
Heráldicas palabras voladoras
-«¡pronto!», «¡en seguida!», «¡ya!»- nuncios de dichas
colman el aire, lo vuelven promesa.
Pero la anunciación jamás se cumple:
la que aguardaba el éxtasis, doncella,
se quedará en su orilla, para siempre
entre su cuerpo y Dios alma suspensa.
¡Qué de esparcidas ruinas de futuro
por todo alrededor, sin que se vean!
Primer beso de amantes incipientes.
¡Asombro! ¿Es obra humana tanto gozo?
¿Podrán los labios repetirlo?  Vuelan
hacia el segundo beso; más que beso,
claridad quieren, buscan la certeza
alegre de su don de hacer milagros
donde las bocas férvidas se encuentran.
¿ Por qué si ya los hálitos se juntan
los labios a posarse nunca llegan?
Tan al borde del beso, no se besan.
Obediente al ardor de un mediodía
la moza muerde ya la fruta nueva.
La boca anhela el más celado jugo;
del anhelo no pasa.  Se le niega
cuando el labio presiente su dulzura
la condensada dentro, primavera,
pulpas de mayo, azúcares de junio,
día a día sumados a la almendra.
Consumación feliz de tanta ruta,
último paso, amante, pie en el aire,
que trae amor adonde amor espera.
Tiembla Julieta de Romeos próximos,
ya abre el alma a Calixto, Melibea.
Pero el paso final no encuentra suelo.
¿Dónde, si se hunde el mundo en la tiniebla,
si ya es nada Verona, y si no hay huerto?
De imposibles se vuelve la pareja.
¿Y esa mano -¿de quién?-, la mano trunca
blanca, en el suelo, sin su brazo, huérfana,
que buscas en el rosal la única abierta,
y cuando ya la alcanza por el tallo
se desprende, dejándose a la rosa,
sin conocer los ojos de su dueña?
¡Cimeras alegrías tremolantes,
gozo inmediato, pasmo que se acerca:
la frase más difícil, la penúltima,
la que lleva, derecho, hasta el acierto,
perfección vislumbrada, nunca nuestra!
¡Imágenes que inclinan su hermosura
sobre espejos que nunca las reflejan!
¡Qué cadáver ingrávido: una mañana
que muere al filo de su aurora cierta!
Vísperas son capullos. Sí, de dichas;
sí, de tiempo, futuros en capullos.
¡Tan hermosas, las vísperas!
                                                          ¡Y muertas!¿Se puede hacer más daño, allí en la Tierra?
Polvo que se levanta de la ruina,
humo del sacrificio, vaho de escombros
dice que sí se puede.  Que hay más pena.
Vasto ayer que se queda sin presente,
vida inmolada en aparentes piedras.
¡Tanto afinar la gracia de los fustes
contra la selva tenebrosa alzados
de donde el miedo viene al alma, pánico!
Junto a un altar de azul, de ola y espuma,
el pensar y la piedra se desposan;
el mármol, que era blanco, es ya blancura.
Alborean columnas por el mundo,
ofreciéndole un orden a la aurora.
No terror, calma pura da este bosque,
de noble savia pórtico.
Vientos y vientos de dos mil otoños
con hojas de esta selva inmarcesible
quisieran aumentar sus hojarascas.
Rectos embisten, curvas les engañan.
Sin botín huyen. ¿Dónde está su fronda?
No pájaros, sus copas, procesiones
de doncellas mantienen en lo alto,
que atraviesan el tiempo, sin moverse.
Este espacio que no era más que espacio
a nadie dedicado, aire en vacío,
la lenta cantería lo redime
piedras poniendo, de oro, sobre piedras,
de aquella indiferencia sin plegaria.
Fiera luz, la del sumo mediodía,
claridad, toda hueca, de tan clara
va aprendiendo, ceñida entre altos muros
mansedumbres, dulzuras; ya es misterio.
Cantan coral callado las ojivas.
Flechas de alba cruzan por los santos
incorpóreos, no hieren, les traen vida
de colores.  La noche se la quita.
La bóveda, al cerrarse abre más cielo.
Y en la hermosura vasta de estos límites
siente el alma que nada la termina.
Tierra sin forma, pobre arcilla; ahora
el torno la conduce hasta su auge:
suave concavidad, nido de dioses.
Poseidón, Venus, Iris, sus siluetas
en su seno se posan.  A esta crátera
ojos, siempre sedientos, a abrevarse
vienen de agua de mito, inagotable.
Guarda la copa en este fondo oscuro
callado resplandor, eco de Olimpo.
Frágil materia es, mas se acomodan
los dioses, los eternos, en su círculo.
Y así, con lentitud que no descansa,
por las obras del hombre se hace el tiempo
profusión fabulosa.  Cuando rueda
el mundo, tesorero, va sumando
-en cada vuelta gana una hermosura-
a belleza de ayer, belleza inédita.
Sobre sus hombros gráciles las horas
dádivas imprevistas acarrean.
¿Vida?  Invención, hallazgo, lo que es
hoy a las cuatro, y a las tres no era.
Gozo de ver que si se marchan unas
trasponiendo la ceja de la tarde,
por el nocturno alcor otras se acercan.
Tiempo, fila de gracias que no cesa.
¡Qué alegría, saber que en cada hora
algo que está viniendo nos espera!
Ninguna ociosa, cada cual su don;
ninguna avara, todo nos lo entregan.
Por las manos que abren somos ricos
y en el regazo, Tierra, de este mundo
dejando van sin pausa
novísimos presentes: diferencias.
¿Flor?  Flores. ¡Qué sinfín de flores, flor!
Todo, en lo igual, distinto: primavera.
Cuando se ve la Tierra amanecerse
se siente más feliz.  La luz que llega
a estrecharle las obras que este día
la acrece su plural. ¡Es más diversa!El cero cae sobre ellas.
Ya no las veo, a las muchas,
las bellísimas, deshechas,
en esa desgarradora
unidad que las confunde,
en la nada, en la escombrera.
Por el escombro busco yo a mis muertos;
más me duele su ser tan invisibles.
Nadie los ve: lo que se ve son formas
truncas; prodigios eran, singulares,
que retornan, vencidos, a su piedra.
Muertos añosos, muertos a lo lejos,
cadáveres perdidos,
en ignorado osario perfecciona
la Tierra, lentamente, su esqueleto.
Su muerte fue hace mucho.  Esperanzada
en no morir, su muerte. Ánima dieron
a masas que yacían en canteras.
Muchas piedras llenaron de temblores.
Mineral que camina hacia la imagen,
misteriosa tibieza, ya corriendo
por las vetas del mármol,
cuando, curva tras curva, se le empuja
hacia su más, a ser pecho de ninfa.
Piedra que late así con un latido
de carne que no es suya, entra en el juego
-ruleta son las horas y los días-:
el jugarse a la nada, o a lo eterno
el caudal de sus formas confiado:
el alma de los hombres, sus autores.
Si es su bulto de carne fugitivo,
ella queda detrás, la salvadora
roca, hija de sus manos, fidelísima,
que acepta con marmóreo silencio
augusto compromiso: eternizarlos.
Menos morir, morir así: transbordo
de una carne terrena a bajel pétreo
que zarpa, sin más aire que le impulse
que un soplo, al expirar, último aliento.
Travesía que empieza, rumbo a siempre;
la brújula no sirve, hay otro norte
que no confía a mapas su secreto;
misteriosos pilotos invisibles,
desde tumbas los guían, mareantes
por aguja de fe, según luceros.
Balsa de dioses, ánfora.
Naves de salvación con un polícromo
velamen de vidrieras, y sus cuentos
mármol, que flota porque vista de Venus.
Naos prodigiosas, sin cesar hendiendo
inmóviles, con proas tajadoras
auroras y crepúsculos, espumas
del tumbo de los años; años, olas
por los siglos alzándose y rompiendo.
Peripecia suprema día y noche,
navegar tesonero
empujado por racha que no atregua:
negación del morir, ansia de vida,
dando sus velas, piedras, a los vientos.
Armadas extrañísimas de afanes,
galeras, no de vivos, no de muertos,
tripulaciones de querencias puras,
incansables remeros,
cada cual con su remo, lo que hizo,
soñando en recalar en la celeste
ensenada segura, la que está
detrás, salva, del tiempo.¡Y todos, ahora, todos,
qué naufragio total, en este escombro!
No tibios, no despedazados miembros
me piden compasión, desde la ruina:
de carne antigua voz antigua, oigo.
Desgarrada blancura, torso abierto,
aquí, a mis pies, informe.
Fue ninfa geométrica, columna.
El corazón que acaban de matarle,
Leucipo, pitagórico,
calculador de sueños, arquitecto,
de su pecho lo fue pasando a mármoles.
Y así, edad tras edad, en estas cándidas
hijas de su diseño
su vivir se salvó.  Todo invisible,
su pálpito y su fuego.
Y ellas abstractos bultos se fingían,
pura piedra, columnas sin misterio.
Más duelo, más allá: serafín trunco,
ángel a trozos, roto mensajero.
Quebrada en seis pedazos
sonrisa, que anunciaba, por el suelo.
Entre el polvo guedejas
de rubia piedra, pelo tan sedeño
que el sol se lo atusaba a cada aurora
con sus dedos primeros.
Alas yacen usadas a lo altísimo,
en barro acaba su plumaje célico.
(A estas plumas del ángel desalado
encomendó su vuelo
sobre los siglos el hermano Pablo,
dulce monje cantero).
Sigo escombro adelante, solo, solo.
Hollando voy los restos
de tantas perfecciones abolidas.
Años, siglos, por siglos acudieron
aquí, a posarse en ellas; rezumaban
arcillas o granitos,
linajes de humedad, frescor edénico.
No piso la materia; en su pedriza
piso al mayor dolor, tiempo deshecho.
Tiempo divino que llegó a ser tiempo
poco a poco, mañana tras su aurora,
mediodía camino de su véspero,
estío que se junta con otoño,
primaveras sumadas al invierno.
Años que nada saben de sus números,
llegándose, marchándose sin prisa,
sol que sale, sol puesto,
artificio diario, lenta rueda
que va subiendo al hombre hasta su cielo.
Piso añicos de tiempo.
Camino sobre anhelos hechos trizas,
sobre los días lentos
que le costó al cincel llegar al ángel;
sobre ardorosas noches,
con el ardor ardidas del desvelo
que en la alta madrugada da, por fin,
con el contorno exacto de su empeño...
Hollando voy las horas jubilares:
triunfo, toque final, remate, término
cuando ya, por constancia o por milagro,
obra se acaba que empezó proyecto.
Lo que era suma en un instante es polvo.
¡Qué derroche de siglos, un momento!
No se derrumban piedras, no, ni imágenes;
lo que se viene abajo es esa hueste
de tercos defensores de sus sueños.
Tropa que dio batalla a las milicias
mudas, sin rostro, de la nada; ejército
que matando a un olvido cada día
conquistó lentamente los milenios.
Se abre por fin la tumba a que escaparon;
les llega aquí la muerte de que huyeron.
Ya encontré mi cadáver, el que lloro.
Cadáver de los muertos que vivían
salvados de sus cuerpos pasajeros.
Un gran silencio en el vacío oscuro,
un gran polvo de obras, triste incienso,
canto inaudito, funeral sin nadie.
Yo sólo le recuerdo, al impalpable,
al NO dicho a la muerte, sostenido
contra tiempo y marea: ése es el muerto.
Soy la sombra que busca en la escombrera.
Con sus siete dolores cada una
mil soledades vienen a mi encuentro.
Hay un crucificado que agoniza
en desolado Gólgota de escombros,
de su cruz separado, cara al cielo.
Como no tiene cruz parece un hombre.
Pero aúlla un perro, un infinito perro
-inmenso aullar nocturno ¿desde dónde?-,
voz clamante entre ruinas por su Dueño.

“I've realized,” I write, “the Groucho Marx of the mind is chaos personified. The Groucho Marx of *my mind *was chaos, I revise and already think I should revise again – “you never know where you'll end up,” I think, of me and of Groucho. Either way, Groucho Marx came to me in a thought when I was thinking about a poem I will not finish, that would have been about him. “We were just four jews looking for a laugh,” Groucho says at least twice – once when he was alive and once now as I invoke him – the heavy glasses, the synonymous greasepaint lip, the cigar – lit, with smoke that surrounds and engulfs me, threads tangibly through the air, through my eyes, and through the insides of my sinus densely, like mossy Eldritch Horrors and old movies somehow without stopping my vision. He has a mouth but it doesn't move, he is not alive – instead he is a ghost, instead he is dead but standing there, with me, in space lighted from within – space that's white like the smoke – thickly. Among all this, a ghost in a black suit. At least, I think the suit is black, or bluing black. It is tinged with 50 years of rotting celluloid, and paired with a white button up underneath – no tie.
         Growing up all five of them were poor, very poor – so poor they were Jewish-in-New-York-in-the-early-1900s poor. Forced outside of the world, into their world from birth, while their mother, Big Duck, put them up to instruments and got them begging early – vaudeville was their daddy after all (“after all” being a refrain in the poem I'll never finish, repeated like a mantra – after all! after all! after all! after all!– in that text, and used like a drug – afterall – and always driving deathward to an end that never came and can't, after all is written down) – with the jokes they told and sang and played, on their piano, harp, and banjo, all the time – and here is how she learnt how well Chico could play the piano, and how well Harpo could play the harp. And how poorly little Groucho played the banjo. The shame she felt, the shame she must have felt – but here my poem consumes them, because I am already sure that childhood is wrought with fear of birth order, sure as I am that middle children lack something, and maybe have something for that lack, but It's me, not Groucho, that takes over, saying Groucho was the obvious middle child, and of course lacked Big Duck's approval – Big Duck hated the banjo strumming and myriad puns he threw, I say – puns being a part of the poem, the poem which would have (but never) ended on Groucho ducking soup. I wanted it all as a joke and still do, but who will disappoint? Who could? There are options – Groucho, myself, the poem, etc. all working poorly. It is hard to imagine the lack that would culminate in a poet – maybe this gap is wider than a middle child – writing three brothers into a brawl, cartoonish in the streets. May be even harder to imagine the discontent and fear at work inside a child of five – birthing chaos. Maybe I misspoke – I can't know,  I'm not a child of five.
                  Groucho is dead, is still standing in front of me expectantly, not moving. Right in front of me when again I hear his voice – reanimate and filtered through a phonograph – weakly rising above it's own eroded texture – “I was misquoted, I was misquoted... Quote me as saying, 'I was misquoted.'” I wanted his life entropically spinning this place, spinning throughout this place, a ghost – to live forever is to die forever in every gaunt lie, misquote after misquote re-shaping our dead selves until grotesqueries we never intended are held comfortably under our name. Groucho, aimless, escapes because he pre-empts – he uses his whole self to decimate his cultural body, to save the self he's sacrificed. Groucho means to become a void, or Groucho becomes a void more correctly – Groucho means nothing, can only mean nothing, because he's focused his words – his self – around his lack – the words' lack. Because the words always lack, and Groucho is all words. I see him take out the greasepaint container, which is in a shoe-polish-looking canister, and then I lose Groucho again to facts – he was the outsider using words to one up them. I see his wit like a weapon. His being in Hollywood was a stress on Hollywood's peace of mind. I see him tearing balsa wood from up under the street and chucking it into styrofoam towers, which crumble. I see the SUVs that swerved to pass him run into walls, deflating the cars and the walls while the drivers run screaming with ketchup pulsing from the real wounds in their necks. This is where my poem was – more or less. My poem had Groucho gleeful – “Groucho skips, Groucho skips, Groucho skips,” it said, “down the streets throwing rocks at cars...” – the melodies of my naive poem's schoolboy nihilisms never broke enough – “In Groucho's perfect world every day would be spent disrupting traffic, smashing bugs and ******* everywhere,” it said because it was too young to understand, because it had no void, and could offer no revolt from meaning – revolution being radical agency expressed through violence against every order, hatred for every structure including itself – in Groucho's perfect world really there is no language and no one knows what happens after all.
            Lingering is the thought that Groucho means something – lingering is the vaguest, most insistent and warlike imprint of a metaphor on Groucho's face, ineffably moving me to continue but Groucho is no friend, and Groucho is not with me, because the Groucho of the mind is not Groucho, Groucho hates the mind, and Groucho negates all possible Groucho's so the imprint is not Groucho's. The ghost is a misquote, the poem is a misquote, the letters are a misquote, I am a misquote – and this is a misquote too. His cigar (growing bigger) is puffing out that white cloud smoke but still I can see him – the smoke just goes into the space around us, the space that redacts and recreates itself every time I consider it – a copy of an 18th copy, with only Groucho remaining in all iterations, like the borders of a decomposed jpeg quietly losing logic. Groucho the lie, Groucho the memory – a man shaped around the falsity of metaphor and language – floats, as subject, through my memory – punctum with no point, void. Here he is – naked, a stark black silhouette I'd never claim. He's staring, but he's not staring at me because I'm not there. What's left is overstated nothing – the ghost of a man who negated logic, left in the mind of a poet who has long since given up on the man, and soon will give up on the poem.”
There is nothing left here. I am alone, I am dizzy – overcome with boredom.  I want to say, “Groucho is not here, was not, cannot be here” – I know instead I need to end on a mute point.

They were broken children
Their scissored minds ran them
In spirals
Until they sat with crossed legs
And crossed lips
To press themselves flatter
They were cut-strings marionettes
Who danced
In an attempt to wring calories
From their balsa-wood bones
Which refused to give
And who pinned their painted smiles
A little tighter each morning
They were snapped-spines picture books
Who’d been warped too far by society
And had had their pages torn from the crease
So that words hung like razor blades
And spliced from each vertebrae

They took them to the circus
Where they were the **** of every joke
But when the clowns speared them with dripping eyes
And artificial mouths that were stretched over grimaces
Like the dust-jackets from different stories
They stared back glassily
Because how can you be afraid
Of the broken clockwork of your reflection?

I'm chasing a chupacabra through Mississippi
through mud thick like chocolate milkshakes
and rain soaked boots stick to my socks to my skin
I run around trees and zag and zig to navigate
a maze of horticulture past ferns and bushes
and it stops.

We're eye to eye
like two old lovers
spotting each other
from across a beach bar
except those bloodsucker eyes
could paint the Grand Canyon red
and nosferatu fangs
still warm from goat *******
could sizzle the sun.
Cobra tail whiplash
spotty patches of hair
the ugly duckling.

I aim my pistol at the beast and pull the trigger
like a civil war hero king of champion hill
and the bullet takes off at the speed of life
it penetrates the animal and blood sprays
out of the torso like a garden hose set on mist
and I run up to the almost dead chupacabra
and it barks
softer than balsa
whimpers of a new born
puppy tears
staining red eyes
and as loud as a mouse
it says goodbye
in dog

I woke one morning feeling like
I didn’t belong in my own
        body—
that the skin I saw was not my own
but the flesh of a cadaver;
I thought that the bones within me
must be made of balsa wood and
the deteriorating muscles were surely
thin strips of fabric with
no actual value.

I decided that it was not me on the inside,
but someone else.

The sky outside my window was only
a meager, pale shade of grey, like the ashes
of what her body used to be, and I
watched as the pale pink ribbon of
the horizon began to bleed with the birth
of a new day and I thought about how
all those words you said to me
were actually time bombs because when
you first said them, I brushed them off
but now all I can think about is them and
my brain has been blown
        to kingdom come.

I think I might be brain dead.

But your school picture is still on my
bedside table and when I look at it
a fist grips down on my heart and
I wonder how you are and if you’ve grown,
I wonder if you’re even still alive anymore;
my anxiety is a yew tree bending in a
new formation influenced by the passing
of time and minimal communication—
I become someone I don’t know.

I think that we’re all born with
a different destiny to follow but
when you get right down to it,
no matter how much you’ve changed, or
how much I’ve changed,
on the inside, we’re all the same—
        skeletons.

Except for the fact that I think I might be a
barely surviving Hiroshima victim;
a charred skeleton with no other
contributing human element.

Sometimes I compare you to
        Chernobyl
and I wonder if you ever
draw that connection
too.

I wonder what it’s like to be nuclear.

I wonder what it’s like to burn alive.

There are dark clouds churning in the
early morning sky and I wonder if it
might storm again like it did on that
night when I drove home alone and
that one song was playing on the radio
over and
                over and
                                over again
and I couldn’t possibly shut it off because
who was I to end the life of a beautiful,
(highly relatable),
song when it was just growing out of its
babbling infancy and into its
crescendoing teenage years?  

If I were to write you a letter now
I wonder what I would say,
what I would tell you that I haven’t already,
(accidentally), spilled to you in those
rushed visits we had every blue moon—

I think I would tell you how you
        broke my heart;
I think I would tell you how he
        shattered what was left;
I think I would tell you how
I don’t believe I have a
soul
                        anymore.

She crafts a template for
a man
and I become
her mate.

Passing by suburban street signs.

They have simple messages to follow,

which is quite nice when I think about it.

As opposed to my concrete jungle:

tow zone; no parking zone; drug free school zone...

yes zone, my city is zoned.

It’s a grid that has an agenda,

to separate by market value.

Homes side by side to show self-worth,

not unlike the suburban structures.

Pre-packaged balsa wood ready for new families,

as dad puts in the new mailbox,

with dollar sign next to the address.

Impeccable lawns; fresh paint; no furniture

yes empty, the houses are meaningless.

It’s a show for other homeowners.

Reality happens behind closed doors,

in cities and suburbs.

I’m just following the street signs,

maybe I can find one that is for the public,

symbols or words.

It doesn’t matter, just as long as it isn’t a facade,

or an endless journey; a mirage.

You hold the short balsa match
Between your stubby pale fingers
The bitten-down nails painted black-cherry-hot-blood red.
And you tremble.

Strike it- sulfur's tangy odor permeates the air.

Your soul rattles like dead leaves
On the end of a long blight-stricken oak branch in November.

Skin, it hisses like firewood left out in the rain
And reddens like your cheeks did when your lips first touched his,
When you first saw his skin gleaming white
In the Autumn-chill  moonglow.

Now it blisters, white and swollen, tender, sore.
And you feel you've accomplished something, moved forward,
But there's a faint voice
Calling to you from the back of your consciousness
Telling you you've gone down the wrong road entirely.

When he runs his hands together
It sounds like sandpaper
Waiting to shape raw wood
They're rough because life isn't always easy
But hard work makes it worth it

Because cost and value don't measure success
If he had nothing to own, he wouldn't be worth any less

On Saturdays, we watched the History Channel and ate donuts with forks
Sometimes my grandfather would tell me his tales

I learned about cooking
Always season it well and prepare a bit more
Because there's no telling who'll show up at your door

I learned about fire
Like life, it's relentless, but you always fight back

I learned about chivalry
It may be asleep, but it'll never die
Because opening doors, compliments, and hand-written notes can keep love alive

And I owe me to him
I am a man because he led my way
He brought me out of darkness
Without ever knowing he was the light

We built model airplanes from Balsa wood
And classic cars from plastic;
Our dreams are simply disassembled pieces
There's no rules or instruction
We can build whatever we want

Gone

How do I write the words,
To say good bye?
Not that you are gone,
Your soul flying high?
It is so hard to believe,
That you are not there at the other end of the phone,
I keep thinking I should call,
that maybe you will be home,
But I now you are gone,
I know it's true,
Just as  I know,
That I never really knew you.

My Dad, my father, drinking buddy, and friend,
I miss all the wasted time,
And ******!
I want it back again.

Every time i look up at the stars,
I think of you,
Or see a boat, smell the sea,
Or stare out at the ocean blue,
I feel just a little bit of you,

Often I have the desire,
To build a plane, or a balsa wood canoe,

Everywhere I turn,
I see you,

I know you are gone,
That you walk now,
With Grandpa,
And god,

And I find it so odd,
That I can't let you go,
Even tho I know,
You are gone,

Like the stars,
Vanished at Dawn,
It was your time to go.

I see my campfires burn,
And think that if I quickly turn,
I'll see you, standing there,
Jeans, flannel, T-shirt,
With sawdust in your hair,
Smoking a cigar,
Drinking a beer,
Sometimes it really feels,
Like you are still here.

They were  rare,
But I miss our talks,
all the planes,
and all the midnight walks,

I know that I will see you again,
Someday,
In some other place,
When my time comes to go away,
And I'm done with this rat race.

I miss you Dad,
And I think of you alot,
It is hard,
For in grief it is so easy to be caught,
Hard to think that you have passed away,
No more cigars, talks, or camping on a rainy day,

But I'll go on,
And live my life as the best man I can,
Until it is my turn,
And the lord calls me home,

But right now,
By your grave I stand,
Ashes spread where you loved to roam,
From mountains to sea,
Under endless stars
And majestic trees,

And so I say good bye, Dad,
And hope my faith is true,
That someday again,
I will see you.
I love you Dad.

~Matt Pentz
08/02/10

Alone on the pedestrian bypass bridge,
breathing summer sunset,
I swirl the stubby balsa spoon on my tongue
as the evening commute buzzes beneath my feet,

and wonder: how did I miss this all before?
how
wind washes bare arms,
world still
soft round
the sharp edges;
how ivy lush covers thickly the brick walls over,
and brazen broad-leafed bushes
crowd onto cobblestone street corners, and
wistful weeds cushion cement sidewalk cracks;

how when the sun’s rays are blades from the horizon,
our city lights twinkle tight but
tap dance so light on the retina
in the vignetted  
sky of creamsicles and cotton candy;
and how
the frozen chocolate chips
break brittle between my teeth
and the cookie-dough bite’s so smooth
and still so tooth-melting sweet

They whittle us down
until we are nothing more than a whisper;
a croak.

My flesh is balsa wood—
“pliable,” said the boss.
“Easy,” said the judge.

Men are born with knives.

Behind closed doors,
they carve.

Their chests swell as they set satisfied knives
on solid walnut desks, glossy with
the oil of money,
spit of secretaries,
greasy fingers.

No one
musters the courage
to knock.

something
happened
last night

as I was
fast asleep
sitting up
snoring

springing awake
from a deep apnea
my mind races
to remember
details

aside my bed
on the floor
a single sleeve
of yellow
legal paper
folded over

forming
a shapely cone

shining in the
moonbeams
sneaking
into the room
from under a
window blind
that ain’t
doin the job

I grab a pen
with a thumb
and pointer
I clasp the balsa
from the large end
of the cone
and place it atop
the screaming TV

I write
something
learned
I write
something
of me

all over
I scribble
on the paper
like a
$5 shrink

I read
what
I wrote
and nod

I’m cool
what great stuff
how deep
how daring
how penetrating
real close
to the blade
like me
so full of ****

I laugh

what
******
junk

Oakland
1/31/99
jbm

Crescendo rising to torture the orchestral lull
Broke backed break beats, hound the exhumed hull
Waltzing off with the sounds of silver
Revoked in half measures by a cold sweat shiver
……………………………………………………………………………………
The aft bowed to its keel,
Scorpion shaped contorted steel.
It’s crescent figure draped on the horizon
Lulled to sleep by the house paid siren.
……………………………………………………………………………………
Sloppy soaked balsa kicks back reverence through the feed
Cracks in crackling, evident of disintegration in the reed.
……………………………………………………………………………………
Poppy poked ventricles provoke elegance through need
Rats in shackling, petulant for the absolution required to concede
……………………………………………………………………………………
Unbuckling at middays light
Caustically aware of approaching night
Collective need provokes a search for a scout
No one wants to leave their stash in the middle of a drought
……………………………………………………………………………………
Crashed and burned on grassless shoals
A boat full of users without goals
Left to withdrawal on barren land,
Hollow shores of endless sand

The backseat driver's lips began to chap
And his jaw locked
Thank you Based God

The people pleasers asked to hitch a ride
They had no mode of transportation
And the lack of communication coming from the backseat driver was concerning them even more

I thought I was about to be bamboozled when they started to clean the interior

I decided to pull over and check out an antique store on the side of the highway

They had used toothpicks used by President Eisenhower
The word "Anagram" in all upper case letters made of lacquered balsa wood

While we were there I tossed out all my unpaid speeding tickets  

Then I saw a sign the said "Continental breakfast $2.50!! 3 miles thata way!!"

I zoomed to the diner and ordered that continental breakfast for the backseat driver, the people pleasers and myself

We each received one coffee, one buttered roll and one danish

We all had the same irritated, sour look on our faces

We flipped the table in disbelief

Attacked the waiter and held the innocent patrons hostage with a fully loaded sling shot
And demanded the cook whip us up a gross of spinach horderves

As we left the back seat driver called shot gun
So we all pilled in with our horderves
And I gunned it to 95
The backseat driver held on to the "oh **** handle" for dear life as the people pleasers cheered me on with their mouths full

On to Massapequa

Crude brown-plaster'd brick walls
Layed without proper solder or
Mold or mud or water
A pit of curdled old-heavy blood
And sinewous joint hinge-pins
Of hard goliath, giant's muscles
Heads seemingly shrunken
But blimped to a surley saturated to an
greater-than original size
Their skin peeled off long ago
Bones meaten'd down and scaled-up
The center of this gore-pit
their hellish home
Butcher paper and amish quilts
Thrown in to produce
A dense coagulate
Fine milk-colored, powdered substrate
Bone-meal and motor oil
Plasma and marrow
Worm-wood
Genteel feathers
From a bird that poisoned
The creek-water of a now-lost
But powerful mexican tribe
Jigger meal from a child's feet
And an old mans
In Afrika
The skin dead and leather'd
The insides rap't of those terrible
world's tiniest insects
Macro-scale germs, most toxic fleas
Coca-Cola boiled down
Into a solid black ichorous
Malleable glucose material

And the umbilical chords
Of Two hundred fifty
New borns
Steamed and broken down
To a mushy substance
With a feathered appearance

To the tactility of even the most calloused and rough

Digits
Whether human

or proto-, pseudo- or neo-
hyper- and pre-
Hensile

The seeds of a million poppies
Cowardly, feverishly tossed into this

Horrid ***
Milewed down into a fine
Addition to the general rot, of this
Yet another putrid addition
The ***** from the second stomach
Of a calcified pterodactylus
And a dragon's mouth below the drain
In the center of this certain,
Gross sess pool
Lies a carv-ed Dragon's skull
To catch this sacred druel
Made out of greenheart
Black ironwood
And for the teeth, obsidion and
Caspian tiger bone
Together spliced and mal-formulated
To create a most
Septic funnel
Cone
All if it drains and
Gurgles down

Into a forged
Glass-Vial
Made in ancient, archaic
Olden times
But for this very abjectly
Evil trial
And he throws the switch!
The gurgle wrought
By this very motion of the level,
The level thrown by most
white un-sunned
Wizard-Warlock hand
It travels down into the vial
Mixing through emerald-hoses
With arsenic
And tainted possum spit--
--infused with cud
From cows thatnot
Even Cherised, prideful
India would permit!
And so a mustard-seeded gas
Also thrown into the mix
Clashes, bonds with
Stupid fluids

Made from the umbilical plugs of anencephalic and

Profound Down-syndrome
Czecho-kidnapped
Stolen'd infants

As their bones rake and smash through
The grinder that eats ANYthing
It goes down a rifled fluted core
Of Balsa-wood
God permits!!
Slimy
Messy

Filthy
Nasty
Hole in the witches den
From which spells are NOW born
To take the world
In a sanguine
Magick-whirl wind!

The mileage added up to just a grand
Not a lot for 20 days,
No crossing of a dateline
Or a continent’s divide.

But still that world seemed somewhat foreign
and I saw streams of amazing things,
That were echoes of my teenage self,
As different now as I was then.

A hazy forest, dark and damp
Where the mist turned into fairy snow
And we walked on in muddy shoes
To learn the mysteries of falling water.

A midas treasure of wave-borne findings
Spilling from a cavernous hall
Pieces of so many lives found
Floating on the morning tide.

Stories of a Nippon sailor’s life
From things that got thrown overboard
Images of fishing boats
In round glass ***** and floats of cork.

Carve the circle with a line
That led to a reunion of
The ones that I grew up beside
But never quite was welcomed in.

A rounding up of recollections
Shared at tables set for eight
Where those left out still don’t fit in
And bonhomie was the music played.

To the ocean of my childhood days
Waves that tell me who I am
And fill up all the empty spaces
City life drained out of me.

A shining tower with ninety steps
That wound around like pizza slices
And tripped me up to ******* blood
As balsa airplanes spiraled to the ground.

No time for wounding on the schedule
Shedding blood but never tears
The leader of the band played on
Admiring a Tsunami boat

Come all the way from far Japan
With cargo of the local fish
Still swimming in the unspilled sea.
A miracle born from true disaster.

Another beach, not like my own
A warmer, calmer span of sand
With jutting rocks in shallow surf
That dare you out to climb them.

Drawn once more to city lights
And the grassy ***** where mother lies
There were other gardens to enjoy and
And contrivances with just two wheels.

How quickly we grew shuttered in-
Just two days in big city life,
The restaurants and funny shows
Still told us it was time to go.

Longing for the beauty of the Gorge
We were met by smoke and blackened stumps
And exits blocked to waterfalls, ravaged
By the fires of hell, and ugly now for 50 years.

A teenage boy with fireworks and no sense
Destroyed the loveliest drive on earth
And bragged to all his awestruck friends
That all the news stories were about him.

With fingers crossed at Mount Rainier,
The sunny weather turned to slush and
Fell two inches in an hour.  I ate fresh snow
Off branches as we hiked, and froze my tongue.

We wore the heavy coats we almost didn’t bring
And cheered when sunshine took the snow away
And we could walk in forests once again
On trails we never knew were there.

A wonderland of cast off parts and metal bits
Became giraffes, seahorses and other marvels
In the hands of a roadside welding artist
Who sold a giant piece to my home town.

A visit with a sister who shared my youth but not my soul
Who grew one way and I another
Leaving not a thing in common for us
Except the love that comes from blood.

No way to avoid the final city
Hellish place of one way streets
Endless detours and construction
Pay all you own to park two hours.

Yet there was the comedy and
Segways once again to ride.
A troll under a hulking bridge and
Poor Rapunzel in the tower.

Passing up the tourist musts,
Visited in journeys past, we saw
The small and quirky things
That make a foreign city yours.

Twenty days, almost no rain
Unheard of in that rainy clime
A lot of sun, some cloudy skies
A bit of snow to frost the cake.

Twenty days to drive a circle
On the map of who I am
And where I came from
To bring it all back here with me.

To this place so vastly different
I wonder how I found a way
To fit inside this giant tumbler
And plant a seed that actually grew

A would-artist long ago
I wonder how I mixed the paint
To make a life so changed, in colors
Blended from Seattle’s soils.

Painted on a Portland canvas
With a brush of Longview bristles
Wetted with Pacific water
To present my image to the world.
                       ljm

She plays tunes under the moon
With her violin made from balsa wood
For the lightest of sounds you ever could
Hear in the night between timber wood

She plays Spanish guitar
In a dandelion field beneath golden stars
Where all the notes that she plays travel afar
From galaxies out, back to the strings of the heart

She daily beats on the wooden drum
From the first sign of light to the mornings beyond
Inviting us all, each and everyone
To her wistful tunes she shares out of love

The tambourine is all she's missing
To top off the sounds of her musical knitting
Drawing you close in hopes that you'll listen
To this her ritual of symphony

The infinite,
a definite article.

I crafted a faith from the balsa wood tree
subtle and supple and
yielding
like me.

The indefinite article,
a death that lasts for
a lifetime.

Who knows but a long time could tell in what fiction we dwell?
is this mansion a house among many?

While the jackdaw gnaws at my bones I have found friends in high towers and homes where they welcomed me,
Intuitively I knew the new religion was true,
the words on the walls were a lie.

Charity begins when clarity wins and the needs of the many are met.

You can't feed on fish when the hungry go hungry and can only feed on the wish to be fed.

All we can do at the end of the day is count all our blessings and then give them away to those who aren't quite so blessed.

Mind unity
infinity
both
you
me
Intensively
working for the common good
would be good.

I trawl on this travel trying to wrap up or unravel the puzzle of life.
All that I catch are the bones that match those that the jackdaw's been gnawing.

Clouds pass, I watch
from my perch above most things,

humming bird high, raven high,
a little lower than the graceful
turkey vultures,

floating in a thought bubble,
blessed with a bit of silicon and dawn,
detergent, resilience ******,
flexible reasoning for remaining

it is said, we all differ slightly,
we are the spiritual a- eh, what do we
call our bubbling minds, intuned on lines for re
asonic resonance morphing most ideas
of all mankind, at once, could muster into a mob,
ah,
that's anxious ifery, ala the - strong man theory -
we think together,
whatsoever,
as a word, is of greater reach than many think,
whatever never gets there, let it be, whatever
believe it or not,
there is as far as that goes, the realm of all wedoms.

Elohimdom come, as a man thinks…
we think
is there a state of common prayer, inside a temple,
time tells,
dig it.

Live and learn, good and evil, done, not in doing,
but in learning the patterns, coknowing the knacks,

confabulation favor, prophecy,
who smote thee with wisdom's switch- on and off,

alternation currency op-onionates reasonates, hesi

odd, jump in mind, we think we heard a famous name,

Hesiod, said, rather,
my connection to Wikipedia said,
He is generally regarded as the first written poet
in the Western tradition
to regard himself as an individual persona
with an active role
to play
in his subject

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiod>

Who should object, word play, is not warfare.
Not. imp
implicative, enfolding, implications, crease, cross
winds in reasons,
- come let us. Is spoken by whom, to whom
your guess, good as mine,
who wishes each bit its own bit in spacetime, I am
sure you may imagine, using a mind from your library,
- Think another way, a while
- get the sense of being in another wedom.
Then see we all exist in a very odd set of circumstances,

Two shall chase a thousand, according to a pattern…

Pride, in my time, is a deceptively sticky birdlime,
along certain fructifying branches,

where a carcass of the dodo sits on display.
Steve Erkle-wise, asking a buffalo skull how
Minerva's owl, reflected

in the dawn sheen on the bubble of all we know
about now.

Word play is warfare to my minds,
I have a vast array of war formed hats,

archaic armor on the croc branches,
and beetle and ant twigs provide noding.

Words gathered, and used, amused for pleasure,
sure plea, each request taken is made, surity,
reusable, freely, being fair, ideas are in the air.

believe me, the begging story cries,
surely, we live on the tell, safe bet,

tip the nonsensical into the phor of Meta,
as an afterthought, in the zeitsprach

mit zwei, und ich, wir sind das Sein,

To ward, guard, regard
each set, each pair,

each one may nay say, or nothing.

Adages and proven herbs, proverbially
persist

past due dates on mental library cards,
due to reading once, you know,
a thing, or some things,
are said to have been
found known,
and nowadays,
Google fetch is real, power
remembering clearly, any scriptura,
as any amusement, mental act, mind game,
word play bemusing as,
all the people say, amen.
You know what that means. So be it,
characters come in subsets, recognized
according to this flavor deemed westerly
- whatsoever two or more of us agrees

whenever, fasting slowly, in recollection, why
again did we fast… is ai ah, reason…

and there's that rub, the touch, you know.

Fear of death, it is known, is common.
Loss of that fear is measured madness, ha, ha.

who will it be tomorrow, you or me,
asks arthur lee, on the beach on the low side
as the current assumes a state, occurrency
o-pe open-opine love is not a gap
ping
mimetic emetic, mittere, mis-mission

accomplish, splat. The bee who found the flowers.
On the windscreen.

Autopilot, trial run. A did'jgital balsa wood fighter…

cruising around Steam's rest in peace options.

Me descuido en las manos del oscuro
formas intangibles
amenazan con arrastrar mi cuerpo
al olvido
                            Tu alma hala
con toda su fuerza

Guerra negra, marchita, opaca
señalo los agravios del pasado
me halan
me quemo
                            anhelo tu llegada
pero si siempre estuviste
¿quién eres?

Campeón del olimpo
matando fieras con tus propias manos
del Hades nadie se salva

Aborda la balsa rota por el rio del olvido
los gritos ahogados
rompen los tímpanos del espíritu

más la luz aún no se extingue
                            tú eres

No te extingues, sigues ardiendo
mientras llueva
                            no te extingues