The Fly (Adieu)

I killed a fly today with some regret.
It lies among the ashes yet,
a delicate wreckage,
as if crashed upon an alien planet.

[copyright EAC 09]

Sin Base Cuatro (The Fourth Wall)

To the Raft

To the raft in sunlight
in one piece blue green knit
shimmering Raphael
flaunting breasts and hips
overflowing with rose aureole
bathing you were always the better swimmer.





La mujer de mi hermano

We ran away from home
to Mexico not once
but twice.

In the taxi, mi hermano of the opposing gender
along the wide avenue to the Plaza:
“It looks just like Rome.”

“Habla usted español?”
“Poquito”, I say.
“Bueno”, says the cabbie tenderly, “that is good.”

A bottle of rum
gets us over the mountains on a bus.

We become the race.

It was December.

You were a virgin then, my brother,
Do you remember?





Buddha On Big Bureau

In the high heat of June
by the afternoon’s lazy edge
sits on still water Buddha
in leggy spotted green.

Z.

To gusts of gnats
flitting lazily in the sunlight
her merciful tongue.

Slurp.

Later in the moist night air
over warm earth
the song of wanton bedfellows
chorusing sex and rebirth.

Brekekekex koax koax….





Winter Park

So seldom postcarded
in the snow
just the two
not a word
side by side
motor running
heater on
burning rubber
out front in the Ford.

[copyright EAC 09]

World Radiation Messenger Service: Warning

To Whom It May Concern:

Greetings!

Whoever you are reading this, especially if you are human (see illustration) and direct descendants, we screwed up royally ten thousand years ago and where you are now standing while reading this message is one of our radioactive waste dump sites.

It's a long story, so let's just cut to the chase.

Do you folks understand "Geiger Counter"?

If not, have you noticed that people who hang out in this area have high rates of cancer, still births, and deformed births?

Okay, if you are one of these mutants you are not supposed to look like that. Two eyes, two arms, two legs, one head, and so forth--that's the ticket. Got it?

Look, we are really sorry but nobody's perfect.

Please pardon any inconvenience this may have caused.

All the best and have a nice day.

WRMS

[text and graphics copyright EAC 09]

Entropy

Entropy

Do you really believe
that I could not
with one wave of a word
defrost the cold glass
of your immensity
and show you on the other side
nothing?

[copyright EAC 09]

Exile On Main Street (In Memoriam Walter "Terry" Klein)

Exile On Main Street (In Memoriam Walter “Terry” Klein)


Shoryo ni
iza tsuredatan
nishi no sora*

[Hokuso]


In the midwest in winter
they spread their highways
with an ocean of salt.

In spring like clockwork
gray sidewalks exhale waiting
for the ferry to the Martha’s Vineyard
they have never seen.

He passes an elderly Japanese
striding easily with a soldier’s air.
Eyes meet. The slightest bow.

He too smells the sea.

[copyright EAC]
_____________________________________________________________________________________
N.B.: A short notice on the Chinese character 德 (Te/De), "Virtue", "Character", "Integrity", may be found at wikipedia below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_(Chinese)

A translation of the lines in Japanese above with an important note from Yoel Hoffman is available online below:

http://books.google.com/books?id=fF75Qvo-VckC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=Hokuso+shoryo+ni&source=bl&ots=6T7p5BFWCv&sig=K7t9rVIQHULpLfdpI0sVf8jxZJo&hl=en&ei=otHOSuicDouMMZ2mvZQD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=Hokuso%20shoryo%20ni&f=false

À bientôt, Terry, mon ami.

The Hylozoist

The Hylozoist

Does one atom of hydrogen give birth to another atom of hydrogen?

Do universes meet in cocktail lounges over shots of vodka and beer?

Does one thing lead to another until one of them asks, “My place or yours?”

Why aren’t there selfish nuclear reactors whose teleology is to go forth and multiply

until they cover the planet and dispense with humankind?

Are ants campaigning to be the next great apes, husbanding atomic aphids and milking them for electric power?

Is the moon in her barren milkiness protectress of earth from stinging meteors?

Is she Diana, chaste huntress of asteroids?

When worlds age do they retire to Mexico, learn a little Spanish,
and read the Aztec Gazette?

[copyright EAC]

Herbstspaziergang

Herbstspaziergang

It is not the point of a poem
to persuade an idle moment of September.

What time is it in your world?

There is simply no one here to tell you
there is another year on Mars
when the canals that are not canals
bloom with Martian mushrooms.

Because there is thinking have you thought?

Because there is love have you loved?

Because there is Spring does it mean there is no equator?

Trees wrap their arms warmly about themselves
discovering sunrise.

Eyes see deeper light in briefer days.

[copyright EAC]