Gertrude The...

Gertrude the

unnatural apple

blossoms every Picasso

once in eleven centuries

when eaves fall at last

Gertrude the

wall-less room

fornix where

where Caesar

where Napoleon

where bloomers

Gertrude the

finial logarithm

stolen chromosome

mitochondrial algorithm

at home in anyone's

autobiography

Gertrude the

Pi

Gertrude the

Gamma

Gertrude the

Epsilon

Gertrude does not like periods

Gertrude does not like periods

Gertrude does not like periods

Gertrude the

Q.E.D.

E. A. Costa  29 January, 2015 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

William S. Burroughs In Mexico City

They are both drunkards he and she

with glasses on their heads and .38 Specials.

He takes aim. He fires. Her head explodes

in shattered prose.

So matriculates the first William Tell

of the Apaches.

With ineffable grace buggering Massasoit,

extinguishing blunderbuss & turkey,

with a broken bough of swamp oak sweeping clean

behind each long-lying footstep of Pilgrim English.

E. A. Costa 28 January, 2015 Liberia, Costa Rica

Oswald Spengler

                               Ducent Fata volentem,

                               nolentem trahunt....

                                               (Cleanthes ap. Seneca)

Let us resolve an enigma

regarding Mr. Sphinx:

had he never written a word,

if every word writ remained unread--

Faustus would be just as dead.

E. A. Costa (2005-2015) 24 January, 2015 Granada, Nicaragua

Execution Of A Metaphor

Bullet holes in concrete

spattered with red stars,

a blanket of snow below

bleeding its last breath

into the indifferent air.

Do dead souls rise again

when doubly negated?

E. A. Costa 19 January, 2015  Granada, Nicaragua

The ABC of Reading

                 “The news in the Odyssey is still news....”

                                                               Ezra Pound

A.

Scrawled on the wall

I heard

other words

conspiring heavy breathlessly

whispering softly and the leanest of themselves

making her will known

in silences.

B.

Oaths

sworn

swords

rung

for logic is an ear to many worlds

is the right knock on the green door.

C.

Tyche

at Constantinople

the pig bones of Venus

Hazard the conditions change &

the deck of fifty two comes down to where

they are placed on the table

eyeing one another

suspiciously

in the land of the blind.

E. A. Costa 17 January, 2015 Granada, Nicaragua

The Night We Met Pavarotti

We diddled a bit in the rear

of the crowded elevator to our floor.

Then more knee to knee

in the seats.

The performance was part genius

and part the witty vinegar of revenge.

Afterwards he met us backstage,

makeup running with sweat.

He looked up when he saw her.

Then signed his photo with felt pen.

E. A. Costa  3 January, 2015  Granada, Nicaragua

Otilia, Vive Ac Vale (Vallejo Ascending)

            [dedicated to Roger Santiváñez]

                      Yo no sufro este dolor como César Vallejo.

                      Yo no me duelo ahora como artista, como hombre.

                      Ni como simple ser vivo siquiera....

                                                                             ( César Vallejo)

Footprints on wet sponge meadows,

empty shoes left and right amid a host

of zeros in high alpine heat,

a pile of laundered lavender in the street,

a hand-carved hardwood cane,

everywhere the pain.

No breakfast & then a cairn,

a sign & inscription:

ESTACIÓN VI

CÉSAR VALLEJO DISAPPEARED HERE

WASHED AWAY WASHING AWAY

in what two-faced moon between January,

between what lunes of what Hippocrates

lay this ring?

Vive ac vale, Otilia, lost in the smell of our green branches,

lost at the crossroads of three ways....

After that there is no more to be said,

except to shrug the shoulders and keep climbing.

E. A. Costa   28 December, 2011 (Michigan City, Indiana)—1 January 2015 (Granada, Nicaragua)