Fast Say 269 July 28 2012 {The Wanderer}

The Wanderer

I will sing of him -
maybe -
I will sing a song of him,
Maybe no one will care -
maybe it will not matter
to the world at large,
but it shall matter to me!
Grande Grenouille
the Big French Frog
sits now with his mouth silent
looking out at the transient garage
through summer and through fall:
he wishes to speak...
words fail.

It is not important -
maybe -
to sing songs with painted words,
painted on retaining walls:
words nakedly in passion
hidden in the trees -
words I alone can sing-song!
Grenouille, bon ami,
a Frenchy from Poitou,
parents québecois et russe,
sets the scene and yells "action!" in his dream,
through winter and through spring
he wishes to love...
tears fail.

Perhaps - well,
it may not matter!
Perhaps - well,
I will merely sing of him,
Chikuhikun - The Axe,
who sat fearful now, his mouth closed,
in the madding crowd
and far, far away from man -
in solitude.
--
notes

grenouille  - a frog

Fast Day 268 July 21 2012 {Big Heart River}

Aerial View of the River's Mouth

Big Heart River

Hearts like fast canoes,
we portage where we haul the boats out
and move along the muddy trail,
until we come to the place where
the fish was caught that summer day.

Arms like cottowoods,
we unlade the fast canoes
into the small waters here, a mere
capful among the bull rushes;
we push them over white clay.

After many miles,
our breasts are covered in sweat
and our skin gleams in the setting
sun; we let our paddles run
to the place where houses are!

--
notes

Around and about Empire, Michigan

Fast Day 267 July 14 2012 {Be Still, My Heart}

A Saphiret Ring

Be Still, My Heart!

Oh, be still, my beating heart!
My love has gone away.
She said she's found another;
no longer can she stay!
I pawned my father's watch,
sold my mother's saphiret;
I gave her all my money...
be still, my beating heart!

May her memory disappear now,
and the odor of her hair!
my heart's endangered species,
a thousand miles of solitaire;
I suffered through my panic,
I endure the painful day,
I  walk the lonely nights;
Demon memory go away!

If we ever noonday meet,
if we stop to chat,
she's wears my old t-shirt now
and a yellow baseball cap;
I recall her clothes as lettuce leaves
tossed with my jeans on a chair,
in a salad of our passion,
mixed with gall and vinegar.


--
editing
11/12/2012 changed stanza 3 ll 5-6:
I recall them them (sic) as lettuce leaves
mixed with my clothes on a chair

and l 3:
 she's wears her shirt and jeans now,
 

Fast Day 266 July 5 2012 {I Did Not Forget...}

 Summer Holidays and Birthdays and Special Places

I Did Not Forget...

I did not forget your birthday, for I chose
to miss the feast of Punctuality,
an experiment in time to see
if anything would change -
but nothing did:
the world’s unchanging rumble, bouncing
off the subway tiles within my ears…
tedious eternity…

Dances and songs are born,
dances and songs die away;
Beauty will not last forever -
come along and see the stars!
Hey! Come along and dance!

Come here, my mother! Come here, my mother!
We are walking here; we are running here;
my younger brother and sister,
my younger brother and sister,
are crying now:
they think that they have lost their way:
sing them your intoxicating song,
a jewel from your Cretan crown!

This is the Father! This is the Father!
He comes in his nonchalant, ambling way,
looking very much preoccupied
by job reports and economic
information:
he will disguise his smile from us
until the very last minute, when
he scatters us with laughter!

Dances and songs are born,
dances and songs die away;
Beauty will not last forever -
come along and see the stars!
Hey! Come along and dance!

Older Brother and Sister coming along,
lightly bearing their wounds from casinos
of Afghanistan and of Iraq,
they keep their own private counsels
of their pain;
yet they come for the holiday;
they will dance, and they will sing
and will become nightingales!

Great-great-grandparents all across the street,
waiting for the infinite light to change,
straining to see their progeny:
is that my great-great-grandson there?!
great-granddaughter?
Waving to us like a great sea;
discarding death like a used Dixie cup,
they come to our birthday dance!

Dances and songs are born,
dances and songs die away;
Beauty will not last forever -
come along and see the stars!
Hey! Come along and dance!

--

Fast Day 265 July 1 2012 {Far Away}

Train From Far Away

Far Away

I come from Far Away,
where we drink the wine
even before the vines were created
in your Garden of Eden walmarts...
we do not wait for Creation!

You wear a plastic name
and speed about in steel,
dripping aluminium cobwebs
under the cowl of brilliant howling
immense and ponderous...

We eat the alien bread
baked in tholos shaped ovens
even before wheat was grown in fields,
but was only stars and rains of fire
that were our ersatz tears.

--
notes

Late getting this up; I was in terra incognita of the 1940s again.