Fast Day 324 August 24 2013 Christina's Anniversary

 

Christina's Anniversary

all prospect of green pastures

are not withdrawn and hid from view,

for verily will we be led,

and certainly we shall be fed,

and the lilies of the field be

arrayed as beautiful as you.

we shall gather at the home

that grows beyond  the unused gate,

beyond the stream of waters still,

our friends, standing by the window sill,

trying to get Christina’s eye,

who lay upon the grass, sedate.

the late summer seed are white caps

of prairie grass’s fetch and wave;

she lay prone like a goldfinch child,

lost her way in windy wild;

good shepherd launch his rescue craft...

from world’s corruption he shall save.

--

Fast Day 323 August 17 2013 Nightmare Gardens

edited 8-20-2013

Nightmare Gardens

A grumpy demon of the forest haunted

the old root cellar that was beyond the bell vine,

near the old out-house made of wood

to which paint could not stick,

and fell in flayed strips in summer;

where the flowers swooned and paled,

and mildew spread its suffocating powder carpet,

below the bloat of bully and sullen bees

and yellow-jackets, both prisoners

of their poverty and religion :

being hard shell Anabaptists and missionaries,

whose uppermost apparel, coarse saffron striped,

no silk, satin, chamblet, nor taffeta in their gowns…

tired doublets and jerkins of their faith,

their stingers of certain disorders villainous -

evil and malicious against man’s presence;

embittered snakes that crawl along the garden,

see me and interrogate:  God save you, noble sir!

What are the secret whisperings? The grumblings

of the voles and slanders of the mice…

Is the old man gone?

I shouted:

Hieroglyphic animal!

Viper of old times!

Embosomed while envenomed in His very garden!

Serpent author of the books…

divided into four parts…

first, bees and wasps, and those that part the thorax;

then corn, wheat, barley, and ploughing;

Osiris’ tail-bone the third book,

and viticulture the last!

Begone! I cried, as I threw my staff at them.

And I sat down and wept,

weeping long for the past,

when demons hid grey among the ruins,

unseen in their weeds,
where the great marquees of vines
support the dark and sunless day,
creating baleful shadows in the deep recesses!

--
notes

"unseen in their weeds"  - the old expression "weeds" meaning "clothes"

This may be my father's garden, little attended since his demise, or it may be Eden after the Fall. I have always thought a demon inhabited the root cellar, and grew thin and taut until it could feast on blood or some near-blood items.
It used to frighten me, until I realized how much a prisoner it was, and how obsessed with a paltry existence it was.

Fast Day 322 August 11 2013 Back To Detroit

Heidelberg Street Art, Detroit

Back To Detroit

like virgins and doves
they tumble and turn,
dirigibles over the railroad tracks!

when mankind renews
begin life again,
built from the marvelous bones of our backs!

lessons from the weeds
at Ford Highland Park,
Studebaker sermons from sidewalk cracks!

we dwell in City Possibility,
between the future and the past,
and go to the end of the Greyhound line,
with Eden’s driver -  everlast!

---

notes

"backs"  -   refers to     جْبُ الذَّنَب and this is the "'ajab adh dhanab", or the miraculous bone of the back ("luz" in Jewish lore and probably the hieroglyph for Osiris)from which the body is renewed on the Day of Resurrection.

Fast Day 321 August 3 2013 Watch and Chain

Watch and Chain

As we closed up the cottage

he sat alone outside,

upon the old and mildewed bench,

just gazing at the sky;

I wondered if he would return

to look upon the cove;

I wondered then if he would see

another summer’s rose.

Don’t sell my daddy’s wedding ring,

don’t sell his watch and his chain;

don’t sit in the chair that he sat in;

it will only cause us pain.

Fishing lines he no longer knots,

leaving them apart,

he means to clean the tackle box,

but he does not even start;

the ensign and the helmsman

on the gangway of his mind;

he’s walking to the Navy yard:

all memories behind.

Don’t sell my daddy’s wedding ring,

don’t sell his watch and his chain;

don’t sit in the chair that he sat in;

it will only cause us pain.

--