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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Fast Day 328 September 21 2013 Noontime Demon In Detroit




Noontime Demon In Detroit

As if I did not know,
as if I did not know;
the swarm of birds and the bad thing:
the boy and scorpio.

I did not stop to talk,
I did not stop to chat;
the Motor City Casino,
shiny dime girl and brat.

Great grandpa’s a doctor,
great gramma, she could sing;
he treated all the young ladies
for strychnine poisoning.

Big C gives you coughing,
Hep C gives you pain;
the bad things that come in the air
are tumors on the brain.

I do not drink no booze,
I do not smoke no sticks;
I am a Saint Leviathan
who beat upon the bricks.

As if you do not feel,
as if you do not see;
I will mechanically "combine"
you for the spider’s fee.

I dwell beneath the streets,
I dwell beneath the schools;
my graffiti sun is going down
as the summer cools.

Scorpion Street mem’ry,
I give you stone for bread;
and I shall give you sullen rock,
on which to lay your head.

--

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Fast Day 327 September 14 2013 Alice Bombay

Israeli director, Alma Har'el (right) with Benny Parrish on Bombay Beach



Alice Bombay

dogs, cats, and cigarettes;
dead soldier beer bottles
and floating booze;
dogs, cats, and cigarettes,
and cheroots soaked in water
burst open like a deathly flower.

the yacht club is a Stonehenge
with sun and shadow portals
and happy hour;
investment in the future,
can't-miss, dead fish capital
at the end of world war two.

Everybody on Bombay
Beach, well, they love everybody,
‘cept the nasty,
prejudice white guy here;
I will not change who I am;
I will not ever change my color!

The white guys are tilapia,
and they get too much sun,
too much by far,
ninety-four – a million died…
just fill up my ice and beer,
and I never gonna miss him, no.

Social Services will come
take the birds and fishes
and the wetlands;
dogs, cats, and cigarettes...
play my one-string mandolin,
my golden, golden thong.

--
late again.

Alma Har'el did a documentary on Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea, and that it the antipodes of the USA of Washington, Vegas, and Wall Street.

The voice in the poem is not hers, nor that of any one person in particular. I think it was supposed to change and mutate.

The voice changes as it becomes voices from the various documentaries I have seen on the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach and the neighboring communities. Everyone is talking in this poem, everyone.

The million dead are the tilapia fish, dead in 1994 "ninety-four"

--


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Fast Day 326 September 7 2013 Autumn Birthdays

Christina's Autumn World




Autumn Birthdays

Sweet scarlet and golden tanager;
blush of the peach,
red of the apple;
lover of little birds.

You who make the daylight appear,
of golden dawn,
of red sunset,
beautiful day walker!

Water-flowing-around-canoe;
phragmite islands,
glist’ning paddles,
beautiful morn sailor!

Sweet breeze of the on-shore wind;
hair of cumulus,
breath of cirrus,
veil of our protection!


---

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Fast Day 325 September 1 2013 Compass Points





Compass Points

on the road to Empire
west of Traverse bay
after you have climbed the ridge
of the farm with twin silos
with a fine transverse
conveyor at their very tops,

there is a bend in the road-
quickly discover
a piece of land trianglular -
wedge of a field
with a loom-like weave,
and shag tapestry of hops.

Romeo’s festival
of peaches ended
Sunday, and blueberries are scarce,
corn’s getting’ starchy…
swedes and white turnips
are the end of season crops.

Halloween coming,
followed by All Saints,
(it's Pumpkin Preservation Day!)
then thanks-feast of roots and gourds,
until Christmas time,
where annual full compass stops.



--
notes



Late getting this up; was at my mother's over Labor Day until Thursday... and no internet.

"swedes"  -  yellow turnips, rutabaga
"Empire"  - Empire, Michigan
"Traverse Bay"  - Grand Traverse Bay by Traverse City, Michigan

I forget which highway runs to Empire... I think it's 27 or 29 or something like that. There is a farm stand across the street from the farm with two silos and a cover connecting them, which I assume is a conveyor that can be switched from one silo to the other, as needed.

There is a hops farm. They have nets raised between posts, upon which the hops grow like vines.

A meditation on farming and the year past, started by remembering the hops being grown along the road to Empire, Michigan. As summer passes, we have blueberries this year on July 16, then the corn came in, then the peaches in Romeo, Michigan and the festival was September 1.
Then we go through the harvest time to the later feasts and stop end of year.