Fast Day 54 June 13 2008 {Reading Blind Words}

Reading Blind Words

...reading blinded words, the white-out smears
racing the clock, no time to eat,
sun going down, yet no time to sleep;
swamped and perplexed, too many questions,
head spinning in tobacco haze.
I go out to walk in the chill.
The clouds rise up like tantric mountains:
gods of love and icy river's husky breath.
Geese go soaring and seek the sun.
Where could I find a pair of feathered wings
to join you in your flight?

Hurry, hurry, run to the airport;
late or early- flight's delayed.
There is no parking here close by - cold winds!
When did you say that flight's due?
Parking easy in the line of wilting passengers...
crumbling odiferous in the radiant heat.
Dizzy and distraught, too much to do!
Mind in somersault, year 2008 scare!
In a dream's summer night we stand
and watch our girl dancing in the rains!
I could not rest by another's breast!
I cannot breathe without your breath!
Ethel Thayer! Where are those golden wings
I need to plunge into the river?

Fast Day 53 June 6, 2008 {Kermis-Elephantine}

 Kermis-Elephantine

Kermis-elephantine the leaves come back;

no weed-whacker man may kill them.

Where they had been pushed, pulled, uprooted

and splintered in twain and left for dead in

a cemetery of wooden crosses...

yet they come back in spring, water'd

by the crude runes of acequias and water courses,

filled with sand and silted up, broken down

and breached, a flooded swamp of winter.

They grow now and the water will flow again, wide

pachydermous leaves of shade bearing parasols,

juvenile lady bugs praying at the muezzin's call,

and the queen again will walk through the garden

as ever before, walking through the fragrant flowers,

laughing with her entourage diaphanous fleeting lightly

until the ark of reeds is found again

and all eyes observe

and mankind grows thoughtful once more...