Fast Day 83: January 2 2009 {Gaza Crossing}

Gaza Crossing

Life is good, she said;
crazed old crone
cackling in her soup,
straining it through white hair
and the picket fence
of her lonely teeth.

It's better to be mad than dead,
better to be alive!
And upon the stoney slab to spread
a conjugate of love devised.

The mad men in a bedlam
testosterone bedewed
sheets and shirts
and dixie cups
where swallows live
and petrels brood.

It's better to be mad than dead,
better to be alive!
And upon the stoney slab to spread
a conjugate of love devised.

The sailors upon their ships
upon the silent sea
cannot inhale the saltiness
cannot speak their plea!
Eternity of drowned speech,
and dialect futility.

It's better to be mad than dead,
better to be alive!
And upon the stoney slab to spread
a conjugate of love devised.

Fast Day 82 December 26 2008: Christmas {The Houses}

CHRISTMAS 2008
The Houses


This will be my Susan's house...
but not in Toronto
not ostentatiously and aged
heavily stoned Victorian.
No. A Cape Cod upon a bluff
overlooking our ocean.

This will be my loved one's home...
but it will not be a cold house:
a drunk sipping at Toronto's margaritas
of icy streets with salted rims.
No. Each room a miniature of
Fezziwig's delight and
dancing young memories
apprentice to our love's custom!

This will be my Susan's refuge...
but it will be filled with light
inside as well as out,
and we shall have Christmas trees to tea,
and boughs and garlands
and ships from every land and sea.

Every corner filled with joy, and every
fireplace warms the soul,
and mirrors reflect the infinite delight
and damask curtains turn aside
the cold and draft
until exhausted dreams we fill!

Fast Day 81 December 19 2008 {The Trees}

CHRISTMAS 2008

The Trees

I used to be a tree,
and grew upon a hill;
I used to be arboreal
and deep roots immobile
I thought imprisoned me.
Then from a tangled thicket
I grasped a ring of lapis lazuli,
the joint of 2 bones, and pupil
of the brilliant eye, and was born
my parents most loved fruit
in a storm of heat at
the rising of the Pleiades.
Now...O, now, I see...
and I shall be
soon again a tree,
maenad queen of windswept hills;
pastor triumphant of animals
that flock the virginal
nativity's flash of light!

Fast Day 80 December 12 2008 {A Bank's Foreclosure Lullaby}

A Bank's Foreclosure Lullaby

We sent a notice of intent,
we know your money's almost spent.
there was no response, a lien was filed;
we shall beat you like a naughty child,
that indeed you are, needing
frequent changes and nightly feeding.
Please do not beg upon your knees;
compounding upon all late fees
the balance grows, it may account
for the debt of this incredible amount.
We are the judge, we are the jury;
beware, little man, beware our fury!

Fast Day 79 December 5 2008 {Uttar Pradesh}

On Returning Home From A Passage To India


I would rather flunk my Wasserman test,
than spend a night in Uttar Pradesh.

Fast Day 78 November 29 2008 {Botanical Classification}

Botanical Classification

wild saffron is carthamus, and it is a winged ant;
a calamity to the unwary, and a head rope
of fruity sweat.

the hound's tongue cynoglossum makes for
a giddy drunkard, or a ship reeling full
four sheets out.

ox-eye buys with ready cash, the boupthalmum
brotherhood of evil-eye and fine clothing, dew-laps
of oxen;
the combs of cocks;
the high places of sacrifice...o, I forget!
the meter, the cadence, the marching feet
of botanical madness and desire!

the amianthus is a ring without a stone,
weaver of ropes and weaver of dreams,
nightingale's song.

eglantine is the wild rose, dispersed through meadows far,
vanguard of Assyrians, troop of Darius, heresiarch religion
through Samarkand's paths!

Fast Day 77 November 21 2008 {Ramaad}

Ramaad

charcoal, ashes,
resurrect the glory of
any bright ringed bird!
The most wonderful adornment
is the gold and silver
chased upon my sword!...
and the oceanic inlet
between your breasts!
the tidal basin where life
was create by God alone!
no artifex needed, no engineer...
He sired the Universe!
the universe now
charcoal, ashses,