Fast Day 229 October 22 2011 {Coleman Young's Funeral}

Coleman Young's Funeral
(On a Friend's Funeral)

The many colored uniforms
of autumn line the street,
as we zouaves ramble on,
bearing him to Elmwood;
a telephone directory
of names and tears of your family -
they'll meet you on the other side
as now you fly away!

They came running to tell me news -
I’d heard it on the vine –
radio novelties all day
of our cold jubilees.
On wings of song you will soon lie
amid Egyptian sarcophagi
between neo-classic temples…
marching round Jericho!

--
notes

Coleman Young  -  Mayor of Detroit,1974 to 1993

Elmwood - famous Detroit cemetery

zouave - soldiers, French and others, who wore colorful uniforms; three syllables pronounced zoo-AH-vee.
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Welcome to Friends

There are four friends to welcome:

chubby..^_^.. aishiteru(n_n)..

Jan Preben Andersen

CoffeeTeaMandarin

alex.dejoy

and it's nice to see their avatars hanging out.

I have been in low gear for a while. This entire century has been a bummer! I hope that when we come to the end of the century no one can say the same thing. That's why friends are so good: smooth over the rough patches on the black-top of life.

Fast Day 228 October 15 2011 {Drums}

Drums


That drum is Haitian
of African descent,
comes from Danhomey
and Native American
is this drum here
between my legs I play.

It is three days since
I have tasted music;
it is three days gone
I have drunk water,
and I am drawn taut,
like this tight drum skin!

I see fireflies
under your hair
and your teeth as white
as freshly bit apples:
it's for you, it's for you
I play this here drum.

I sleep with you,
the evening star;
I wake with you,
the morning star:
in an old house
down by Wayne State U.

we were billboards,
wearing shades,
selling rum and smokes:
rather drive a rag top
and stand up and dance -
East Grand and Jefferson!

Belle Isle summer days
of war-like birds!
and island summer nights
of preening, dancing
and display... drumming
mischiefs in our dreams!

--
notes

Danhomey  -  a variant of Dahomey

rag top - convertible

East Grand and Jefferson  -  the entrance to the Belle Isle Bridge is there.
--

Fast Day 227 October 9 2011 {Detroit Buses We Can't See}

Detroit Buses We Can't See

Waiting for the morning bus
like yelling into an empty tin can

there is no food in there,
so it does no good to yell for it!

Cold and standing at the corner
of Woodward Ave. and Morning Blues,
waiting for the Detroit DOT
is a harsh charcoal reality.

We stand and wait like toy soldiers
a child forgot to put away…

or water bottles along the curb:
convex kaleidoscope decay!

There is a vacant lot nearby,
could we not roto-till the soil
and plant that fallow ground
and grow corn and okra while we wait?

The DPDub won’t interfere
and there’ll be no bus to, either!

But maybe the’re buses all along,
but only we can’t see them:

This gritty curb’s a cyclotron
that accelerates to light speed,
and our life is an experiment
for mankind’s betterment:

Neutrino buses of no mass,
like ghosts of physics in the night:

dancing on Woodward and John R,
tripping on Magic Street and MLK!

Can’t see those ghostly buses driving -
going through our bodies, going through
the Burger King, and it’s only by
hamburger scatter we know at all…

a diesel heart is beating blood
for casino arteries,

a diesel lung is breathing soot:
harsh ebony reality.

--
notes

convex kaleidoscope =  the rounded bottles reflect light like a k-scope.

the're   =    "there are"  pronounced "there"

DPDub = DPW Department of Public Works, “Dub” is short for “Double U”

this needs a lot of work yet.

hamburger scatter - in particle physics, some elementary particles are only inferred by the "scatter" they cause on other particles.
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