There is a season to yell

written and read aloud in the UAE, 2009

 

There is a season to yell

And there is a reason to smell

Long have you waited

How have we have learned

 

Now is the time

The time to burn

 

The desert is hot

Hot hot hot.

Let’s walk

yes, let’s walk

Into a wind of fire

Lets close our eyes

And lean

Lean into the heat

 

And think of lemonade

 

Lean long into the past

And dream of hot chocolate

Warm dry clothes

frosted windows

apple pie

 

and

A really good book.

 

Oh may he live in infamy

This poem was written in 2009 and performed at a seminar at UAEU to promote reading literacy

 

Oh may he live in infamy

In the poorest of neighborhoods

In Anatolie

 

where so it goes.

 A lost time it was,

a wonderful moment,

forever funny

but never nervous

we walked into the fire to see…

a chance to crawl out.

 

What is there to eat?

and you sit down at the empty counter

and order a steak. 

Medium rare. 

No one is there. 

It is early. 

or it is late.

it is dark

you get up

brush your teeth

“and history slips into my thoughts

like a distant call

from love far away”

and you slap yourself

see the horror

…did we really do it? 

Santa Maria

 

but so it goes.

Time has stopped 

your order never made it to the kitchen. 

I get up and find the cook is dead. 

Someone

stuffed the cook in the kitchen in the microwave

with your steak

and au gratin pototaoes

your salat

with crunchy tomatoes. 

Outside again

Bending into a hellish wind

like a kid caught in

a Gitchigomee gale

eyes closed,

hand over mouth,

I walk backwards for ten minutes. 

a desert ruthlessly clean

in twenty minutes

the charred remains will disappear. 

Nowhere to escape the cutting air ,

no place to hide

pins and needles

pounding

pounding

Then it stops. 

Blowing sand falls

Like a finished fight

from the sky,

A blue sky

And look, behold,  a mall. 

We snake through the car park

full of old BMW’s

Into

cool refreshing air, 

and shake off a pound of sand

for a pound of flesh 

Never nervous

Never wanting

Always helpful

Last in line 

Today you have 50 million dirhams. 

I drew an island

written in Huizou, China, 2005

I drew an island on the board

“egg”

I heard about four students behind me.

Yes, I am the fried egg

Looking for my island. 

One day I scribbled an automobile

From a birds eye view

One with four circles for tires

One a stick figure of the same

 

Then there was a horse

an ugly mutation

of beaver mixing it up with an aardvark

Bringing howls of protest, scorn

And thirteen year old ridicule.

 

Boats are ok with their triangle masts

I can do a canoe

But put a human near it

And it’s time to wonder

Comedy

Confusion

Consternation

 

To show where my th’s came from I drew

 A grotesque head from the side

With big teeth

Open wide

And a zucchini tongue

Protruding out

The es sound demonstrated

Where the vegetable muscle

Slithers down this abomination.

 

But everyone laughs. 

Khaki cuisine

 Written in Huizou, 90 minutes north of Hong Kong, in 2005.

A table full of khaki colored food

her eyes misinform

remain aloof

and my questions

of love, innocence

baby fish fall

weightlessly in smoggy air

 

Surrounded by storied masses

High into gray skies,

in a caged sanctuary

with one dying plant,

 tiny turtles

hump slow and long

sustained

in a green plastic bowl

with rocks

 

Contentment

For ones who live

In their shells.

Along the Genesee

They found the body along the Genesee

Almighty God we gotta leave

Under the High Falls in the wood

This funeral, this time, now, the hood.

I’m so mad

I got no money for the lease

That boy was sixteen

His name was Datrice

There isn’t enough coffee to drown my loss

Covered in thick, slimy green moss

They wanna evict me I got nowhere to go

Please, can you help me please, St. Joe.

I can’t end up in the muddy river

But maybe that’s my way out

Goodbye fear, I can’t deliver

A home for my family, food not a sliver

At home with the Lord I plea

In the fallen ninth ward

Along the Genesee. 

transcending

Transcend the age

rise up, come back, and do it again,

great sage

clear the head, breathe deep sweet ripe air

no room out 

now you’re caged,

where’s your opposite.

I am good, sin inexorably swims

universal suffering sighs

when daylight dims,

silence hearkens

nature sings,

a tranquil song

in the melody

where we belong

peace, shanti shalom-salaam

so long my love we are gone

Igjugarjuk

A little boy walks through the room full of trees
and steps up to the counter
too innocent to be homeless you whisper o Lord
I know what he wants without a word
a bagel,
and takes one from the top of the pile
clean cerulean eyes, a  toothless smile
says thank you in silence and walks out of the forest,
We are moved to tears.

My sister finally died
I held her in my arms, 'I love you'
she whispered, and slipped away.
Be strong you say, she was only 30
There are two little kids now without a mother
I need God to get through this but who is God the little ones ask.  I don't know.
Why did God allow it to happen
It's not fair to the children, Dammit! Why must I live?
You gotta light?  I'm not well with this one at all,
I'm surely not right.

Doug and Louise
quarrel outside
Mother and son need all the help
the gentle touch
a charitable squeeze
put down your guitar, brother, be slow to speak
don't touch that food, sister, for their is plenty.
"God has kept me alive
They cut open my heart, right in two
so I survive
to sue the pants off the landlord
who evicted me."

Let us pray to the Lord
Lord hear our prayer

"True wisdom lives far from mankind, out in the great loneliness, and can be reached only through suffering.  Privation and suffering alone open the mind to all that is hidden to others."  Igjugarjuk


 

who is you

Let us have no contempt for the man
who is down
who lays forlorn
on the forest ground,
keep compassion and mercy still
when desire is greater than ones daily fill.
Give freely to all who enter
no despair or ego
inhibit God's splendor.
Remove such vanity, be humbled and true,
be gracious and discern
speak no gossip of the man
who is you.

strangling sun

Where do you go when ugly rain falls?
darkness fills, a collective sigh
in St. Joes it's nine o five,
Larry shaves one head and then another
a moment of calm
before "HEY, you mother..."
dominos slam
do you understand
 a man
with no teeth when he shouts,
where is the silence
unleavened spirits roar
rippling through flesh
no peace Lord, the war
never ends
2000 years
is only two days?
feels like a ruse
strains virtuous praise
strangling sun rays
bring us home
to your Godly ways.

 

The bread maker

I don't need to repent no more
drifting in, drifting away
God is good, God is great.
But o my Lord
what do I hate
are the mass of men
at the shelter gate
no hope to change
no mind to see
from day to day, it's 8:30
where is the hope, that Blessed Hope
here, buddy, here's the black coffee, sugar, ah well, nope 
we got some bagels and muffins for you as well,
let's pray our souls aren't found in hell
for questioning and dissing the omniscient Creator,
the almighty and powerful the one Bread maker

Compassion and respect what can we do
Lord have mercy,
have mercy on you.

Chinese willow

Jaysus,  why don't you please us
death is so, contagious
ain't no one can avoid
such long arms of His Gracious.

Everything's a blessing, honey
No, I don't eat no macaroni
too much salt ya know
it'll kill me dead
but before it's read
Here lies a saint and a sinner
no powerball winner
let me just say
I am no quitter,
Just a meal and pillow
if there is no room
I know where to rest
under a Chinese willow,
behind the garage
where I am a hero
with my friends and drifters
along the four nine zero.