Buying up egg rolls at 50¢ a kick,
they royally entered our bloodstream
--a riot of sensation
akin to dynamite caps
kicked off in the brain.
Later, sitting in the booth
a chocolate brown wall
to aid the digestion;
a frumpy waitress
plunks water down
to complete the feast.
Taken back, the surcharge
at such festivities exorbitant,
we squander in exact change
the full price to do it again.
[49]
THE CROWKEEPER
"she gallops night by night through lovers' brains...."
I see grindstones in the sky,
pots of tulips overturned
--big tug of the reins
and chestnut hair
is seen before the windowpane
with chance & more chance lost to
frost or hungry bees
this still autumn eve.
Darling,
walls that division us
are envelopes of passion
bridging trust, seal it
lest it rust.
Skeletal scrapings
make for poor bedding
(this poor rhinoceros of lies)
the devil gliding about so disguised
on his tentacle and toenail chair
(inviting lair) or is it
hiccup and bandaged prayer
yet stalwart wall is a rosary bead
thick ale and bread to hungry snail
or, better, lips to Romeo's blushing pilgrims.
Then, sudden, I'm old--
on a bench counting stars
where each is a radiant patch of energy
leased to the dark,
an emblem burst mailed from eternity,
spark to cigaret's flame
to burn these little suns
as cupid tails; your "bright eye, scarlet lip,
fine foot, straight leg
and quivering thigh."
[50]
CUANDO-CUBANGO
Moths, if they dream dusk,
sport esurient hip-flasks on their wings--
gangster rum-runners better to sully dark,
traverse caravans of colour
amid silk-routes
to dazzle Prester John,
cork unscrew the unicorn horn askew.
2
Compte de la Mothe
escadrilles/flotillas
D'Entrecasteaux
with Bougainville discovering
well, Bougainvillaea and I,
latter day la Perouse,
cunningly amuck on coral
adoration and wine,
(red as scarlet leaves)
chenille, frangipanni and the Marquis house colours
of the flame-bitten tropics.
3
Let me scandalize why.
Watch the sea churn
to white bubbles then coat
your nostril with brine
to run a finger
down brown skin passing
for the Bronze Age.
4
Notice the invention of sun,
a cloak suspended
in a canopy-canoe profusion
(left over from the first dawn,)
oasis of calm,
patter of motes and beams.
Garden of Shalimar.
5
My sentiments exactly.
[51]