Canto XV

 

. . . aber ich fürchtete mich doch

            noch viel mehr vor dem bloßen

wunden Kopf ohne Gesicht

 

            you’d sip the holy cup that Pan swills

like a short pint from Murphy’s Pub in Brookline

            on Harvard            it simply bares fin dee sickle

 

like Indy girls thrown aside as each Quest’s won

            like Tiger Lily and Wendy and Tink his Mórrigan

his Internet Discount            his Shadow            like Bond girls

 

            still in the thrall of martinis

emotionless without hope            unable to jog

            themselves free from rocky coasts

 

John Harrison invented their exit wound

            ticking like Hook’s clock inside the croc

the Empire awakened by a gear

 

            so when Pan looks at his Shadow

he believes he is different from his father

            because all is reversed and he believes

 

he’s free from statements of service or bills of lading

            casinos entrance him            King George awaits

the large chalice waits empty for his ballot

 

            ubiquity breeds contretemps

heaven has a place for him—hell

            Pan’s Shadow works everywhere

 

rigmarole defines everyday

            everyone clouds            everyone fusses

Wendy binds his heart to her

 

            Pan’s Shadow is so huge she stretches

from one dining room at 21 to the other table

            at Maxim’s–poking at her coq au vin

 

–her hair is as long as the Tiber

            her feet are as large as Sardinia

her hands can grasp the Rockies            throttle Coors

 

            who else would center on supper

as a piece            a skit            a 2000-year-old

            recipe of bread and wine

 

Fort Collins collapses                      jets wing to UK

            academy graduates collect at Galway

the Shadow rises from Tara            fear of Danu

 

            cliffs rugged posing above Atlantic

swells               one fort at the edge            souls

            weeping there              fear of Badb

 

The One who trailed Tiger Lily       who slyly

            speared her while she coveted Trojan

armor               who snuck upon her

 

            This One’s father Admiring his Son’s

deviousness            this One’s mother Admiring her Son’s

            lies            Him Hiding behind a bush

 

His Steed curtained by Spears sharpened at His Son’s

            smithee            roaring            falling off the cliffs

hundreds sacrificed to Maeve the Unsated

 

            reformist leanings            allegations            credentials

Offer Expires Apr 1 or While Supplies Last!

            hundreds sacrificed to mail-in-rebates

 

the Shadow offers hope unlike her apologists

            who vend battles in heaven

the Shadow offers peace and a free meal

 

            Duna Feadhreagh appearing at dusk

faeries mounted on butterflies buzzing the trenches

            faeries on beetles assaulting the Dublin PO

 

only the desire to sell the illusion

            keeps the illusion alive            only the need

to enrapture the believer endures

 

            the power to break free from illusion

learned at seminary            enrolling the unchurched

            learned at seminary                   necessity of lies

 

have no fastness until broken upon

            the wheel of war            The One uses Lost Boys

to enliven his legions’ fearlessness

 

            when Pan looks at his reflection

he believes he is different from his father

            because all is reversed and he believes

 

then dies because the mirror image

            lies            neither the image of our mind

nor the face torn from paintings

 

            can testify   self-portraits drawn

backwards as others truly see us not

            drawn from mirrors but projected

 

the Shadow’s deeds do not mirror ours

            our crosses hang as banners at war

with charity                   our shadows’ deeds entrenched

 

            Spiral Minaret of Samarra                       evidence

exploding around it            then finally wounded

            army fire       shot through the temple

 

jagged crystals of salt hide a wave of flavor

            with a crisp clean saltiness that recedes

leaving a floral whisper on the tongue

 

            Pan insane   Pan brain flavors sweet

then bitter            Pan hammering at the mirror

            sd/ “Let me in”   grave            rose

 

the Shadow pursues Pan on her Toshiba

            the Shadow pursues Pan on her Toshiba

the Shadow pursues Pan on her Toshiba . . .

 

            XBOX malloc()/free() implementation

is also storing control information inbound and is similar

            to the Windows 2000/XP heap allocators

 

this wasn’t a shock:  Bucky sd/ “da Vinci, inventor

            of the mechanically gyp-proof whore-house”

Sit Down Please              last orders

 

            the net of longitude and latitude

ensnaring continents with centuries to live

            out the carnage            Charlie’s Angels

 

donne innominate sacrificed to Maeve the Unsated

            numberless gods sacrificed to XBOX

Pan sacrificed to Windows 2000/XP the Unsated

 

            please accept these stickers as a token

of our appreciation for your support

            Culture of Life sacrificed to tokenism

 

The Culture of Life shamanized by Hook

            the Shadow pursues the One who struck

down Tink in His quest for Empire

 

            the Shadow’s arrow flies true to his heart

and he breathes at last               equilibrium

            the Shadow’s arrow flies again

 

Pan becomes the anti-shaman

            descrying surprise and perversity

and peerlessness            soldiering by exhaustion

 

            Lost Boys in the Kush

by the tick tock of the clock Wendy will

            sew our shadows on

 

she is our immurata sister

            hers an empty world                 she miserable!

which way shall she fly?

 

Canto XVI

 

 

            Perchè non reggi tu l’appetito

Dé mortali      Baby, one more time

            For my peace of mind

 

Wasting away through siege-works

            Descrying surprise and perversity

Two ways to fight       in your face

 

            Frontal assault             or sneaky crawly

Up your ass envelopment        or two ways to fight

            The sickness of free market capitalism

 

Baker’s man    George II         or as fast as toucan

            Yreka ordinals            or back to Plano

Part of the tribe           or Austin City Limits

 

            Rewrite beautiful by retyping

I don’t need to deconstruct

            Ugliness in order to tell beauty

 

They all pitch in          :–make it one for my baby

            Then leave when their wives have cancer

Write well       die young

 

            The world is blind and thou art

In it                  trapped in the cave      enit

            Lit from behind            shadows

 

As statues        as monuments              cards

            Dealt show Death        The Hanged Man

Haman hoist on his own wrath            beati pacifici

 

            And one more for the hard pan road–:

Designed and used by Romans and other ancients

            For horses and carts

 

Cannot safely support vehicles traveling

            In excess of fifteen miles per hour

Much less two-way traffic

 

            Insurance was not crafted

To solve anything ‘cept the insurer’s

            Lack of cash flow

 

Mixing the insured’s problems

            With equity investments

Only creates more problems

 

            Crosses the banker’s eyes

A frontal assault          binocular

            Two ways to fight

 

Drunks wander down Orange

            Then up Pine to bus their woes

To LakeBonoVista and the Xmas show

 

            Fireworks and Jesus rocked

Back and forth against thunderheads

            Gathering in the west               Pale

 

Hotels glittering and palms afire

            Frost lighted with supine

Homeless scattered     beyond the Pale

 

            One one-legged with Tiny Tim

Crutch clutched beneath arm

            Pit his spare some . . .

 

Snare some                  bake me a cake

            Gators wandering past the Citrus

Club with two-fisted

 

            OJ pouring vodka pouring

Man unmanned supine

            Against Jesus bus

 

Only the World Cup distracts

            Only the Twins hitless

Only the Magic spells

 

            One and all to Lake Nona

Brits expatted              patty-cake patty-cake

            Do I have to draw your picture?

 

Pull your tooth

            Show your scar

Roll your sleeve

 

            Choke your pretzel

Tattoo your titties

            Shrimp your shrink

 

Box your ears

            Scar your sphincter

Roll your rug

 

            Lower your ears

Fictionalize your memoir

            Orientalize your rap

 

Remember your lies

            Lie down with dogs

Dog your steps

 

            Step on your crack

Crack your momma’s back

            Devo your Reba

 

Tire your rose ann

            Mac your knife

Heath your heather

 

            Do I have to draw you a picture?

Bottle deposit fee        load/no load

            Murder by a thousand cuts

 

The idea that human beings group to survive

            That sometimes they fail

Argonauts        rejection of Medea

 

            Iceni                rejection of Boudica

Tories              rejection of Thatcher

            Agriculture Counts!

 

Corn rows       pone    hominy             posole

            Short Pump                  Pocahontas

Rejection of Powhatan            poke-a-honcho

 

            Neverland to devil-land

Unbidden but driven

            Belle & Sebastian       Primal Scream

 

Make Crystal the bartender

            Instead of Mitch          Milo’s brother

Does financial analysis for the studios

 

            I have to write notes

To tell which ones to go to dome

            The way mystique rhymes with mistake

 

The way we hanker after chocolate

            The way binary code doesn’t

Resemble dots and dashes

 

            Rewrite mystique by retyping

I don’t need to deconstruct

            Mistake in order to tell Milo

 

To pitch in      

            Then leave when Ken Lay gets cancer

Write dots       die dashing

 

            There’s really no difference

Between childlike and childish

            Between playful and played out

 

Will we be ashamed in heaven

            Will we have Guinness

Will we still eat Christ’s body

 

Canto XVII

 

 

O isplendor di viva luce

etterna            what smile can outshine

an afterlife made only of rays

 

not particles—energy not mass

dispersed         like water droplets

from splashed tears but beams

 

blown outward            as sunlight

or reflected as moonlight

or as flame      as fire fanned

 

the wind blows through the grass

on the plains and seems like waves

over the ocean flowing

 

endless shimmering undulating

like the grave overgrown stones buried

sorrow buried under snow

 

repetition pirated from sleep

sleep filigreed with eyepatches

parrots filigreed with repetition

 

Hamlet parrots Polonius

Polonius patches Laertes

Laertes pirates sleep

 

I patch Hamlet—nephew to the king

endless sheets shimmering ghosts

the wind blows through the ghosts

 

the plains of Denmark march to sea

Denmark seems like undulating stones

buried beneath the hamlets

 

grave grave grave where is thy virtue

trapped beneath the hamlets’ sorrow

buried under snow

 

Lwow emptied            Birin emptied

cannons silent now      the dead are dry

frozen to dirt    ditch dug

 

shells whining over     it’s over

the shells whining over           overover

roger that         10-4     and out

 

bombs away    ducks away geese

wild away while away out away

way over roger roger rogered

 

simply gruesome Roger as his

sons never grew some more or less

worse than the Princes in the Tower

 

celluloid given over to lasers

klieg lights given to digital LEDs

bits of bits       stage bizness

 

the business of man is death

and Beer Nuts              wait

the business of man is death

 

and Hallmark licensing with that little

crown dancing above the logo

like a halo on crack     wait

 

the business of man is death

like Behrens and Buda and Pest

zaftig   censor censure cinosure          wait

 

crown beneath Princess and pea overhead

vic vers           sync sent like a napkin

on Burger King’s hallowed head

 

the century spent          April thunder

Jesus, Mary, where’s Joseph?             Easter,

mister, put your sell where the get is

 

miser, Midas, geld meld and shoulder Minos

pass over, man, send the shine

where lambykins went

 

Ghent, bent, French relent then walk

away    Quebec rent     wait

let wind and rain and hail go high

 

one thing doesn’t mean another

“nations of birds” doesn’t mean Cuba

Tibet and Syria don’t mean eagle

 

crow or hawk each with colors

mottoflagstatebirdflower bird of prey

dove of peace  bird on a wire

 

Bird Parker Richard fecking Wilbur

Derek fecking Walcott “lark

avoid the reaches” like smartass

 

bitches “doves return” knock at the door

and ring the bell          ill wind

unhappiness gross fodder ailments circle

 

after Hadyn listened

to “climbing up the walls”

he told me that this was insanity

 

“no this is the future,” I said

born out of Shoah        born out

sink lower       drum drum drum

 

Christ is not saying we should eat Him

He is saying we should eat each other

for as loving as we are

 

we are already eating each other

we are already drinking our blood

we shouldn’t drink His blood

 

because we are swollen piggish

from swilling each other ovenovenoven

who has oven oven oven oven

 

smoking cheddar Europe white sharp

golden ozone chimney sweeps

douse the fire with their own teen teens

 

Christ is not saying, “eat me beat me

seat me we eat” see, we eat, see

the tunnel to the terminal collapses

 

the jet plane has to stop

stop the jet the plane tender PIG

rasher streaky and butt end

 

heads made from skin

karma sunk too far inside to find

canvas for paint           canvas for tent

 

Lodz emptied               Lublin emptied

canvas dripping           canvas speckled

out she comes as white as snow

 

game on           Highgate East Cemetary

bronze Marx the spot   West is Rossetti

your brain is more active sleeping

 

than it is watching television whose hell

is open admission        Swedenborg’s hell

was rude huts  Dante’s hell, an upsidedown

 

Babel   Dionysus, a mountain cave

Napoleon, Trans-Siberian Railway caboose

Descartes, me me me me me

 

Elton John, The Edge on Soho Square

Harry Potter, The Wallace Collection

Irving T. Bush, Bush House     wait

 

chicken guarding the foxes

ipso facto        parental probity

essential amiability     —hell

 

Canto XVIII

 

an quod amantes non longe

a caro corpore abesse uolunt?

[sister stillborn            brother stillborn]

 

even you, O Queen, inseparable,

lost, given to unity, given RED

but lost in BLUE, lost, lost, lost

 

was ist los mit meinem Korper?

adulation broken upon ululation

as tongues sprung tiny twists

 

“But whoso hath this world’s good

and seeth his brother have need

and shutteth up his bowels

 

of compassion from him

how dwelleth the love of God

in him?”           Lamantia, the preromantic

 

the buzz saw of liberal pluralism

the Rorschach of secular reason

the claret of deliberative democracy

 

was Titian felled by leopards?

why the calf’s head, the snakes?

what chariot without Bacchus?

 

TurnerFire       (Rothko)          TurnerFire

—something profound in Arles

minus an ear    minus a clove

 

“Ask not what your country can do

for you             ask what you can do”

minus an ear    minus a clove

 

Lamantia, the preromantic with pelicans

roaming over his profile          versifying

over his profile like angels

 

on crack           “the bastards” fall

why won’t Kurt step on the baseline?

hatha curse      bag of cloth and herb and oak

 

would you paint your nails red

your brown legs hands arms

sheathed          would you tease

 

your hair plant your fake lashes

ruddy cheeks   red lipstick

princess of the islands             ruler

 

sing thrush       sing lei lani

grass shack      macaroni salad

Wakiki             kim chi summer

 

ala moana        if in five years

submerged       if the volcano

blows              if typhoon covers

 

would you paint the rocks

or pull the slick moss and seaweed

from beneath the west shore

 

pumice             coral    welks   snails

currite ducentes subtegmina, currite, fusi

swimming through tide pools              grass skirt

 

salt      sea green drift foam bubbling

as your laughter sprinkled with sand

towel off then paint my face    Jack of Hearts

 

TexasHold-em            da sch’port of Kings

stranded in El Paso or San Anto’ne

stuck like Max & Ferdie in francophone

 

chop chop dialed into Dantone

chop chop dialed into Hebert

chop chop dialed into Louis

 

even you, O Queen, inseparable,

lost, given to unity, given RED

but lost in BLUE, lost, lost, lost

 

“Honest to God, I don’t have

a problem with the Guard

as soldiers—I just don’t like

 

their helmets” von Ribbentrop in ribbons

Kafka in caftan            Kahn in curtains

Polonius behind the curtains    O Queen—

 

Goebbels with his sword—

Kamerad Stalin napping abed

—and hand forged pendant in solid silver

 

order before noon get them the next day—

(jury duty is your civic responsibility . . .)

“It never is for anything, the sacrifice”

 

trout diva trout diva trout diva

Dubai souk Dubai souk Dubai souk

shade piano shade piano shade piano

 

the poor will always be with us

so why not invite them to dinner?

what are we gouging each other for?

 

when we could just as easily

(spare change—busking is best)

give each other a break—cut them some slack

 

snakebit           ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’

“Every man a king”     a Crow in your own hut

“When you want to know more”          Rosetta

 

tip jar on the console   songs   piano

kara—OK in Oakland with cousin’s

nextdoor neighbor       swell guy         —OK

 

isn’t it grand? they never understand

chuck Benefiber PLUS calcium

no water required!  hunger pains —OK

 

shy war why are shy war why are shy war

the secret knowledge of secrecy

how we are all a secret to each other

 

sweat palm oasis dry undine

kelpies tighe tengu piskies

merrows lob kolbalds guriuz

 

sync sent          gossamer biplane

Ease-of-Use Commendation

contact a poison control center

 

copper in the penny costs more

than a cent       fuel in orbit

fuel on terroir  fuel with landscape

 

Prince Albert in a can has notions

of Aix en Provence without navy

without army only Blackjack

 

Morgan horse made for calvary

but one survives Greasy Grass

with seven arrows bristling

 

Grace Kelly in High Society then higher

her son a rascal yet kingly comity

not sour as El Cid but forthcoming

 

like—something profound in Arles

minus an ear    minus a clove

as ye do hang, hang bane to choke

 

let me eat dainties—O Queen

of Connacht     then empty my RED

—then fill me with BLUE

 

 

Canto XIX

 

Print Your Own Money! declare your self

UR-self:  a nation freed from 3 dimensions

as Spinoza sd/ “harems are paradise”  hoo ahh

 

and when Porush won that fellowship

at MIT he spent the money

on a Camaro and unveiled it

 

at his grant party          “my project,”

he sd/ and promptly schwittered

away to the Combat Zone        eyes

 

in bottles like in Blade Runner

bottles of whisky like in Blade Runner

broken bottles like in Apokalips Now

 

eyes that the Air Force has decided

to alter by grinding instead of slicing

the cornea because G forces might

 

skim the goo right out the sockets

like so much jizz that Green River

killer in WA provided so many

 

so many “I had not thought death had”

done up so many in ribbons and bows

until I saw Night Watch           are vampires

 

really all that bothered by AIDS

seeping into the blood supply or is it just

another UR-bane Legend like the kidney

 

thief or the dude with the hook

for a hand or the UFO bobbing past

Arthur Godfrey strumming his ukulele

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking them somewhere

 

Bucky’s balls aren’t    the problem

it’s his feckin’ homerunthatdents

my fens don’tcha know            hoo ahh

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking me somewhere

 

oblivion waste sobbing waning

death sweeps all aside sleeping

the small drum thrumming along

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

they’re taking them away from me

 

Francesi          cocks and clocks

hands and numbers      pissoir

battalions march out

 

Somme return  others don’t

Napoleon’s troops have hit

sack and G. Kahn’s men, dormez ‘vous?

 

Tamurlane’s boys tucked

Cairo’s Sphinx unearthed abed

Darius sunk     Syracuse unmanned

 

Sun rises          Sun sets           life circles

the drain          born to rise but sent to die

three days later rising son

 

blind poet        blind seer blind

vagabond nursing a bottle of gin

odor of Ajax and shine of Mr. Clean

 

strong clan       blond muscled blond

though beauty swells beneath skin

Dog Star staring at him through eons

 

eddies of the universe dark energy

flowing in the main tributaries

matter tossed aside yet streaming

 

poems are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking them somewhere

 

where we can’t go

and if we can’t find them

then the drugs will find us here

 

where they left us because we

wouldn’t take the drugs that took

them somewhere else and someone

 

else will give the drugs away before we

get a chance to refuse them to show

how permanent we are like concrete

 

while they are more like birds

or maybe pigs that fly or ducks

that won’t anymore because they’re

 

high on becoming fois grais or eggs

that come home to roost           hoo ahh

like eggs that come first           hoo ahh

 

or maybe WE took the drugs before they

could and that’s why they were wrong

to take the drugs away from us

 

because now we can’t find them anymore

even though they look like concrete

birds or pigs or ducks or eggs

 

onthetownonthetownonthetownonthetown

with Federman and oysters and Milton

[Friedman jerking off butterflies]

 

at the Barley Sheaf Farm Estate & Spa

with Hans Arp and twenty horses

pulling a brewer’s hearse through Satie’s

 

gym nasal tones           hoo ahh           Lily

Tomlin has no accent no accent

nasal tones yes but no accent

 

proto human at the Improv

superperbian plebes emboldened

proto frightened simians at the Cellar

 

Door where there is no Orgone Box

hidden beneath the stage’s trap door

nor even a crystal ball nor Weegee

 

at the ICP nor Wild Strawberries

at the Met only ‘what ifs’ following

Madame Blavatsky through the curtains

 

—Iceland is like Scotland with fiery

rocks flying and brimstone and sheets

of lava sweeping into the sea  hoo ahh

 

flooded panoramas swept       pine

cones’ petals sprinkled amongst twigs

and needles green sparkling in sunshine

 

clouds swing —oceans of clouds rolling

over hills Mount Wachusett     —adieu!

red flowers cut between sage

 

seeds blown about dandelions’ froth

breath of powder pine pollen clouds

sprinkling of locust leaves —acorns

 

clinking the car’s roof —lilacs

smoldering day lilies firing as flames

then out:  brown petals droop

 

—fences vary from stone to farm

railing to picket to wire hung

with bunting background for phlox

 

with UFO bobbing past —declare your

cocks and clocks —hands and numbers

dormez ‘vous?  harems march out