(Three Poets 1983, Tim Dlugos far left)
For my mother: May 1928- October 2016
I'm watching colors
Surface in your eyes,
Hoping to
Draw them out,
-Draw Tim? Aren't you the
-Poet? Or are you
-Casting for
-A hook-up?
Everything that's yours
To share can be seen
Looking through
The windows,
-I've seen yours, you've seen
-Mine, show-er, grower,
-Inside tricks
-We've passed on;
'A painting is a
Window,' an image
Unlocked when
My eyes close,
-Imagine painting
-An unlocked window,
-Impressive,
-Zip half mast;
A graven image
Placed on an altar,
Beer altered,
Mortal sin,
-That's your confession?
-Left night's communion
-At happy
-Hour drunk?
A voice on the phone,
A boy by the voice,
A phony
Voice, a trick,
-Or treat, not a friend,
-A jerk, off from Wall
-Street, sauna
-Deposit;
Vision emerges,
Dick(ensian) steamed,
Supplicants
On bended...
-Padded knees, all hype,
-The Hope mined carrot
-Snowman knows
-Melts dead space;
Fingers walking, I
Canvass acquaintance
With the man
In my bed,
-The man who's stretched out,
-Primed, lubricated,
-Convinced there's
-Another;
Lieder from the dead,
Multiple Ethel's
Fry, torch song
Sing-a-long,
-Andy at the door,
-Cans strung, got rhythm,
-Mondrian
-Got voltage;
Got Broadway winding
Center to Dutch made
Landfill's edge,
Lodged on maps,
-No man is an island,
-Except Roosevelt,
-Reachable
-By F(oot) trains;
Stride Rite's back-to-school
Socks sheathed f(oot)prints a
Sizer slid,
Stockroom hedge,
-Shoes strung together
-Stolen by, lost to
-Roosevelts
-At your place;
Strong Place, net curtains
Drawn on fishermen,
Titan robed
Arsonists,
-Not Sirens, wailing
-As they lead, blind drunk,
-Into swamped
-Emotions;
Muscle braided arms
Extend from sweaters
Stitched with love,
On shore leave,
-Hauling impressions
-Scarred through the wringer
-Chewing sliced
-Wonder bread;
Empty calories,
We need meat, not seed
Cakes strewn for
The sparrows,
-A pecking order
-Imposed by a queen,
-Ruby flats,
-Wardrobe found;
Poet and painter,
Something old: voyage
Out, the boat
Sinks, or floats,
-Sketching denizens
-Of landlocked blocks their
-Greek, Roman
-Attributes;
Something new from the
End of season sales,
Picked over
By strangers,
-Holly Solomon,
-Aaron Berman, Charles
-Cowles, Magic
-Gallery;
Something borrowed: fruit
Streets; sacred texts; twelve
Steps, hold it,
Let it go,
-Time: pneumocystis;
-Tide: lunar nexus;
-Boy, boat, breath,
-Let it go.
28 October 2016
