Raymond Foye 30 January 2021

                   (Raymond Foye 1981)

Watched from behind the

Scenes, as Bob, Rene,

And Eric, 

Imploded,

     -Dodged pose, pressed into

     - Paper edge, shaken

     -When fledglings

     -Hit concrete;

I can't sleep on floors,

Bum cigarettes, beg 

For my food

On the streets,

     -Wisecrack with wordsmiths

     -Wearing their prep school

     -Blazers to

     -Drink cocktails;

Got to be outside  

Of my head to hear

Oracles

Proclaiming,

     -Coffee shop windows 

     -Muffled shoplifted 

     -Faces from 

     -Rumors spread;

Seeing something through

Someone else's eyes,

Emperors

Wear new clothes,

     -Stream of consciousness

     -Dares you: colourful

     -Curlicues

     -Enshrining;

I can remember

Thinking, 'How can I

Do that?' while

Protected,

     -Skate the treachery

     -Of benefactors,

     -Misreading

     -Ice thickness;

Or eliminate 

Accumulated

Lechery

Of art books,

     -To delineate, 

     -With refined brush strokes, 

     -Eros of

     -Spines subtly;

Pile quotidian,

'Til emotional

Connections

Have surfaced,

     -Dial cerulean

     -Static reception

     -So signal

     -Penetrates;

Poet delegates:

Each a camera

'Nailed on bone,'

Then dispersed,

     -Words, which 'sledgehammered

     -White walls', misprinted,

     -'Saxophones

     -Infiltrate;'

'Would you wear my eyes?'

Mattress disheveled,

'Bargaining

From steel cage,'

     -'Rimbaud bleeds over

     -My stolen pants,' 'dipped

     -In poems,' to

     -'Wrap my corpse;'

'Painter, paint me a 

Jail,' in the red paint,

'Yellow-eyed

Dog whistled,'

     -We devoured each

     -Other word by word,

     -'Plucking rolled

     -Balls of sound;'

'Bathroom stalls have ears,'

So share no secrets,

Billie's pitch

Stuck to walls,

     -'Doctors hide foreskin

     -Strips inside chart notes,'

     -'Strangle with

     -Noose of books;'

'Jazz, listen to it

At your own risk,' with

The needle

Going down,

     -'Songs are like tattoos,'

     -Razored blues, speakers

     -Blasted in

     -Stereo;

The carefully made,

Startling beautiful,

Remembrance    

Of lost time,    

     -The fully bared, laid 

     -Out, encumbrance of

     -Transient 

     -Perceptions;

Journals, notebooks, dumped, 

Retrieved, burnt, soaked, dried:

Words, arranged,

Rearranged,

     -Radiator steamed,

     -Painted over, torn,

     -Obtrusive

     -Abstractions;

'I can get very

Bored with my own things,' 

The mourning

Of a poem,

     -'I sit here writing

     -For fear of seeing

     -What's outside

     -(Of) my head.' 

    

  30 January 2021