Tim Dlugos 28 October 2016

(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