Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Hacienda Kobayashi

 At a pre-apocalypse,

post theater party,

we all wandered the confines

of Hacienda Kobayashi until 

there you were and here we are,

some years down a road,

before our known road 

turned footpath

between the garden

and the toilet

on those red spanish tiles, 

a step or two 

up from down

we sat, 

with red wine sloshing,

between perfectly hopeful 

Hollywood teeth and gums,

as down the gullet

here it comes, 

telling our stories, 

about waiting 

on the moments

for the arrival 

of our ship

coming in

at this port-of-call, 

now abuzz with triumphs

of the past two hours

of other hopefuls,

(“Love your work!”)

and stevedore techies

drinking beer while

they push and carry

news in fabulous 

theatrical voices,

all of us walking, running, 

skipping steps 

going up and down,

to the toilet,

or other unknown 

rendevous rooms, 

above, below, outside,

ranting on 

about nothing

and everything,

while you,

in black

and I, 

ala faux turtleneck 

and Italian jacket,

sharing a kind 

of dignified fashion,

dip into memory

where craft and dust,

and pineapple songs

end with a swift kick

from one of the travelers,


and time, and stories, and hopes all


collide in crystal air.


but in this flight and fall

there is a ring and a bounce 


and a ring and a bounce


as a stemmed wine glass learned 

its joyous fandango

and finished,


with a roll to the right


and a roll to the left

and a roll 

to a righteous pose

and we gasp,

of course,

at The Big Finish


to our now famous 

Wine Glass Incident,


and we learn

a new story


where we can hurtle through space,

and we can fall on hard surfaces

where we can still do tricks

singing clever bon mots

and lay as still as death,

without breaking.

The End of Civilization Celebrated at The Old Cho Cinema

 The End of Civilization Celebrated at The Old Cho Cinema


I wander at night

hearing my shoe clicking 

against cracked sidewalks, 

with your sweaty hand

tight in mine,

following what’s-his-name,

your cousin’s brother’s friend,

through that maze of

broken streets

because we said we wanted

entertainment

“like it used to be”,

before this empire fell..


He led us to that bar,

where a suicidal crowd,

packed in, screaming, laughing

and drunk, smoked fish 

gasping for breath, 

while the old music 

competed with

excited loud noises,

the only light, blue

neon, surrounding a mirror

that reflected empty bottles

and broken glasses

behind the bar.


With the revelers 

heads popping above

one another in a vague

irrythmic dance,

two steps through

a swinging door

and our guide 

disappeared, melted in

that smokey air

in his anticipation 

to share this disease

at the end of civilization;


but you and I, we wanted

to sit holding hands

at old Cho Cinema,

with it’s burnt out lights,

and broken seats, so

as we ran through the fog

and sticky mist, you begged 

me for details so I pointed 

at remembered landmarks

from my previous life.


Before all those thoughts, 

we still stood on broken

pavements staring 

and pointing at a new life,

sprouting in some crack,

while breathless, and damp,

for a moment we stared 

at that broken sign

above a blank marquee

three letters tilting skyward,

like lost optimism, 

toward gray sky,

colorless, a silhouette 

of what was lost, CHO.


You pulled me inside

the lobby, across

worn carpet through

scattered broken glass

crackling like popcorn.

You stood pointing 

and staring at 

ruined displays of 

black and white photos

of my past triumphs

with forgotten friends 

and collegues, each

of our poses selling

lost hope.


Inside the auditorium,

lit by a single bulb,

we found stacks of film,

burnt but exciting to recall 

lines and scenes.


Then we wrestled on 

stained red carpet,

or tried gymnastics,

with you laughing,

balanced on my arms,

shaking with effort,

over my head, eyes behind 

your glasses (firmly in place),

smiling into mine, your

damp black hair brushing

my face as you swayed 

above me, and then

you fell against me,

warm as summer.


It is strange to recall

after my disease took you,

that you had never told me

any of your story.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Ed Rusch Paints the Edge of the West – or A Nearly Found Poem



Two 
         Ed Rusch
                  decades
                           of paintings                        
                                    they glow
                                             as if
                                                      in a reality
                                                               that
                                                                        clumps
                                                                                 meanings
                                                                                          of time
                                                                                          they                                                                                                     might
                                                                                          also
                                                                                          suggest
                                                                                          a
                                                                                          Far West
                                                                                          as
                                                                                          the                                                                                                       Edge
                                                                                          to
                                                                                          an

                                                                                          End

Monday, March 20, 2017

Old Trader Vic Bergeron

Old Trader Vic Bergeron
         Limping through time
                  one leg dragging
                           pirate-like
Across almost a century
         of simple syrup and rums,
                  leaving a hint,
                           here and there
on passion fruit,
         dragon fruit,
                  fruit bats
                           and joy!
Oh! The Joy!!
         A gentleman
                  sitting at tables

                           of many islands.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Cortijo Fain

Rain of Andalucia falls in an olive grove
         tap tap tapping on old leaves,
remnants of seasons remembered.

A white farmhouse
          sits posing gracefully,
its skirt of trees spread over the hills.

Lightening cracks February’s sky.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Cannibal

Mother’s teeth and talons
RIP skin, pieces of flesh;
torn from my abdomen
bits of this and that
searching for an organ
I’ve hidden far from
her gleeful cannibalism.

Father’s civilized
knife and fork
puncture my surface,
where a lost river
of moments,
undistinguished events,
left above high tide line,
dry and blow away,
to float with clicking,
irrhythmic taps
on severed limbs
each braceleted with buoys
of broken light in odd colors
passing in an endless
holiday season.

this treasure can be found,
even shrouded under a blanket
of sleepless sleep,
its klaxon,
against impending drift,
ringing for eternal routine.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

A Toast To The Missing

Here’s to all your severed limbs
that lie drying in deserts
far from their owner’s sins,
and more of the same
that have long lay rotten,
far, far away in jungles
forgotten. Will all these bits
lacking prayer leaven,
after a time find their twin
in a somewhat mangled heaven?