BLUES DHALIA

Palimpsest

truly, the word jumps out of its own skin

with meanings I can't invent

ordinary words, dimensions, frames without

pictures

suddenly here

to enliven messengers

language that

forget the blind leading the blind

will not rely on vision

but already, saying this, I hear venetian blinds

rustling in a ghostly breeze

there is somewhere a great celebration

a large crowd

but no one there

these usual words not everyone will understand

if I write of a flightless laughing bird

some few will come to scatter seeds

worms will dance and sing

we'll beat the Oki drum for Boy's Day

generations of scholars will find

'neath a coating of dust

lines faint beneath the skim

the sundial rusted shut

The Dhalia

that parrot on the pedestal

see him?

squawking garish colors

he was once a totem pole

say what you will

it's better to have a voice

but there was a catch

no self respecting parrot, it was believed

would just make things up

so a mirror was provided

just in case

the bird called in some local bats

they fluttered in after sundown

bringing cherished memories

and the town folk, mostly unaffected

applauded

scraping mud off their boots

then from the pedestal tweets were heard

and straight away the parrot flew to City Hall

to the clock

where his wife from another life was a coo-coo 

bird, out on her ledge

you're late for dinner!

and the mirror?

hung with bats in the belfry

Sapwood Maple

users of the night are not shrouded

as are willow trees by day

beneath the green afterglow of noon

in a shower of butterflies

no doubt always

always a cell tower

chewing alfalfa

I have been

out in the blasted plain

search in vain for a better ketchup cup

but even light must bend

we've seen it do this near the sun during an eclipse

now in the even afterglow of noon

consider at leisure

that when it does bend

then light's not going the shortest route

it moves faster in the round about?

or is there less light in the shorter route?

so that relatively speaking

(as it were)

the bent light will not exceed its speed limit?

where's the explanation?

The Union of Concerned Scientists

has blasted clean the plain

calmly I chew my cell tower

Gifted Parrot

       Awk!

]He ruffles green and red feathers for the visitors, setting an example, and hops onto the door of his cage.[

       Say what, bird?

      You are defined by your relations with others.

      We all have cages, bird. The five senses, don't

      you know? But . . .

      Polly want a cracker!

      Crackers are good. Though certainly you

      know I'm not owned.

      My cage is open ended.

      There's no door. Windows? Well, from time

      to time, in fact, time disappears altogether.

     You'll give me away, too, won't you?

     You? Getting right down to it, since there's no

     me here, your cage is empty as well.

     There's no you or me to give away.

     I'm getting a better cage, crackers, the whole

     nine yards.

     How far will it be? As far as I'm concerned,

     open ended means no limit.

     Not entirely.

     And where will it be, if there's no you? We're

     endless. So if you make a definition of me,

     parrot, drawn up out of our relations,

     you own it.