Zeitgeist Spam

If I Could Only Sleep

If I could only sleep
Like Meng Haoran,
A rock
Long past dawn,
But something wakes me
3 or 4 a.m.

        “Like a crow,
        “Like a storm,
        “Like the great crashing
        “Bells of the leaves.”

Out the window
Xmas lights,
Ho ho ho,
Torture prisons,
Unseasonable heat.

Mountains, rivers:
Symbols of what?

Old fool:
Still so stupid
After 55 years
To feel things.

        “Like a crow,
        “Like a storm,
        “Like the great crashing
        “Bells of the leaves.”

Just another day
Amid the headlines:
Open the gifts!
X many died
At Y many checkpoints.

Wai-Lim Yip has
White-haired Du Fu say:
A letter from home is worth thousands of gold pieces.

When you call
I say, “Yes!”

And count the angels
Dancing on a pin.

And the ghosts.

Later,
K rolls onto my side,
Sobs for an hour.

Old fools,
Both of us:
To feel things.

Dear Boy II

Doc I say pounding heart
And crazy dreams. He says
How about a new prescription?
I say I’ll have to
Pass through fear and failure
Anyway. But it works. The
Anxiety flesh crawl’s no longer
Right on top of me.
Later I read: “Thou shalt
“Not freeze frame.” As if
Bruno Latour were my priest.
Those words, by the way,
Also cure the fundamentalist disease.
Later I’ll have a gut
Feeling in the back of
My head this is what
I learned over and over
Back in the pot and
Acid days. Meanwhile they did
A fine job painting the
Bricks. The flu shot makes
Me sneeze. I’m trying to
Give an account of everything
Since you’re so far away.
I read Yahoo: Cheney visits
Iraq. Which god or gods
Do I have to beg
To make that asshole and
All his asshole friends go
Away? I promise, however, not
To ask like that, but
Politely. We both still say
How didn’t we hear the
Freeway. There is reason to
Doubt our sanity. I wish
Us all to get better,
If not well. Whatever that
Means in this era of
Presidentially-sanctioned domestic spying. When
Your grandmother was a girl
They gave her chamomile tea
“To settle her stomach.” Every
Time I drink a cup,
She tells that story. Thou
Shalt not freeze frame. For
Me that means two pills
Every night for another couple
Months, and therapy. Rose told
Your mom I’m looking old.
So much for the long
Sideburn effect. I see you
Don’t know the difference in
Spanish, I don’t know it
In English, between a purse
And a bag. Your mom’s
Whatever-it-is hangs like
A backpack. There are still
Twenty-two minutes just breathe.
Just breathe. We got a
Christmas card from your aunt,
The girls have two dads
But one chin. In the
Film jet fuel froze but
The hero could still light
A match. Is that science?
It’s hard to say something
Intelligent about a dishtowel. So
I hung one up instead.
Every moment a zen master
Slap. Thanks for the link
To the self-defense nightstand.
I should have worn slippers.
My feet are cold. Your
Mom is awake now, sorting
Papers. We’re about to go
Out and buy good apples.
And step into Frank's them.
Short version: I’m a little
Less broken. Still inside the
Whale a while but maybe
That’s where I live. At
Least the hallways are carpeted.
Thanks for the word list.

World Music

I want
To start
With the
Song I
Heard yesterday,
The song
To the
Grass. Or
The lullaby,
That sweet
Little laugh.
I want
To start
With mercies
And wonders,
I want
To start
With the
One who
Shot a
Man in
Reno, the
One who
Wasn’t
Johnny Cash.
I want
To start
With the
Other one,
Who wanted
His Jesus
To take
Him by
The sticky
Little hand.
This is
Why they
Invented the
Accordion, to
Play this
Eastern European
Outside jazz.
One-string
What’s
His name.
I want
To start
With One-
String what’s
His name.
That dude’s
Down to
The bone
With all
Sorts of
Shit. I
Do declare.
Yas, yas.
Yow. I
Just swerved
Out of
My lane.
Blame it
On the
Gamelan.
True, I
Must go
More than
Halves. The
Dog barked
29 times
At nothing
Last night,
Hit it
Right on
The head.
This is
The end,
My friend.
Those incredibly
Nasty ripped
Cone electronics
We used
To get
From Magic
Sam. Wild,
Horrendous. Are
You there,
Bro? Now
I’m
Talking to
The people
I love.
Socially speaking,
Ever seen
Anything more
Insane than
The scene
At Madrid’s?
The rest
Is for
The interviewer.
Sometimes, like
Right now,
I have
Trouble believing
How fake
I am.

13 December 2005

Driving through Oakland
Yesterday say 4 p.m.
Passed man on corner
Holding hand-lettered sign:

GRIEVE EVERY MURDER

Good advice.

After 3, 5 Weeks …

The hand goes bad and
Yet and yet. Hanuman must
Leap from shore to the
Guitar. We’ve been funny
Little monkeys all our lives.

If your cup be full
May it soon be empty.
I’m speaking as accurately
As I can. An empty
Cup is a queen’s ransom.

Fumbling for notes lets a
Lot happen. You leap from
A mountain, fly over an
Ocean, find Sita for Rama.
If music be the food

Of love. If every lost
Spark be counted. With one
Hand tied behind your back.
O my brave Hanuman.
There’s only if. Rain last

Night. I woke to gray.
If there was wind it
Blew in some direction. If
There was wind it blew
Right through the huddled masses.

If blue sky. If twenty
Tiny clouds, quietly, quietly. If
O, if o, if only.
Between fear and fear and
The other thing. 4:48 in

The morning. Stars swirl. Above
Dark trees. I can’t
Use every word. May all
Beings find peace. Falling into.
Falling out of. This or

Any other inimitable. We climbed
Monument Hill. Saw clear to
The coast, the chimneys. Where
Ring is what a bell
Does. The green. The shine.

(Homage to Derek Bailey, Carpal Tunnel)