Demi Sleep Cinema (poetry)

 

 

Demi Sleep Cinema

 

 

 

 

blood spurt supernova

men cut themselves with crab claws

iron age cosmos

 

eastern slope of the ice shelf goes south

the swells export one to ice land

the universe forgot it was there

no one is forcing you to listen to it

ancient air bubbles escape

along the borders of the brain

sounds from the next room the others

radio reaches the end of the classical repertoire

the four dimensions

vivaldi's green velvet lp jacket

long player of the wind in an aeloean house

the maze of hallways

stairway to a cul-de-sac

skylight shingled-over 

pot-bellied stove a vast passage

microcosm of the embers

shudder to think of crossing

snow pastures toward winter

after the stormfront left ice

doppleganger world remains

trees stand here for hundreds of years

one knows what to expect

wheeling skies full of bugs

or perfect clouds of plenty

glaciers left boulders just so

scoured the resurgent earth

the three layers within

an invisible carapace

protects our planet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edgar Poe stood at the foot of my cradle

looked for him later in Providence

among the spectral old houses

Young and given to folly

I fell in love with melancholy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three mere sleeping bags

cold sidewalk near full shelter

nowhere else to go

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking above for

super bloody werewolf moon

a face full of rain

 

 

 

 

 

Civil defense burst

into a hayden concerto

with flash flood warning

 

 

 

 

 

 

the rain storm pauses

6 am train traffic blares

earthquake shakes my bed

 

 

 

 

 

 piscine blimp trolls
bay side mount tamalapais
in limitless sky

 

 

 

 

Dream of a jet liner

flying too low over Berkeley

out of my gray window of morning

watch it follow the horizon ominously

crashes far off screen

somewhere south smoke ensues

rising from the crash site

can't get window open to look

grotesque black clouds form

entities overhead

 

Someone in my room

in the aftermath

a young man I tell him

to get out

he leaves then I find

his keys and phone device

he's in the hallway

leaving another apartment

and I give it to him

cute young man but

he didn't knock

 

Later a young couple and

a sad street kid are there

I tell the urchin to go

when he argues over

no cigarette-smoking

The couple remain silently

watching the disaster clouds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fretwork

(Notes in English

after Arthur Rimbaud)

 

Not as frisky, not so frivolous

still a frisson to fritter hours

 a bench beneath fritillary flowers

to frolic like frogspawn in a frock coat

Yet fretful of friendly society

the friction the frightful frippery

A Freudian friar on Fridays

fried to a fricassee

by the frills and the frizz

of fringe benefits

A frisbee in the fronds

o my friend

there are no friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

Land of the Cave Bear

 

The fort made of rafts sleeps four

impregnable but for the concealed

entrance to a cave underground

Ten men came into remote wilderness

By five river rafts that fitted together

to form a cube with no door

 

Bad spirits here say the natives

Said to be a lost land of cave bears

Lynx grow to enormous size

Snowshoe paws the size of pillows

Formidable wolverines hold their ground

The Arctic wolf betrayed by scat

 

The fort has slits plugged

with removable slabs of glass

to let in light keep out cold

to permit guns extended

The rafts made of timber

soaked in pitch not subject to flame

under extreme conditions only

by then an empty fort

 

Rumble of hibernating bears

reverberates in the network of caves

 cold subterranean lungs

barely perceptible almost beyond hearing

beyond the light of the torch

 

After building the fort six men

left on foot to rotate back in a year

Four stay for the somber duration

and mine a McGuffin they leave with

when the relief arrives

Yet the men had been tracked back

by evil men working for the rapacious rich

Those that survive a horrendous animal attack

find the fort and lay in watch

can't figure the wood smoke chimney

what it means how they may come and go
the other exit in an rock outcrop unknown
 

 

Decide it's the mine entrance they seek

Their attack is repelled after

death and a fatal wounding soon to die

 

The fort over the earth portal

where the four men sleep

under sweeping torqueing northern lights

 

A night when a 15 foot bear

prowls the roof

sniffing the smoke

 

 

 

Tall ship made of ice
not as first imagined
as a ship encased in ice
but carved of ice
seen translucent in the slow sunlight
elephantine sculpture

Mountain made into a bust
of a leader barely remembered
the tall ship made of ice
narrows down to the water line
then gradually blossoms out
into a vast undersea iceberg

How was it fashioned?
for what possible use or purpose
the ice berg ship proceeds
silently through glacial canyons
a luxury cruise of the damned
no good can come of filthy wealth

An orchestra on deck under borealis
perfervid dancers
fall into the sea heedlessly
off of a retracting esplanade
each couple in turn
interior of shooting gallery

black and white Hollywood back lot








what are my dreams?
my dreams are unseen
the virtual situation is this
echoes in tiled rooms
bells from the steeples below







 

 

 January 2019