Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms IX

i was at a big cloud party
where people were eating trains and i
was hanging from the leaves
of a palm tree blowing in the wind
don't try to visit the cloud party
is closed today and if a bee stings
you on your foot try to remember
that with honey may come pain
i was at a big cloud party and people
were climbing in the bee trees
eating honey and when the bees crawled
on me they did not bite me but
one bee told the story
of acacia trees full of spring
the smell of flowers in the air and
guests grew tired and flew away
to home and hive

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VIII

good night young self
i speak to you as friend and confidant
i am your other your old soul
who has lived and loved
whose internal logic has failed
to explain all those affairs
of the heart one suffers through alone
and listen, all the objections
the future makes will become
proud scars from your past
i might venture to add a small
word of caution pertaining
to linking one's fortunes to
those of another look at
your palm young self and see that
the life line remains free of worry

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VII

small world problem is this
what to do with oneself on a sunday
or a tuesday when the lure of old ships
or the coins of an emperor
no longer hold sway on the mind
pushing fingers into paper
perforating holes between the side and another
plein-air painting without brushes just
movements of wrist and arm
made for show framed land-
scapes made from scrap lumber
nailed haphazardly into rectangles
left standing in the open fields
the two of us staring through them
contemplating our own separate lives

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VI

running slowly through the mine-field
mindful of death ruminating on finality
do people really change events and eventually
evens and odds are thin with meaning
wearing a flak jacket
made from lead and camouflagedwith
acrylic paint and leaves
well that will slow you down
you see it is certain that golden apples
bring joy and good health to fairy tale children
but here in this world there are only
red and green apples posing as such
and our children grow up and old
aware of death and ends

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms V

astronomy clock
rare white marble and biscuit porcelain
impossible to stop once it has been wound
its stepped semi-elliptical path
ordained by god a plinth
supporting a central fluted pedestal
mounted with a circular enamel dial
emblazoned with roman numerals
within a beaded bezel
flanked on the left by large winged genius
beside an extremely ornate ormolu
mounted stylised tree trunk holding
two small books and a scroll reading
design'd and executed by the great
white one with urania seated on the right
bearing an armillary sphere
wishing for an end to the tedium

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms IV

we were a venn diagram me and you
but as our circles merged what to do
what to do we were lines of code
formed from alphabets and numbers
what on earth did we mean
what on earth did we mean to one another
to ourselves to others
some common mystery unsolved and unloved
no glory to come from unlocking it
we shared everything pain and misfortune
an inability to make maps of the roads
that lay ahead you became disillusioned
and real didn't you
but what is real anyway but a
refusal to become an illusion

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms III

missing was one all-american girl
since last february when the search began
we keep looking for her
the all-american girl who haunts
our thoughts with her warm smile
who offers such promise for the future
her poise her diction the inflection of familiarity
in her voice as she describes the prizes on a game show
her introductions of new household products
we look for her
is she a guest on a late-night program
when does she find time to sleep to eat
to undress and lay like bones
parched and drying in a field