An ancient man of ancient men
I wander far from local shore
(where friends are lovers and lovers friends)
a stranger now among strange men.
From ancient tome I read ancient poems
crackle parchment lines my bed
ancestor poetry is no substitute
for the man I found in Fardapur.
I share the company of fathers and sons
(their mothers bent to the stove)
never before so alone, leaving Fardapur.
I am an ancient man of ancient men.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
What is the Date
Order the water boiled for tea!
Clay stove set afire again!
Pigs graze sewage streets!
Faceless hotel, familiar face
To calculate the date!
Infected dogs rampant run!
Naked childern on muddy feet!
Brilliant smiles without teeth!
Foreign world I can't believe!
American dreams easy to see!
Milkfat film on boiled tea
As if there's no time here!
It's ticking hasn't reached
our crumbling ancient village!
The tea's swirling brown steam!
The face gone, the room locked
per chance to meet again
some far off American city
that these children will never see!
I am left with nothing
To calculate the date!
Clay stove set afire again!
Pigs graze sewage streets!
Faceless hotel, familiar face
To calculate the date!
Infected dogs rampant run!
Naked childern on muddy feet!
Brilliant smiles without teeth!
Foreign world I can't believe!
American dreams easy to see!
Milkfat film on boiled tea
As if there's no time here!
It's ticking hasn't reached
our crumbling ancient village!
The tea's swirling brown steam!
The face gone, the room locked
per chance to meet again
some far off American city
that these children will never see!
I am left with nothing
To calculate the date!
Sex with Ganesha
Why would he sleep---completely obscene
naked on the bed?
Horrible trunk curling and lolling
to invite me in?
Why would he wait----fucking the air
balloon stomach and smothering mouth?
Monstrous tongue neon pink slips
thru black mustache, plastic beads
between Elephant teats!
Google-eyes squinched in Ecstacy!
He knows I'm coming.
Stench of incense belched
thru unlatched window.
Incandescent red clouds force me
to my knees, his Holy Scepter held high!
The unlocked door crept open!
naked on the bed?
Horrible trunk curling and lolling
to invite me in?
Why would he wait----fucking the air
balloon stomach and smothering mouth?
Monstrous tongue neon pink slips
thru black mustache, plastic beads
between Elephant teats!
Google-eyes squinched in Ecstacy!
He knows I'm coming.
Stench of incense belched
thru unlatched window.
Incandescent red clouds force me
to my knees, his Holy Scepter held high!
The unlocked door crept open!
Another Teacher
To break convention
To be Ancient Greek
To deny the Shiva-Lingam
its flowers stream!
Why can't I tell him
how perfect Bach is!
I can't stand it!
Writing about learning
just as drunk on music
as the warm whisky
while baboons fuck
late in the day.
Do you ever feel your whole life is a sham?
At 79, we'll rise to the top together
like mold.
To be Ancient Greek
To deny the Shiva-Lingam
its flowers stream!
Why can't I tell him
how perfect Bach is!
I can't stand it!
Writing about learning
just as drunk on music
as the warm whisky
while baboons fuck
late in the day.
Do you ever feel your whole life is a sham?
At 79, we'll rise to the top together
like mold.
India!
Disgusting rancid beautiful country
India! cranes up my left shoulder scorches
my stomach pit, nauseous with beauty!
India! whispering forbode into me.
India! where Eden was just our jungle
when we were monkeys.
India! cranes up my left shoulder scorches
my stomach pit, nauseous with beauty!
India! whispering forbode into me.
India! where Eden was just our jungle
when we were monkeys.
Mumbai
Filled with natural and physical beauty
teeming with life, all varieties
cars constant honking like so many tropical birds
which sound all night (a kind of crow)
back and forth in jungle of hanging vines
foliage that blankets city streets
canopies of animals and trees.
My window a wealth of information
I can barely tear myself from my tea!
Men and women constantly selling me!
Strangeness to baffle any European city!
Cavernous buildings with pillars of rotting stone
countless beggars cripples bazaars sweaty
every article drenched with sunlit rain.
Bombarded with barracades, police with semi-automatics
aiming; You want Hash? You want Hash!
Complex as the city itself!
Systematic passengers ushered in on endless trains
the rush of busses passing either side so close
turn your head to save your nose!
The Phalanx of commuter street crossing!
Crowd of people inhale to make more room!
Still boarding even though there's 200 people on this bus
They still want their six rupees, arduously punch your ticket
A friendly hand reaches around to grab the rail!
They're all smiling! So happy!
Saris are rainbow sprays in the mist!
Amidst the smother of ruin, incomplete construction
are glowing rich stores pristine restaurants
filled to the brim with thousands of rupees!
At night so many homeless men, women, children
have collapsed on the sidewalk anywhere, or between
parked cars as if dead to sleep next to all the sellers.
By 12, the lights are off! All passed out on their wood
counters, under heavy stone ballastrades
awaiting the new day!
teeming with life, all varieties
cars constant honking like so many tropical birds
which sound all night (a kind of crow)
back and forth in jungle of hanging vines
foliage that blankets city streets
canopies of animals and trees.
My window a wealth of information
I can barely tear myself from my tea!
Men and women constantly selling me!
Strangeness to baffle any European city!
Cavernous buildings with pillars of rotting stone
countless beggars cripples bazaars sweaty
every article drenched with sunlit rain.
Bombarded with barracades, police with semi-automatics
aiming; You want Hash? You want Hash!
Complex as the city itself!
Systematic passengers ushered in on endless trains
the rush of busses passing either side so close
turn your head to save your nose!
The Phalanx of commuter street crossing!
Crowd of people inhale to make more room!
Still boarding even though there's 200 people on this bus
They still want their six rupees, arduously punch your ticket
A friendly hand reaches around to grab the rail!
They're all smiling! So happy!
Saris are rainbow sprays in the mist!
Amidst the smother of ruin, incomplete construction
are glowing rich stores pristine restaurants
filled to the brim with thousands of rupees!
At night so many homeless men, women, children
have collapsed on the sidewalk anywhere, or between
parked cars as if dead to sleep next to all the sellers.
By 12, the lights are off! All passed out on their wood
counters, under heavy stone ballastrades
awaiting the new day!
Mumbai Taxi
Slum village seeps
like dumpster juice from airport
to empty cement high rise punctuated
by glass ATM chambers
Permanent flea market piles
of metal rickety tin roof two-by-four
architecture makes screenless windows
into flourescent light interiors labeled
lik gated communities.
Men slept shirtless on
stoops amidst rancid trash heaps
picked through by stray dogs
so peacefully!
Assaulted by delicious
vile stench of garbage, piss &
incense, the gewy handfuls they chew
spit all over the sidewalk under
palm trees, tropical breeze.
Then smell him on
unwashed shirt, the last real thing
I've seen! Brooklyn & Queens
so clear!
Wake up wide-eyed
white washed windowless room
with damp raggedy sheets where
lopng hall with blinking lights & drip
drip A/C begs the question
What are you doing here?
like dumpster juice from airport
to empty cement high rise punctuated
by glass ATM chambers
Permanent flea market piles
of metal rickety tin roof two-by-four
architecture makes screenless windows
into flourescent light interiors labeled
lik gated communities.
Men slept shirtless on
stoops amidst rancid trash heaps
picked through by stray dogs
so peacefully!
Assaulted by delicious
vile stench of garbage, piss &
incense, the gewy handfuls they chew
spit all over the sidewalk under
palm trees, tropical breeze.
Then smell him on
unwashed shirt, the last real thing
I've seen! Brooklyn & Queens
so clear!
Wake up wide-eyed
white washed windowless room
with damp raggedy sheets where
lopng hall with blinking lights & drip
drip A/C begs the question
What are you doing here?
Over Europe
A few miles over Bucharest
cloud sheet vanished!
Massive river spawned the city
reflected the sky, split the long gray
farmland of Romania!
Have I walked these fields?
From a train window glanced
for an instant?
cloud sheet vanished!
Massive river spawned the city
reflected the sky, split the long gray
farmland of Romania!
Have I walked these fields?
From a train window glanced
for an instant?
Missed Flight
Find yourself alone, Heathrow
at the end, long dark corridor
all stations closed, black terminal.
Does this beat Scranton
Saturday night movie?
at the end, long dark corridor
all stations closed, black terminal.
Does this beat Scranton
Saturday night movie?
9hr Time Difference
Counting backward, boarding the plane
3 AM Bombay rickshaw slum
planning my sleep, the Dramamine.
Imagine the B4 Heathrow transfer bus
flight attendants, vast clean airports,
first taste of raw food.
How quiet Brooklyn streets will be!
In white blanket of snow I'll come
back to America with warm blood.
A flight only stretches the inevitable
that won't change regardless how far I fly
how hot the summer was.
At the end of the long conveyor
after lightless shell of plane
first breath of American air
I'll do what should've happened today
return to departed arms, tear salt lips
old breath shared.
Counting backward from NYC arrival
to pull that day apart, make the flight
as though it never happened.
3 AM Bombay rickshaw slum
planning my sleep, the Dramamine.
Imagine the B4 Heathrow transfer bus
flight attendants, vast clean airports,
first taste of raw food.
How quiet Brooklyn streets will be!
In white blanket of snow I'll come
back to America with warm blood.
A flight only stretches the inevitable
that won't change regardless how far I fly
how hot the summer was.
At the end of the long conveyor
after lightless shell of plane
first breath of American air
I'll do what should've happened today
return to departed arms, tear salt lips
old breath shared.
Counting backward from NYC arrival
to pull that day apart, make the flight
as though it never happened.
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