then
then as my mother played it on her organ console:
^,^
Composition
We used to call it the boob tube,
but I guess they don't use tubes anymore.
Whatever, it serves a small purpose after waking
and before falling asleep. Today's news—
but is there such a thing as news,
or even oral history? Yes, when you want to go back
after a while and appraise the accumulation
of leaves, say in a sandbox.
The rest is rented depression,
available only in season
and the season is always next month,
a pure but troubled time.
That's why I don't go out much, though
staying at home never seemed much of an option.
And speaking of nutty concepts, surely "home"
is way up there on the list. I feel more certain about "now"
and "then," because they are close to me,
like lovers, though apparently not in love with me,
as I am with them. I like to call to them,
and sometimes they reply, out of the deep business of some dream.
"Composition" by John Ashbery from Where Shall I
Wander. © Ecco Press, 2005
^,^
Jacky Terrasson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FKQI7yuQ8U
^.^
Xanadu
at the train station
10-8-14
^,^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FKQI7yuQ8U
^.^
Xanadu
at the train station
10-8-14
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
Cat-Ass-Trophy
How many times must one say no
To a cat begging to go out
After hours
My reckoning of how many
Times I’ve leaned down to advise her
Sours
My disposition; for heaven’s sake
Do you want to hear those mighty
descending wings
From the nocturnal sky? She glowers,
Having no imagination, I guess
And continues her pitiful begging to go
out
And take her chances during the darkened
hours
An owl will, believe me, WILL swoop down
And pick you, you tasty morsel, as if
You were nothing heftier than one of our
flowers
Growing outside the door, in whose midst
you slink and creep.
These owls are big with talons sinking
deep,
They’ll carry you to a treetop; disembowelers
These owls are; your nemeses;
You don’t want to find yourself with great
ease flying upward
By surprise, my pussy, to be sliced,
diced, and devoured!
Like talking to a catter -wall;
At night a different creature;
She persists! “ Mee-ow,
Mee-OW, MEE-OW!” Hers
To learn the hard beak way, but not on
this watch!
Her bones and parts shant be reduced to
pellets, trophies
Dropped under the Tamarack’s peacable
bowers!
No is NO, my furry friend, reckon thyself
lucky;
Yea, and compose and confine thyself;
Not to be an owl’s, your howls and bowels
are ours!
[David Dix 6-9-2002 ]
