Soldier Knees, Part 1

Flowed down the stairs in the evening
light of stars beheld
in an immortal cramp        the gathering
authority of the conversation
bergamot biscuits
sans frontières
looked out
saw the mountain and the work to be done
steam wreathing the icy skyscrapers
the sound of rubbing
two doors fused together when he went in
& found nothing moving

*

Devout knee-bend at the checkout
my own clerical shadow
straight from Clark St.

the man who illuminates
is lit up     in the concrete
illegible
archive
             of rarity!

*

El dreado time sequence in crystal sleet
mostly brick out the window
descending cold day

a rumbling underness

romance of purpose
root of critique
after a week of wateriness
from texas a bulb
turns on & shoots
four blooms           dead       & brillo

*

Strict classroom dubiety
the stars stigmata
happily plucking flowers & ignoring the spheres
piercing rays of correspondence
down to the dried fig of a bellybutton

one remembers
dismemberment by number
the hand goes south & the toes north, far
beyond the boreal bells

Face to face with the inquisitive devil
rusty sword through the lungs
growling weeping groin

a Jesuit flayed coming out of his cave
seeking succour
for to save

North, far north
& beyond the trials
unspeakable numbness


*

Blew off the peace bridge or skyway
had to get out of bed sometime
Aeolian winds
but passed through only two circles
the border and the faceless tolls
discounting the lines at the duty free
my interexecutor in the front seat
said don't stop for coffee keep driving
sans frontières? Where you die is everywhere
skyscrapers & steam around the tops
cloud invisibly drawing nearer
the shell above & its soapy pearl
Massive mandibles!
& hauberk of millions of miniature men

Ask me no question, then

& button up your coffin
cause it's cold way down there

*

The streetcars submarine & sinister
from the level of the rooftops slide

but how oft do they their silver bowers leave?
I do not think they sing

one should like to avoid the
icebergs of necessity

diplomatic cafe talk           engaging no
frozen batteries            lifted him up

one hand grasped
arm around his modesty      one leg shorter
by 6 inches        should stay indoors in winter
but the library keeps expanding

Sliding along the golden chain
by ferry born
lay flat by fiat
& both destinations in all equality

“not innocence into the world
we bring impurity
trial by contrary”
but perhaps not purity
as solution said our alloy

forming the golden chain      sparking as we go
to assay the purity of birth       used bronze & lightning
hitched to the classroom seats
while we waded out the window
teabagging in reality      of the in-the-middle universe

Though loathe, are yet constrained to obey, and soon
As above, so below the clouds & moon
Snow falling
Steam rising

*

Unmindful of his wound, of his fate ignorant
empierced on the rays        star
of light, circumference inferred, wise
diagnostics of the magi

Cruel passage made quite through his brain
breathed out the ghost on the sidewalk after
the show          a cigarette goodnight
under the smokestack sightline

"my german brother"     who is the past
slight resemblance
craving the endless
without reason or regard
for the focused glare off the glass
violet        lips printed on concrete

Turbine
golden pinions wrinkling through the azure
arms thrice-majestic cleaving turn
on purple beams
the rosy sky from violet
Such regard which at centre is
of a flashing eye
all for guidance        in a stower
love’s warning

Evening eventually violet covers white
plum bounty of her mind        sparks points & sour
to devour the flower of now
  a frozen sultana       pop the
granite skin      back in
scraping      a newborn      reversed
& without remorse

Darkness now     bluejeans draped
over city & sky        & all the faces
reflected thrills & highrise
pecadillos
of other watchers eyes

eek the brightness of her cheek
The library's drowning in the lees the leaky loos
seep

Dribble hunched & cold outside
walking around in it
yellow crystal
crotchety crunch
when you lay the body down as to
a bed

the boy fetching scrolls
in a chamber ruinous and old
one shadowy protein on an
immense and menacing virus

the realm one higher
lensed through blue triangles of fire

This was the third sphere
we passed through

*

Washed out in a wave of urination
denaturing the education
to a fine wash of inkspray
embroidered on a napkin

& things started to warm up slightly

of course, the Brown House stands still nightly
its sheets left stains
on their hands anyway

This was the risk of promiscuity
& the advantage too strenuous for
subsisting on
collegial cake & tea

who eat in restaurants to see the news on TV
over the bar
the plate padded with lettuce, peanuts
& parsley

On TV: camped out for the crowning glory
the end of a war
might be just a freezer-burned baby
but he’ll twinkle in their spheres till they return
to the mostly gory weather

*

Somehow ended up at a party
up an upscale alley
warmed the toes
while they drummed and turned
barefoot 10 months of each year

Someone played a banjo like a sitar
moaned
strummed the hamstrung piano blue
& winged me a star for my nose, saying
Lick it and stick it. I
like you …

Holy shit said C.J. dried kiwis
I had two
but any more would be retreat
droned the soul
not yet starved dehydrated burned or in fear

& strolled home through more of the coldness and darkness.