shai
03-02-2008, 11:02 PM
try to disregard the ...s at the end, it is the only way i could get the formatting to work (does anyone know how i can fix this?). thanks!
Notes on a Storm
like all true romantics
I learned love on the playground.
and like all true romantics
it started at the muddied soles of my bare feet
or before, in the woods in the tree
where workers,
some tall with long beards
and others short with big hands,
sweat down oaks with axes,
in the machine (dark, rusted)
with the sticker (blowing bright, don’t put your hand in there (or else))
that chops to chips.
And then thirty one steps away
(or in wood chips: two hundred eighty three,
or in static shocks from the plastic slide: eighteen,
or in splinters: two,
or in swing sets: one)
was the red Toyota Corolla with mom inside.
stepping in and sitting down
I put one foot on the dashboard to bake
the other on the mesh covering of the speaker.
and in some small vibrating space
between that speaker and the muddied sole of my bare foot
was the place where Gil-Scott Heron preached me politics (the revolution will not be televised),
where George Clinton funked me metaphysics (free your mind and your *** will follow),
and where Nina Simone taught god how to make a storm.
And then smaller, closer still was the
dead crusted hand of Mozart:
flaked ivory nails in
cracked knuckle skin.
Fingers fading as
cuts bleeding dust
Only to reform, whole,
long enough to hover guidingly
over long ebony keys,
the sharps and flats of Nina Simone’s
hands to
arm followed by
shoulder and then
outstretched neck
where finally
hair sifting fingers, he is lost
and all that is left is:
.....• the resonating sound of frequencies that don’t fit
..........o piano hammers latching back onto wires
..........o the noise of creation behind music (not for the audience)
.....• that face
..........o skin stretched countenance
..........o the shape was stolen from a statue
................x rounded heavy jaw
................x cheeks that give way into deep eye filled basins
......• that scream
..........o lips torn apart by:
................x strips of tooth
................x ringing tongue
................x column of carrying air
..........o the honest melting of calm sorrowful anger
Notes on a Storm
like all true romantics
I learned love on the playground.
and like all true romantics
it started at the muddied soles of my bare feet
or before, in the woods in the tree
where workers,
some tall with long beards
and others short with big hands,
sweat down oaks with axes,
in the machine (dark, rusted)
with the sticker (blowing bright, don’t put your hand in there (or else))
that chops to chips.
And then thirty one steps away
(or in wood chips: two hundred eighty three,
or in static shocks from the plastic slide: eighteen,
or in splinters: two,
or in swing sets: one)
was the red Toyota Corolla with mom inside.
stepping in and sitting down
I put one foot on the dashboard to bake
the other on the mesh covering of the speaker.
and in some small vibrating space
between that speaker and the muddied sole of my bare foot
was the place where Gil-Scott Heron preached me politics (the revolution will not be televised),
where George Clinton funked me metaphysics (free your mind and your *** will follow),
and where Nina Simone taught god how to make a storm.
And then smaller, closer still was the
dead crusted hand of Mozart:
flaked ivory nails in
cracked knuckle skin.
Fingers fading as
cuts bleeding dust
Only to reform, whole,
long enough to hover guidingly
over long ebony keys,
the sharps and flats of Nina Simone’s
hands to
arm followed by
shoulder and then
outstretched neck
where finally
hair sifting fingers, he is lost
and all that is left is:
.....• the resonating sound of frequencies that don’t fit
..........o piano hammers latching back onto wires
..........o the noise of creation behind music (not for the audience)
.....• that face
..........o skin stretched countenance
..........o the shape was stolen from a statue
................x rounded heavy jaw
................x cheeks that give way into deep eye filled basins
......• that scream
..........o lips torn apart by:
................x strips of tooth
................x ringing tongue
................x column of carrying air
..........o the honest melting of calm sorrowful anger