Poem 157: A Weirder Pain

when you finally learn to suffer
it will be weirder pain
than any we, at present,
can formulate or name

it will begin at an alien discomfort
surely
at which point it would I imagine be of considerable
scientific value
to hook you up to a machine
capable of recording these things

since outward signs
may tell us nothing

when it dawns upon your conscience, at last,
the smoking skillet
of your avoidance
        initiating a period of elemental collapse

        (again, terra incognita for us all)


you will then be like a monkey in space
untethered
uncomprehending
of the forces
that lay their hands upon you

        your psyche
that vast and unexplored
and until now unactivated medium
for pain
will know shattering, spectacular, unknown colors
of pain
spreading lights, and towering
nebular forms
of regret
   
then you may be momentarily stretched
like a burning silver sail
that pulsates in the dun
air sublime
and is quickly vaporized
by the sun

Poem 156: Ask the Spiritus Mundi

A theme?
You are looking for
themes?

How about the "rotten hoof
on a one-horned goat" theme?

no wonder
you searched for it in vain

what about
"overlappin hangovers"?

naturally enough you also missed
"verbal degeneracy
in hell on earth"

I got tons
what about
"the atomic-level collapse
of all categories?"

that will be 10 drachmas

thank you very much

Poem 155: I see all

mother
fudge-
sicle

! it !

all just kicked in
to slow

 motion

and I can discern

everything

which sucks for you

Poem 154: Dandelion's Skull

At Tim and Theresa's party
Lexy let me know
that Dandelion's skull
is almost ready

the excarnation, that is
is almost complete

flesh fades, and falls away
sockets gape
teeth begin
to rattle in the wind

his blue horn
alone
grows into the sun

Poem 153: finis Angilberti carmini

...

Overwhelming grief and sorrow:
naked bodies of the dead
corpses are transformed to victuals:
vultures, ravens, wolves eat well
horror piled on horror: bodies
lacking burial

Pain-filled wails of lamentation, 
I may give them voice no more
each of them who mourn must master
surging tears as best they can
for the dead we pray, lamenting,
Lord have mercy on their souls

requiescant in pace

Battle of Fontenoy 

June 25, 841 CE 

Poem 152: idem

...
Lest we dignify the slaughter,
let the poets sing it not
rather let them, in all places,
east and south and west and north
mourn those men who here have fallen,
each one drawn here to his death

May this day be cursed, and truly,
with the circle of the year
let not be numbered, rather
blot it from all memory
let the sunlight never see it,
to it let no dawn return

Nor that night, that night so bitter,
night which hardly we survived
during which such valiant warriors
perished steeped in battle's lore
father, mother, sister, brother
each of dear ones mourns them now

O...

to be continued

Poem 151: carmen Angilberti, cont'd

...
In my mind I see the valleys
see the ridges up above
where against his adversaries
Hlothar, strong and royal, fought
falling on the ones retreating,
even to the river's edge

Karolus on one side flanked him.
on the other Hludovic
both sides left the place of battle
white with linen-sheeted dead
as when seagulls in their season
turn the autumn strands to white
...

Poem 150: Reality-hole

Congratulations you
really have torn reality
a new one!
the question now
is whether
one gets sucked

into one's own new reality-hole

or withers along the event horizon
like a used-up lophiiform

much to learn
concerning new
reality-hole

I'll tell you one thing
I'm not going in there

Poem 149: rursus cum Angilberto apud Fontanetam...

...
Death was turned away from Hlothar
God's right arm protected him
victor thanks to heaven's guidance
he fought with amazing strength
if the rest had fought as he did
terms of truce had soon been sought

Even as when Judas, traitor,
secretly betrayed our lord
even so, o king, your barons
turned upon you with the sword
Be on guard! lest you be taken
as the lamb by savage wolves

Fontenoy is what the locals
call their fountain, and the town,
district where corpse-fest happened
hemorrhage of Frankish blood
meadows shudder, forests shudder
shudder too the very swamps

Grass is not refreshed with showers
nor with morning dew nor rains
there where valiant warriors perished
steeped in battle's scholarship
father, mother, sister, brother
each of dear ones mourns them now

Horrors which were here accomplished
I have told in metrical form
Angilbert by name, both witness
and combatant with the rest
I alone remained of many
out upon the foremost line
...

to be continued

Poem 148: amplius, grind them clean

corpses

Poem 147: plus Angilberti

battle roars in every quarter
grievous fights ubiquitous
brother plots to murder brother
uncle nephew seeks to slay
nor does son unto the father
render what to him is owed

corpses never in a meadow
nor at Martius lay so thick
Christian law is shattered, sunken
flushed with floods of human gore
at the hands of nether spirits
sick delight of Cerberus



to be continued

Poem 146: Versus quadratus Angilberti

At its first arrival morning
tears asunder shades of night
not a sabbath to illumine
rather saturn's evil tricks
brotherhood is ripped asunder
to the demon's great delight

to be continued

Poem 145: From the Latin

A thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand we've beheaded.
We a thousand-headed man, have a thousand-square beheaded.
May he live a thousand thousand thousand years who has killed his thousand!
Nobody has hoarded anywhere near the amount of wine
in terms of liquid measure
as this man, Aurelius, has spilled blood.

Poem 144: But Only a Suggestion

Just a suggestion of incompetence

Can go a long way

I have reason
Tuba leave
It can take the edge off expectations
And insane demands
And I half found it can

Bayou some time
When you need it moist.

THIS WISDOM wasp reserved for me

in the golden age
Of man-use
crypt-painting
(George Brazillier New York 1979)
By Marcel Thomas
At the time of Jean Duke de Berry
THough not directly it had to be
Tease doubt
if you know what I mean

Peom 143: "Life is Gud"

and yet
the radioactive
sarcophagus flies
in this quadrant
will say otherwise

Poem 142: a poem

begins in darkness
then eats its way out

with little thought for the damage
or of salvaging
the debris

that is why sometimes you see
somebody change
slightly
mutating on the spot

one of you--it doesn't matter who--
is being softly
savagely
 tunneled through

Poem 141: bone head frequency

a distinct and vibratory
disturbance of the bone

I'm getting messages

by means of   slight mechanics
the infinitesimal effect
incoming

instructing me things

instructing me many
bitchy things

which my bones like mine cannot
but hear

Poem 140: Dirt boy

Wake up dirt boy

time to watch the rape

this time
see if you can stay awake
for the whole thing

Poem 139: The Dragon

the dragon was a prophet
 he was full of secrets

"burst open the penis walls!"
he sang

he was brimming with secrets

Poem 138: call the dragon

pleasure in reverse--

to a backwards-beating heart

garbage floats upstream

Poem 137 : nerve endings

a twitching knot of bloodshot
nerve-endings
made to sit for the entire length
of Beethoven's 9th

rough skin at the bottom of the cell

Hamburg in flames

Poem 136: L Y R I X

I got "La figura di Eros"
in my head
I got byzantine jeff
in my head
I got Andronikos Contoblakas
in my head

and I owe a soul to the BAV

I got  “some pretty severe things” in my head

I got a big wet sofa
in my head
I got Argos's ear infection
in my head
I got a blackberry bramble
in my head

and one of the goats is losing weight

I got  “some pretty severe things” in my head

I got the USA
in my head
I got discount fireworks
in my head
I got a one-horned goat skull
in my head

and I haven't done my taxes yet

I got “some pretty severe things” in my head

I got a mutilated manatee
in my head
I got a neglected banjo
in my head
I got another dead rat
in my head

damn

I got  “some pretty severe things”
in my head

Poem 135: The 5th of July

unexpended ordnance
from last evening's
explody
detonates
          all around
sulphur billows
low to the ground
the chickens are wide awake
Argos is under the bed

goddammit
save your ammo

when--and it will--shit gets wiggy
in the streets
after two-hundred-whatever years
of human events
    and people are drinking piss
         and eating dog
you're going to wish
you had those cherry bombs

Poem 134: In State

within a plastic bag
enclosed in golden paper
is a rat I killed
having baited the trap
with a hershey's
kiss

the bag is on the porch
the next phase of his journey cannot begin
until tomorrow
if you will ask me why
it's because the garbage doesn't come
on the fourth of july

Poem 133: Lake of Fire

Cuckoo birds and souls of the damned
in their wobbly flights
once again--tomorrow--
will have made their laborious journey
through untold hells
forcing themselves
through the bowels of elements
to be seen

in the form of exploding nugae
and flaming trifles

which is all just the signs
of their yearly splashdown
back into the lake of fire

like many such brief returns
to the realms of light
it's over in a flash

which doesn't mean
it can't blow your face off

Poem 132: Ghost

A meth-ghost she was
at least I thought it was
'she' but truly
it skills not
to gender the meth-ghost

as insubstantial as a bag of bones can be
a carp-like mouth
skull in jagged detail
hollowed out eyes
almost too
fucked-up to see

but human I suppose
and I suppose American

though there is nothing to be found,
nor shall there be, in terms of relief
no coverage for her methed-up teeth
or any plan
for the physical damage
of which she is somewhere near the center

Poem 131: Do Snakes Like Chocolate

Mr. President, do snakes like chocolate?

We moved Daniel to the barn
when we discovered him burning daylight
in front of the studio

he made for the logs
but it was a charade
we all know there's no work back there

we gathered is long oily ass
into a wicker basket
put the lid on
and moved him to the barn
laid the basked on its side
and removed the lid:
and I am proud

to report that Daniel crawled
right into the rat hole
under the rabbit hutch

this was two days ago
and that is why I have to know
if snakes enjoy chocolate
for be he never so lazy at eating rats
I do not wish to harm
poor Daniel
or otherwise jeopardize our relationship
by killing him

and I am going to have to lay some traps