[close]
let's say whistle & do it
the bar where the furry chins gather
the blue shoulder of Kali muscular & trembling as she drops her cloak
the killer’s hoof-prints a sign the killer’s lame
instead of rain hydrogen exploding
the being they called him
the organist dreams of an old order one marked by perverse & bloody ritual
the sluggish goose abandoned to its own air its own way the flock moving on
if snow then cross the plain quickly silly billy
hello yellow face says Gerry to the sun on a quiet Sunday
play it a few times & she’ll come back to you even from where she is
the lean-legged beer drinker his eyes are brown green-lit & closed
the baby leading the blue dove by a leash
a fiber fraying off looking for elsewhere
the punk he tried to tell us in a chorus of inaccessible screams
not bitter
just tired
[note]
the songs the sentimentalist cries to
the doll head at the bottom of the bin her song
the breaker of horses asleep on the porch in a chair his song
& the birds who carry sky their song
the song of Donald a child alone in his room
Kafka in his bath the lights out that song
the songs with shaky rhythms
the songs which kick away the sick man saying rage
the advocates of UFO’s their uncanny & lovely refrain
songs like circuits on the face of the sleeping warrior
remember songs when they used to be pleasant asks Midge
unpleasant songs with real sound
Orpheus charmed by song chewing on his nails
Hildy’s song
& Mary’s too
the neighbors song its thump thump yeah
the physicist’s mustache the song which proves his theory
the politician eyeing the door the song behind it
the songs never written down never meant to be
the unimagined songs
more like those
M. A. Vizsolyi is the author two books, Anthem for the Wounded, and The Lamp with Wings: Love Sonnets, (HarperPerennial) winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Ilya Kaminsky. He is also the author of the chapbooks, Notes on Melancholia (Monk Books) and The Case of Jane: A Verse Play (500places press). Follow him at his website, mavizsolyi.com