Monday, March 27, 2017

Further Explanation by Richard Martin


1

I doused my poems – the ones that squeak and rust –
with a powderpuff of sky  OK next line
please   By the time I was ten I dined on pellets
of cosmos in the pouring rain  If
you don’t mind the expression: Move over Rover
then quite possibly this: words often appear before
consciousness attired in a series of holes
That is why the Academy of ____________ (yes
fill in the blank) came over to my house
and punched me in the nose (or count the missing periods)
As in tools of grammar or rocks  Ouch!
I was on my way out with the outs (or in) to begin with
Centripetal or Centrifugal – Connotative or Denotative
Guess which hand       I suppose I wanted a paragraph
of further explanation – one that tied things up
with a nice little bow Tidied is more likely
Things? For the record, I love them    Squirrels
in the treetops
                        the passing eyes of a stranger
The goulash of objects in the prime of their
radiant colors

2

A man walked down a street of lemon pastries
What happened to my Nehru suit
the guru of atomic clocks inquired of the genie
in the bell jar of telecommunications             or let’s ride
the dark horse into a blaze of adjectives
My lips soured unto yours as the saying goes
Quite rightly   extend the play the hobo of myth-
making barked at the empty theater
That’s when we found the Book of Semi-Consciousness
in the viral mailbox      Loose strings
were everywhere         vibrating with
the passion of ancestors and unbalanced equations
for geniuses of swank and diddly-squat…bow bow bow
Man the torpedoes seemed like an appropriate phrase
to insist upon after a brunch of vigorous vegetables
“It’s time for my scenario,” you said.


3

“And the Pulitzer for Narcolepsy goes to
The man in the grey flannel underwear.
No kidding…Just kidding. Welcome to
The Netherworld of Sleep. And boy, do we
Have the right mattress for your aching
Head. Just look at this baby; it comes with
One hundred and fifty settings for getting
The most out of long and short bouts of
Sleep. You like it hard and she likes it soft;
You like it soft and she likes it hard.
O the gradations between hard and
Soft are fun to discover! Now turn
Your attention to the HD TV consoles
Built into footboards, headboards and
Side railings. Plus, each pillow in this
Baby has its own separate pocket sleeves
For iPhone, iPad, and laptop for
Convenient use between REM periods
Of sleep. Communicate with your boss,
friends, wife, husband, and lovers like
Never before. Never feel disconnected
From your waking life. Even as you
Ponder or solve the conundrums of
Dreams and associated flak from the
Unconscious, you’ll be able to text your
Friends…better yet keep up with mundane
Office tasks and current global crises.
Look, we’ve even installed a no shut
Down button so that your personal
Communication devices will stay on
Even when you don’t want them to.
And right now, at no extra cost,
If you purchase one of our BIG CRY-
BABY CRY mattresses we’re offering
Free installation of a microchip in your
Head that will coordinate the whole process
Of now I lay me down to sleep. Tell me
How can you beat a deal like this?”


4

I burrowed deep into a night of traffic and lipstick

It was raining

An old man was snoring

Sound familiar

Check out the contusion on my forehead

You called it an egg

Yes, the “you” of whomever in the linguistic landscape

There weren’t adequate resources to investigate the cause of the injury

Somnambulism

Vertigo

Inebriation

Hallucination

It was dark as I remember

As if the lights in the apartment went out in a storm

You kissed my cheek

I had aged in the hue of your lips

In the street cars continued to honk at each other

I thought of the price of eggs

Canada geese in flight across a starless sky

The egg glowed like a miner’s light

I kept digging

Made by way to bed by morning  

Wouldn’t get up

On Saturday


_________________________________________

Richard Martin is the author of Dream of Long Headdresses: Poems from a Thousand Hospitals, White Man Appears on Southern California Beach, Modulations, Marks, boink!, Altercations in the Quiet Car, Under the Sky of No Complaint, Buffoons in the Gene Pool (Lavender Ink /Fell Swoop, 2016), and Techniques in the Neighborhood of Sleep (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016).

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