just because it’s Friday

Aunt Helen 3/29/03

jaw clenched tight
so tight I thought maybe
your dentures were out
no rascally laugh from you
although the party
was in your honor
your reign has become solemn
something too piercing about your gaze
to say you are resigned
although you know…

you are in transit
the veil evaporates about  you
Heaven naked over your head
visible only to you
the cake did not amuse you either
this sugary message
that you are not expected
to live another two months
or survive your usual annual birthday party
something like the silent scream
of a great lion up a tree
surrounded by the hounds

how do you feel about going
down that road
what went from you to me
you read me and I
heard it ring like
a bell
even out of earshot
your pronouncement
about me
your golden gavel

they’re too calm
about your passing
you and I shared this
in silence
from across a
cake with no candles
“ageless, you become”
say your children
the birthday of
no number –
“into the river of our tribe with you already”

Transjordanian Humpty Dumpty Blues (late 3/03)

from a dark alley
a voice did hiss
my boy Ishmael
waving at me
quick take a look at this
the king’s rubies
and diamonds
and gold
did I not spoil
he made me cry
because of  a kiss
I said, like unto whom
is this
the price of betrayal
on his lips
but it was too late
the deal was made
for a king’s ruin
Mohammed was paid
so very long ago
I begged the queen
but she’s not sure
there will ever be a cure
for my Transjordanian
Humpty Dumpty blues

the king
peeked into the tombs
what did he see
only old bones
but he said
my God, it looks like me
tell me
did we bury our ancestors
over here or over there
and I’m on a quest
for deadly fire
if I come back empty-handed
I’ll be called a liar
the whole world’s laughing
at the way I dance
to these
transjordanian
Humpty Dumpty blues

even on camels
my soldiers went
to my friend Ishmael’s tent
he said stay awhile
have another look
we’ve put a new profile
on your old book
your queen won’t
cover her face
or her brazen look
and funny!
even though I live here
I just about mistook
your shiny new kingdom
for good old Babylon
your rhetoric dies on your lips
because the whole world sees how
somehow or another
your bombs always unearth
your own family’s bones
you flatter me just for kicks
but let me correct your politics
your maps don’t constrain our plans
your raise a cross to loot
even your daughters
wear army boots
they shoot like women but they
break just like little men
we’re all stuck in traffic behind you
dizzy and weak from your fumes
when you get those
transjordanian Humpty Dumpty blues

The Mint

the elixer of elimination –
loneliness, regret, and bourbon
what they have forgotten
now discolors their faces
plumped arthritic hands
encompassing liquid remorse
fading the age spots by swelling
and the acrid smoke
which you thought triggered the headache
becomes a mutual cry of surrender

this in the dim greenish light
of some giant insect eye
the beeping and chattering
of amusement machines
in that bright Braille distraction
they sit cross legged against
their alter of sacrifice
laughs emerge like
bubbles from sinking ships
hoaky disappearing effects
faces dissolve in cigarette smoke