Barrel Magic

Canto XIX

Canto XIX

 

and when Porush won that fellowship

at MIT he spent the money

on a Camaro and unveiled it

 

at his grant party          “my project,”

he sd/ and promptly schwittered

away to the Combat Zone        eyes

 

in bottles like in Blade Runner

bottles of whisky like in Blade Runner

broken bottles like in Apokalips Now

 

eyes that the Air Force has decided

to alter by grinding instead of slicing

the cornea because G forces might

 

skim the goo right out the sockets

like so much jizz that Green River

killer in WA provided so many

 

so many “I had not thought death had”

done up so many in ribbons and bows

until I saw Night Watch           are vampires

 

really all that bothered by AIDS

seeping into the blood supply or is it just

another UR-bane Legend like the kidney

 

thief or the dude with the hook

for a hand or the UFO bobbing past

Arthur Godfrey strumming his ukulele

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking them somewhere

 

Bucky’s balls aren’t    the problem

it’s his feckin’ homerunthatdents

my fens don’tcha know            hoo ahh

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking me somewhere

 

oblivion waste sobbing waning

death sweeps all aside sleeping

the small drum thrumming along

 

people are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

they’re taking them away from me

 

Francesi          cocks and clocks

hands and numbers      pissoir

battalions march out

 

Somme return  others don’t

Napoleon’s troops have hit

sack and G. Kahn’s men, dormez ‘vous?

 

Tamurlane’s boys tucked

Cairo’s Sphinx unearthed abed

Darius sunk     Syracuse unmanned

 

Sun rises          Sun sets           life circles

the drain          born to rise but sent to die

three days later rising son

 

blind poet        blind seer blind

vagabond nursing a bottle of gin

odor of Ajax and shine of Mr. Clean

 

strong clan       blond muscled blond

though beauty swells beneath skin

Dog Star staring at him through eons

 

eddies of the universe dark energy

flowing in the main tributaries

matter tossed aside yet streaming

 

poems are wrong to take drugs

because when they take drugs

the drugs are taking them somewhere

 

where we can’t go

and if we can’t find them

then the drugs will find us here

 

where they left us because we

wouldn’t take the drugs that took

them somewhere else and someone

 

else will give the drugs away before we

get a chance to refuse them to show

how permanent we are like concrete

 

while they are more like birds

or maybe pigs that fly or ducks

that won’t anymore because they’re

 

high on becoming fois grais or eggs

that come home to roost           hoo ahh

like eggs that come first           hoo ahh

 

or maybe WE took the drugs before they

could and that’s why they were wrong

to take the drugs away from us

 

because now we can’t find them anymore

even though they look like concrete

birds or pigs or ducks or eggs

 

onthetownonthetownonthetownonthetown

with Federman and oysters and Milton

[Friedman jerking off butterflies]

 

Print Your Own Money! declare your self

UR-self: a nation freed from 3 dimensions

as Spinoza sd/ “harems are paradise” hoo ahh

at the Barley Sheaf Farm Estate & Spa

with Hans Arp and twenty horses

pulling a brewer’s hearse through Satie’s

 

gym nasal tones           hoo ahh           Lily

Tomlin has no accent no accent

nasal tones yes but no accent

 

proto human at the Improv

superperbian plebes emboldened

proto frightened simians at the Cellar

 

Door where there is no Orgone Box

hidden beneath the stage’s trap door

nor even a crystal ball nor Weegee

 

at the ICP nor Wild Strawberries

at the Met only ‘what ifs’ following

Madame Blavatsky through the curtains

 

Iceland is like Scotland with fiery

rocks flying and brimstone and sheets

of lava sweeping into the sea  hoo ahh

 

flooded panoramas swept       pine

cones’ petals sprinkled amongst twigs

and needles green sparkling in sunshine

 

clouds swing —oceans of clouds rolling

over hills Mount Wachusett     adieu!

red flowers cut between sage

 

seeds blown about dandelions’ froth

breath of powder pine pollen clouds

sprinkling of locust leaves —acorns

 

clinking the car’s roof —lilacs

smoldering day lilies firing as flames

then out:  brown petals droop

 

—fences vary from stone to farm

railing to picket to wire hung

with bunting background for phlox

 

with UFO bobbing past —declare your

cocks and clocks —hands and numbers

dormez ‘vous?   harems march out

 

Accelerando!

Thoughts on Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

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