Sunday, December 27, 2009

Punk With the Stutter



248

A queen of blame my mother was
A short confession which sums it all up
The walk of the river and
The vain corner where the other lies
We retrace their steps
Follow them out in their elderly air
Until you get there and in
Following, salute the standing, the landing and
the crying who fill the bridges; who
with crooked forefingers beckon
and tell of their dead fathers; who
pick their noses in the cold
termination in surprise then
they go about their business,blameless.

249

And all we could see was yellow
The buildings shaded and raised upon
Great wheels whispering
In tongues seeing eyes
And holding bent thumbs
We couldn’t know what we knew
But there are quick gentlemen who
Roll about in intentional smiles
Lieutenants of the sun straining and
Arranging things. Taking time
From each other and knowing them all by
Their style: their shoulders loaded with
Hunger and their pockets bulging
With common unhappiness.

2 comments:

Richard Ewing said...

You declared you would be 3 inches taller, you only became what we made you...I really like number 65

Mike Tracy said...

Hard to believe that this piece of music is over 30 years old- I started listening to it in the early 70's (about the time I picked up Ulysses for the first time )and have listened to it all these years- LP, CD and now, MP3
Thanks for your comments, Rick.