canaveral carnival
canaveral carnival
with only my tongue to lead the way 1
i straggle behind a purpose i can’t recognize, 2
can only just track because it is so big… 3
of first magnitude regardless of distance. 4
the mile markers lead me to believe 5
i’m closer to this thing 6
that might as well be in exile 7
with rhodan, mothra, and the other retirees 8
of monster isle, 9
shall i join this menagerie? 10
with gin, malt, vinegar and pomodori, 11
and the wet sounds they are capable of making 12
in the burning theater aisles? 13
catching your foot, 14
throwing you onto the flypaper floor. 15
and have i the secret? 16
because this formula certainly works in the laboratory, 17
i cry at all rhythm and memory 18
and heaven forbid memory should fall in patterns 19
like nasa launched rain drops, 20
with twenty great composers in the operations room at houston. 21
can we rename so easily? 22
does nothing remain? 23
in my crazy quest for immortality 24
have i made it so transparent? 25
and more to the point, would you forsake 26
a good, mild, polite life to join me? 27
with attendant lack of alignment 28
you’re neither evil, nor good, nor hell’s close neighbor. 29
you are only here to learn, sweet child. 30
paddock locked and punched by clock 31
to serve out a sentence without prejudice, precedent, predicate… 32
here you are 33
adrift on seven cardinal sees of sin 34
without direction, without purpose, without a return trail; 35
without lack– 36
you’re white, you’re black, the modern age, 37
you’re a lexus in the garage, 38
you’re a five year old with aids, 39
you are life of affluent purposelessness 40
or life without future, 41
you are the millennium, bitch, 42
you are the artful dodger, the ess’n’elle codger, 43
the naked br’er at every january funeral, 44
the s’er living on bread and water and poppy dust, 45
the sustenance of five tongue sugar. 46
its orbit of dance 47
through france to kinshasa 48
to shanxi to the cape 49
to mozambique and back to rome, 50
you’re the one who’s more afraid to care than i am, 51
you’re the one so unwelcome you will never go home. 52
24.10.95
