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Friday, March 08, 2013

Steel Lungs & Smoldering Words

In Bas Relief
—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock, Antioch


WE WILL BURY YOU
—Caschwa, Sacramento

So proclaimed Nikita Khrushchev

Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.

So explained Nikita Khrushchev

Now China is telling us

We will buy you

No explanation needed.

Of course we will rise to the occasion
like when we defeated King George
or did we just delay him a little?

after throwing royalty out of our
governing classes we then
fully embrace it in our culture

we raise our flags and
celebrate our colors
just like royalty

we extend full honors to
people born of royal blood
and offer children that rare hope

that they might really be
a member of the royal family
the kind we put behind us

when we defeated King George
except at the box office
where he is still King

______________________

CHILD SOLDIER
—B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA
 


Some days seem

as nights,

you may lose an arm

when you first stumble

on a land mine

far from the port city

where you were taken away,

eight years on earth

when cruelty in war

was decided for you

by foreign militias,

told to slay your parents

for initiation,

your face now covered

with sea town sores

and blinded in the blood-heat

of death back home

but you will not be forgotten.

_____________________

AMDIAR
—Caschwa

I had tried everything else
and nothing helped until
someone recommended
a special French lotion
Amdiar

it was said to be the secret
to personal accomplishment
self confidence and
incredible good fortune
Amdiar Emerald

available in many fragrances
it smoothly bonds naturally
to absolutely any skin type
inseparable as Romeo and Juliet
Amdiar Cologne

now I am at the top of my game
in the winner's circle
rolling in the dough
always one step ahead
Amdiar Admiral

people who used to question
my motives or intentions
withdraw like frightened mice
squeaking pleas of mercy
Amdiar Just Deserts

oh how good it feels
to face the entire world
knowing that I can easily handle
whatever comes my way
Amdiar Assurance

at the end of the day
when old memories return
I shall bathe in the delightful
knowledge that I have
All My Ducks In A Row



There and Back Again
—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock



ROBERT FROST'S BIRTHPLACE
—B.Z. Niditch

It's March all in place
winter is depleted
the courage on your page
as a poem is completed.

We pass your white house
with a dog who won't bite
Mr. Frost you are needed
as a poem is completed.

They called you "indiscreet'"
because you were outspoken
readers are rarely cheated
as a poem is completed.

You are really not dead
just like the ready ice
under your feet
as a poem is completed.

Born on 24th of March
in a New England bed
your house was unheated
as a poem is completed.

You were not discreet
when your poetry is heeded
your dialogue is scorned
as a poem is completed.

______________________

NEWS SONNET 11
—Caschwa, Sacramento

She would not have done anything indiscreet
had she just been left to her own devices
but nature called when she was caught in the street

suddenly she was very skilled in vices
lifted her skirt up ever daintily so
shouting delight as from favorite spices

twirled and swirled as rapidly as one could go
all eyes keenly watched her upper body move
what happened lower down nobody would know

it was Medusa's hair displayed in the Louvre
time action photos of goldfish in a bowl
watching the needle skip over a groove

not entirely wholesome but damn sure whole
she peed in public without baring her soul

______________________

INDISCREET
—B.Z. Niditch

You are all born
by March's sleet
Lowell, Hass and Frost
each be indiscreet.

Hass in San Francisco
he came East
Laurence Ferlinghetti
liked North Beach.

Whether in lyric
or translator or Beat
all unique
each be indiscreet.

March wants poets
to sing of its season
pre-spring has a reason
each be indiscreet.

______________________

Today's LittleNip:

WAITING
—B.Z. Niditch

Waiting for steel lungs
to play the sax
for smoldering words
to set poetry on fire
for violets connecting
to the snow
for a metamorphosis
of words, time, love
to move the world
dissolve nightmares
and bring consolation.

_____________________

—Medusa



—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock