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Wednesday, November 05, 2014

With Baling Wire & Bubblegum

—Poems and Photos by Robert Lee Haycock, Antioch



TOMB OF THE MUSE

In at the front door:
Hushed expectations
Glimmer, glamour, shimmer, sham
Shushing of school kids
More like a library
Tut notwithstanding
Church of the Plastic Arts
Static, unchanging

In at the back door:
Cubicles, closets, oubliettes
Cacophony, kakistocracy
Cliques, cabals, catered events
Conflicted interests
Compromised ethics
And meetings and meetings and meetings
And meetings and meetings and meetings
Designs on napkins (I kid you not)
Prima donnas and borderline psychopaths
Peter's Principle personified perpetually

There I go
With baling wire and bubblegum
Getting it done yesterday
To no one's satisfaction






NOT WHAT I MEANT

I looked for you in the stars' icy fires
I looked for you as the days spun back

I looked for you in the green flames of leaves
I looked for you as new love died

I looked for you in unchanging moons
In suns that stood still
In meteors that mounted to the skies

I looked for you through a ridicule of tears
A humiliation of successes
A surety of doubts

I looked for you in the young man's empty promise
The old woman's unborn children
The baby's ancient soul

I looked for you among the leaden clouds
Beneath the ponderous heights of the sea
Above the unassailable mountain roots

And I found you






PLACE OF THE HUMMINGBIRDS

It was up from Lexington and Wright's Station
From there down to Loma Prieta and Corralitos

That radar flower spun seaward
Then scanned back across the bay

Lockheed P3 Orions wasp-stingered
Prop-driven Navy grays from Moffett

Hummingbirds licking nectar from Mount Umunhum
From Umunhum's twirling blossom

Oo mun hoom
Oo mun hoom

All is well
As well as can be in a cold war world





LIVING WELL

The Creators sing and Stars shine
Galaxies crash and Black Holes
Turn themselves inside out

Consider the Aeons that have rolled
To make you possible
To bring you here and now

You are as essential to the Universe
As the Big Bang and Dark Matter
As Gravity and Light

Never imagine that you are not wanted
Never imagine that you are not needed
Never was a time when you never were

There is nothing to fear
There is nothing to fear
There is nothing to fear

_______________________

Today's LittleNip:

Saturday night

Bob Wilkins
Creature Features
Laughing my head off or
Cowering behind the couch
National Anthem
Faure's Pavane
Test pattern
Snow and sleep

_______________________

—Medusa