5/28/13

Five New Ideas - Part Three, THOMAS DELAHAYE


Civilian

Treatment of my first time out in plainclothes
Still at attention, more toward a window
Than a drawer, rendezvous with the middle
Steps with bad footing
For coinage, costs closing in
Making good on promise on arrival
Arrangement argument
Skin specific of networks
Stood up as flaxen reeds
To a tied together meal
Leaves gobbled
Why wait amazed at people
Never arriving to see them?
When on that current of drowning
Or desperately saved, will standard operations
Begin again? I must see to this business
You may give me one penny to do so
Reel ends flapping, people depart theater
Quick to tuck their skin back in
To wait for limousines 
Far away seems impossible
Scratching your no-name knees
Distantly lie on a bed
To be tickled



Evacuation

I’ll talk, I’ll talk
We live by the sea
Evacuate by land
Friends appear ass-backwards
In the corridor
Think this is a joke?  Stocks are 
Down, ruminants run free
We’ll all be fed something
Pre-chewed
And no buildings will remain standing
The weeks will wisely go by
Before our assembled husks are shook
By sudden rainwater
We are heading south
On lumpy terrain
We’ve stuffed our pockets
With produce past its prime
To swallow would be to retard our progress
Wipe out our ETA
Groundwater is property



Man Dying

Ahem thank you I love this bed
I want to lie in it and look out
My childhood window
And there’s my seventh dog wagging
It’s my smell she smells
What you told my face was right
It’s the moon that wakes you up
And gets you going, not you
Or maybe I’ll take your face outside
With my blanket and tent
And memorize it
After that you could leave but I won’t say I’m sorry
But anyway you’re not included
In this thing like my knees are
Like mountains in bed
As blue as a blanket
My sister knows just enough of me to talk to
So I listen
I have a timer it’s buzzing
Have you noticed my birthday only lasts a few days
I received a card from an insurance agent
Thanks but I have plenty of horse sense
Little plasticine horses that live on the bookshelf
Just in case I get sick (no prognosis)
But gnaw on this donkey bone
The blood moves to a catchment
First lunch
I love peanut butter and honey
But what about almond butter and mixed pickles—
Have you even thought of that?
On white bread naturally
Before you stop breathing
Race you to your stomach 



Regency

Preparing for a great comradeship
Or being pushed into it
Hot sand
Hot peppers for dinner
Night and day
Many opportunities on the front lawn 
Lakes filling up with water
Terrible fear of quicksand or sandstorm
Fear of sleep
As much as anything

Moving further down the beach
Pushing all the sand to one side
Got you first prize
A crown of hot peppers
Making you a regent

Excellency
Comrade
What of our friendship?
Yes, Thomas
We’ll always be friends
Let’s invite those who have already eaten
To dinner
Nothing can stop us now



Wind of It

What’s in a computer?
People are developing around me 
They must be confronted and stopped
Same here
Listening is the problem
Oh, sure, there’s always the courthouse
Why don’t they stick me in there?
I am without peer
Murderwise

If it’s a case of what I do or don’t say
It’s already on Broadway
New Haven at least
Or just tryouts somewhere
You’re invited, so are they
Personal and civic functions not far apart
Unity of place! 
Everyone comes from somewhere to here

You are one who knows
On your own with a megaphone
It’s time you moved over
What not to touch in the room
Paper, lamps, me
General public line up here

Tell me about the places you’ve been
Other than the airport
I’ve been there too
So long ago
And I’m there now 
Good for you, Louie
Thanks for asking how I’m doing

What else did you want to know?