Mother Courage

 

Earlier in the day

I noticed pink flowers blooming

On the illinois lawns

In february

Children playing in t-shirts and shorts

In the alley

And I was reading a book about

The various ends of the world

The one we are on would be

End #6

Maybe life he said

Is just a way for the planet

To distribute its various elements

We die and certain chemical

Processes initiate

We live & we catalyze others

The planet needs

Its lifeforms to do that

For it to remain

Earth

He said I think

At night I went to a play

The actors were on stage

Dressed as soldiers

Marching and singing

Trapped in an infinite chain

Of european wars

And there were people on the margins

Hustling dodging bullets

Hiding their livestock

There was a wagon that didn't roll

And a magical gun

That poured wine

From its muzzle

We went across the street

To talk about it

Over beer cider cbd soda

I didn't know the man

Across from me

I learned he was a theater director

Who'd begun

As a poor renegade

But was now renowned

We've been traveling he said

India for a wedding

Rome for thanksgiving

(Though the guy who invited us

Wasn't there when we arrived!)

We saw the colosseum & the taj mahal

And we flew to london

And saw different plays

Some bad some good

I didn't really understand this

It seemed a little late in the game

For all of it

We were in the middle

Of End #6 after all

And I thought of an idea I'd had

For a science fiction story

An alien species

Wants to live on earth

Regardless of its condition

So it hoodwinks humans

Into transferring underground

Carbon into the skies

Viscous black bubbling

In 1859 Pennsylvania

Seemed like a stroke of luck

It was not

We weren't moving around

The right chemicals anymore

The aliens had tricked us

We were flying to Paris

To see an opera

And I was driving 10 miles home

Instead of walking or biking

Or taking a horse

This was a mistake

Jed

I worked in a Kinko's with

A 6'4 mountain man

Looking guy named Jed

Jed took a tent and went

Into the woods

In Wisconsin to live

For two weeks

I asked him about it

When he got back

He said it was OK

Kind of boring

The days were

Mostly thinking about

Plotting organizing preparing

The next meal on the gas stove

And Jed would lumber

Down to the creek

For water twice a day

The surroundings were calm

Trees bending in the breeze

Sunlight chipmunks

Garter snakes insects

A tetherball set-up

At an abandoned campsite

Encountered on a walk

At sunrise

Now back in Milwaukee

Jed kept a stillness

We did not have as we

Swooned under clouds

Of dried copier ink

And supervisor panic

The buzz of the machines

Not the cricket orchestra

The bullfrog choir

That Jed heard

In the Wisconsin woods

As he thought about

What would be his next meal

And how to make it

(bird caw)

Bad People

There's bad people

Well temporarily bad

At least

For some it becomes

A vocation

They depart into a wood

In a blank state

And decide to take

The fork in the path

Which extends into gradually

Dimming darkness

To be bad

First one must be lonely

Feel rejected

One reaches for cruelty

Like reaching for a cookie

From a jar

On the upper shelf

Maybe it will bring relief

It does not

But the habit forms

The meanness

The misery

Like falling rain

Forming gullies

Within the person

One becomes the man

Disliked or feared

He of whom others

Dream of attacking violently

Perhaps he knows this

And the rain falls harder

Digging deeper gullies

The Gospel According to Mark

1. JC does a miracle

Tells folks not to tell anyone about it

2. JC does an exorcism

Tells folks not to tell anyone about it

3. Next a combination

Exorcism & miracle

The same admonition

3. A group of people follows JC

He recites a cryptic parable They don't quite understand

He assures the apostles they can know

The story behind the story

JC & apostles exit to under the eaves

So he can reveal this

(We don't get to hear what he says)

4. Pharisees, King Herod & his supporters

Are scandalized by JC & condemn him

JC delivers them a witty rejoinder

5. JC berates his apostles as dumbasses

6. Another miracle

7. Another exorcism

8. Then things begin to break down

Kingdom of Heaven references

Grow weirder

More violent

More elaborate

"The Son of Man The Son of Man" He keeps saying Not clear who or what that is

9. JC's arrested in a park

It's a strange scene

Clashes with the Roman guards

A boy in a linen cloth

Runs away naked

10. The trial

The crucifixion

11. The cave

The boulder

12.Days later

JC's not there

A kid sitting inside

The cave tells the women

Come to visit the body

That he rose up

The women exit the tomb

And run away

A Band Whose Name I Don't Know

A performance art troop

From Australia

Was installed in the display windows

Facing State Street

For the opening

Of the downtown Sears

They were to live

In the environment

For one week

Their days & nights visible

To the public

And you could go there

And watch them

Like a live movie

Of people living their lives

In comfortable clothes

The space had plastic tunnels

Was dual level

Had a space to eat

And prepare food

And swinging hammocks

Four agile & wiry men

Like the Blue Man group

But they were not blue

Speakers were hung

Outside the building

To broadcast music they played

On their boombox inside

When I got there

In the late afternoon

They were dancing

The singing & the guitars

I heard were perfect

The inhabitants showed a joy

That is particular

To Australia it seems

The energy of a continent

In the Pacific sun

Animating their limbs

They couldn't hear you

So I wrote on a scrap of paper

And held it up to the glass

"What's the name of the band?"

A gangly guy wrote back on his tablet

A name I can't remember

And maybe my life

Would be different

If I could

Gaza

 

When people are real

They can be killed

If they are not real

They are not people

And cannot to be killed

But if they are killed

Their artery sliced

By a white hot

Metal shard flying

Their femur crushed

By something whistling oddly

Too swiftly through the air

Then they are people

Pleasant or unpleasant

Curious or dull

Friendly or grouchy

Not notions sketched by words

Not high-quantity non-events They are people

And if they stumble

Hurrying down the road

Away from their home

And misunderstand

A loudspeaker command

And stop 8 seconds too late

And take a baton to the brain

And stop moving

And if they leave bread in the oven

Because of a dread feeling

In the seventh house

Where they have slept

In 7 days

And trundle down the road

Pushing a stroller

With velvet pillows piled

And a toddler on top Holding a jewelry box

And they become

Hungry and very thirsty

And they learn that

Their next destination is also

Receiving missiles

Then they are people

Real people

Less (Fewer)

 

We live among less Than ever before

What was abundance

Now shimmers empty

In shadows

Or stares blankly at us

In the sun

Each year each month

Each week each day

There is less

The radio transmission

Crackles faintly

The man says Evanston

When he grew up

The beaches were full

Of seabirds

Pools swam with crawdads

The yards had insects

So many buzzing

Burrowing swooping

A snail a snail

When was the last time

Anyone saw a snail

In their garden

He asks

(A friend told me he saw

Some slugs at least)

His radio voice fading

Then coming back

You looked into the lake

It was clear

There were trout

Hooked snout salmon

Passing each other

All of this he said

And I heard

On the college radio station

Driving back from Ben's

After hours in a room

With modular synths

And repeating guitar figures

I read from a book

Into the microphone

Of a journey to India

Travelers seeking ecstasy

Through the DMT

Toad serum bufo

A man had brought

They arrived at caves

In the side of a mountain Before taking the medicine

They immersed

In a clear pool

The song ended

I stopped reading

What happened when

They took the medicine

I do not know

For David Goldstein