Thursday, September 4, 2008

A Poem and a Song

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Poetry by Everett Marx




Kid Coconut Dries Out



Lavender sunset

Dunes all round

Light years til Monday

Miles to town

As Sandy shot me,

She tongued my ear

I watched her taillights

Disappear.



Night is a giant,

Distance screams;

Coyote’s scurry,

Fitful dreams;

Daybreak’s a laser,

Blind by thirst;

Point blank at high noon:

That’s the worst




Last year, I rained down like heaven

Now, I can’t water myself.




“Kid Coconut,”

they all called me;

I broke the logjam

on Royal Palm Key:

Sweet money flowing

I grabbed my share--

Flew Sandy dancing

everywhere.



Give me a river,

Give me a tide;

Give me a straw hat,

Give me a ride;

Give me a memory

Of cool dark shade:

Help me blot out

Mistakes I made.



Last year, I rained down like heaven;

Now, I can’t water myself



Last year, I rained down like heaven;

Now, I can’t water myself.




Most Alive to Speech Alone




I’m most alive to speech alone,

Imagining a question sharp

As infant death, thick as cold bone,

To finger idly as a harp



Until some sure line wriggles free;

Then after, scrambling, snatching blind

To clutch the wonder not quite me,

That shed the murmur of my mind.



It said a thing I would have said,

A thing, in time, I’d proudly show;

A stretch of words that deftly lead

To where it sounds I meant to go.



Once I’ve yanked its hooked head back,

Smoothed it for the long sure holding,

I smoke cigars beneath the moon,

Assured of a great unfolding.




2 comments:

AtheistExile said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Candace said...

I thought this was lovely and poignant, Everett.