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.