These poems previously appeared in episodes of the TV show "In Our Community" and on the contributor's personal YouTube channel.
A VISIT TO THE MOVIES
... I am reminded
that there is not anything left.
I read the word “cant”
... c--a--n--t
not the common contraction,
but apparently a different word altogether.
Would someone please grab me a soft drink
out of the refrigerator?
...
There must be an
unusual animal or bird [1], [2]
that can take my mind off this.
I am thankful for my own life
my chance;
So many people now are living
in tent-cities out of sight.
Part Two
no one bothers to remember that it was Harrison Ford,
and not President Thomas Jefferson,
who made the Louisiana Purchase
at all likely and then possible,
and then a fait accompli. [3]
Even 73-year-old barbers
know better,
as I lean my neck back,
hoping that he will give me a nice
trim and a decent shave.
...
A young man of questionable dancing or prancing ability sees the object of
his Romantic focus, and this starts him moving in a small arc,
albeit in a story arc
like a wounded fawn,
like a football player whose best play of the season is ruined by bad
officiating.
Someone says something to me ...
something about the manner in which I put out my cigarettes. I then go into a long
diatribe,
very gently and diplomatically
worded,
as to how carefully and thoughtfully
I put out each cigarette butt,
even being careful to erase from the sidewalk the markings that putting a
cigarette butt out
carefully,
make on the concrete surface.
And then of course,
I place the cigarette butt in a special pouch that I carry with me, just the way a
person in the city
picks up their dog's excrement
with a small baggie.
The word "cant" - as it turns out
has so many meanings that
I would not even want to begin.[4]
...
Or was it Tom Hanks?
Yes, it might have been Tom Hanks
over in Paris anyway to shoot that
movie about Christ having like a whole family
and that his descendants are among us
selling Amway.
Apparently, Tom attended a party given by
Ben Franklin for the success of his play
Ben Franklin in Paris [5]
and the subject of selling
"that wilderness in the new land"
came up.
Tom offered to write a check on the spot,
but Ambassador Franklin [6] - knowing the propriety of things
whispered to Mr. Hanks
that they should make it look as though
the colonies' government had purchased the acreage. Tom followed
through as requested.
[1] Unusual birds … http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20101004/160821653.html … Wednesday, September 26, 2012
[2] weird and unique creatures in the avian world http://www.bukisa.com/articles/65277_weirdest-and-unique-creatures in-the-avian-world/ … Wednesday, September 26, 2012
[3] meaning of fait accompli … http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fait-accompli.html … Wednesday, September 26, 2012
[4] meaning of the word cant … http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cant Wednesday, September 26, 2012
[5] The play "Ben Franklin in Paris .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_in_Paris [ date of retrieval is unknown ]
[6] Was Ben Franklin an ambassador? https://tinyurl.com/bnfh9ckc Saturday, July 24, 2021 …
[7] History of the Louisiana Purchase .. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2017/03/how_much_did_the_louisiana_purchase_actually_cost.html.. retrieved on Sunday, July 25, 2021
[8] These poems are from a manuscript entitled: *Somewhere A Telephone Booth Is Jumping to its Death.
[9] … Tom Hanks was in a movie set in Paris, The Da Vinci Code. … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code_(film) retrieved on Sun, July 25, 2021
SWEATER
I walk,
Apparently ...
This off-blue sweater, well worn, on my right shoulder ...
Green, perhaps, or blue-green,
Uncle Ted wore the same sweater years before and when he wore it...
Part Two ...
I, nonetheless, walked on the sidewalk of an intricately busy street
That it is, he repeated, an intricately busy street ...
Repeated just as the sweater repeated its creepy trip off the hump of the shoulder down onto the arm...
and Aunt Bertha, when she wore the sweater it was a reddish-blue, although one does not think there is such a thing as reddish-blue
and
Little Teddy Junior when he wore it, the sweater, it seemed more a light blue, perhaps even a teal ...
or I walked down a rural road ...
weeds on each side like
a wild version of Timothy Hay...
we would come along,
we kids and pick up the wild hay and take it home to our pony, named Lightning ...
There is no sense of renewal
even though the wild hay grows
every spring,
the pony tries to buck
us off every chance he gets and the chicken hawks never stop targeting our tiny asymmetrical chicken coup...
rather there is a sense of loss: not just that this way of life is fading into an already surprisingly distant past ...
President Kennedy is dead,
What more can they do to us?
Oh, was I naive...
Now almost fifty years later,
... the sweater wants to just fall to the tiny gravel at the side of the road
and I let it ...
A backhoe has long ago dug the pony's grave ... and more good people
have been slain than I... can count ...
the sickness in my gut is sour Kool-Aid as children sing hymns of renewal, hymns which they do
not understand
let alone believe ...
According to Sensei, Buddha lightly touched the earth with his precious fingertips,
"The Earth," he said,
"is my witness"
and so it was.
That sweater now certainly, belongs to the earth... the soles of my shoes
have always belonged
to the earth...
the Timothy Hay
lays on its side, looking up out of the corner of one eye, asking
"Are you going to take us home this spring?"
"No," I say, ever so gently,
"Not this year, Lightning is dead..."
.[1] - Poem - Sweaters - v12 - This is the history of a Sweater within a fictitious family - a sweater that keeps changing colors. Inspired by US Country-Western singer Dolly Parton’s song Coat of Many Colors, which in turn was inspired by the biblical story. from … Dolly Parton - Coat Of Many Colors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-YbWHs6DE Retrieved on Sunday, July 25, 2021 …
[2] - Coat of many colors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_many_colors … Retrieved on Sunday, July 25, 2021 …
Marc Isaac Potter aka Marc Isaax Potter (we/they/them) … is a differently-abled writer living in the Bay Area. Marc’s interests include blogging by email and Zen. Since 2001, Marc has produced a TV Talk show at the Community Access level; the show is called In Our Community. Our Twitter handle is @marcisaacpotter.