LAmerica
Cold treatment of our empress
LAmerica
The Transient Universe
LAmerica
Instant communion and
communication
lamerica
emeralds in glass
lamerica
searchlights at twi-light
lamerica
sstoned streets in the pale dawn
lamerica
robed in exile
lamerica
swift beat of a proud heart
lamerica
eyes like twenty
lamerica
swift dream
lamerica
frozen heart
lamerica
soldiers doom
lamerica
clouds & struggles
lamerica
Nighthawk
Sirens
Water
Rain & Thunder
Jet from the base
Hot searing insect cry
The frogs & crickets
Doors open & close
The smash of glass
The Soft Parade
An accident
Rustle of silk, nylon
Watering the dry grass
Fire
Bells
Rattlesnake, whistles, castanets
Lawn mower
Good Humor man
Skates & wagons
Bikes
Trade-routes
guide lines
The Vikings & explorers
Discoverers
The unconscious
a map of the states
The veins of hiways
Beauty of a map
Hidden connections
Fast trampled forest
Madness in a whisper
neon crackle
The hiss of tires
A city growls
rich vast & sullen
like a slow monster
come to fat
& die
Clothed in sunlight
restless in wanting
dying of fever
Changed shapes of an empire
Startling invaders
Vast promissory notes of joy
Wanton, willful & passive
Married to doubt
Clothed in great warring monuments
of glory
How it has changed you
How slowly estranged you
Solely arranged you
Beg you for mercy
The barn is burning
The race-track is over
Farmers run out w/
buckets of water
The horse flesh is burning
They're kicking the stalls
(panic in a horse's eye
That can spread & fill an entire sky.)
The clouds flow by
& tell a story
about the lightning bolt & mast
on the steeple
Some people have a hard time
describing sailors to the
undernourished.
The decks are starving
Time to throw the cargo over
Now down & high-sailing
fluttering of smiles on the air
w/its cool night time disturbance
All hail the American Night
And so I say to you
The silk handkerchief was embroidered in China or Japan
behind the steel curtain And
no one can cross the borderline
w/out proper credentials.
This is to say that we are all
sensate & occasionally sad
& if every partner in crime
were to incorporate promises
in his program the dance
might end & all our friends
would follow.
Who are our friends?
Are they sullen & slow? Do
they have great desire? Or
are they one of the multitude who
walk doubting their impossible
regret. Cerrtainly things happen
& reoccur in continuous promise;
All of us have found a safe
niche where we can store up
riches & talk to oour fellows
on the same premise of disaster.
But this well not do. No, this
will never do. There are
continents & shores which
beseech our understanding.
Seldom have we been so slow.
Seldom have we been so far.
My only wish is to see
Far Arden again.
The truth is on his chest
The cellullar excitement has
Totally inspired our magic
Veteran. And now for an
old trip. I'm tired of thinking.
I want the old forms to
reassert their sexual cool.
My mind is just-you know.
And this morning before I sign
off I would like to you
about Texas Rado & the Big Beat.
It moves into the perimeter of
your sacred sincere & dedicated
Smile like a calm survivor
of the psychic war. He was
no general for he was not old.
He was no private for he
could not be sold.
He was only a man & his
dedication extended to the last
degree. Poor pretentious soldier,
come home. The dark Los Angeles
evening is steaming th Church
that we attended & I miss
my boy. Stupid in green-
What the color green? When
I watch the T.V. & I see
helicopters swirling their
brutal & bountiful sensation
over the fields & the comic walls
I can only smile & fix a meal
& think about the child who
will one day own you.
In conclusion, darling, let
me repeat: your home is still
here, inviolate & certain
and I open the wide smile of
my remembrance. This to you
on the anniversary of our first
night. I know you love me
to talk this way. I hope
no one sees this message
written in the calm lonely
far out languid summer afternoon
W/my total love
Now that you have gone
all alone
the desert to explore
& left me here alone
the calmness of the town
where a girl in black
gets in a car
& searches numbly
for her keys;
Now that you have gone or strayed away-
I sit, & listen to the hiss
of traffic & invoke
into this burned & gutted
room some ghost, some
vague resemblance of a time
Off-on, on and off,
like one long sick
electric dream.
This state is confused
state. Out there everyone
is greedy for her love.
They will drain her life
like warm connectors,
plug into her soul
From every side & melt
her form for me.
But I deserve this,
Greatest cannibal of all.
Some tired future.
Let me sleep.
Get on w/the disease.
Of the Great Insane
American Night
We sing
sending our gift
to its vast promise
Pilots are a problem
The rain & hungry sea
greedy for steel
Say a soft American Prayer
A quiet animal sigh
for the strong plane
landing
We rode on opium tires
from the colossal
airport chess game
at dawn, new from glass
in the broken night
landed then in quiet
fog, beside the times
out of this strange river
Then gladly thru
a wasted morning
happy to be alive to
signs of life
a dog,
a school girl
are we in Harlem?
Where are my dreamers
Today & tonight.
Where are my dacers
leaping madly
whirling & screaming
Where aer my women
quietly dreqaming
caught like angels
on the dark porch
of a velvet ranch
dance dance dance dance
dance dance dance
I fell on the earth
& raped the snow
I got married to life
& breathed w/my marrow
I saw youg dancers
I am meat & need fuel
Need the whorey glimmer of tears
in women, all ages
Laughter sandwich, fuel
for the lunch of meat minds
Now damn you, dance
Now dance
or die sleek & fat in your
reeking seats, still
buckled for flight