The following poems I wrote for my two close South Seattle friends, who both share the same birth year.

This Side of Tech

 

For Ra’anan David, 58

 

“A half of pain, another, no

lasting trace, halfway

here. A half of joy.

Kinesis, cathexis.”

 

Paul Celan, Fathomsuns

“nor any kind of…” pg. 197

 

And as my phone sings sweet oblivion

(and as my phone sings sweet obli)

 

Images

 

beached whale

transvestite in a coral-muted blue

something sequined

exi-sequential

 

The throb of telemetry

(the throb of telecom)

 

A light before all others:

fathomable existence

held in the open, closed, palms

 

These are the cordons

(cords of the pants)

 

These are the platforms

(shoes for dancing, kicking, molesting)

 

Ache, ache

Yawn, yawn

Bright eye

before dim

before dawn

 

Kismet: chasm

Crimson: clamor

 

The way the hands

rest softly

upon the leather

 

Anticipation

 

Mouth of Quaking Americana

 

For Jeanne Morel, 58

 

This is not a chemical song

but a pitstop or roadpit

 

Linger-follow

Finger-hollow

Air on the source of character

Err on executed fullness

 

The drain of the pools to make room

 

Concoction, provocation, rust

Lust among the dusted doorways

 

The word

was it meth

or moth?

 

Roaming streets of history

Wandering banks of memory

A solar-lit singing

Polarized singeing

 

Crisscross lamentation

and arrangements

of forwards and backwards

 

Cherry pit prism sink

The way these damned paths

Outline our demons

When seen from maps

or backwards, in dreams

 

A déjà vu

Cloak of the colloquial

It is rather

like a humming

This trick

Of time

 

It is rather

familiarity

stumped amidst

the carpets linings

for art deco

 

for demolition

 

American is

so is

what isn’t