Vast and Various and Unspoken

Better’n Posterity! A little Wow Now!
You see what you don’t say, see,

Or, say what you don’t see. Say,
There are “languages in air” (trees)
You do not see them (you are insects) and
Then you cannot speak the language anyway

So you are stuck forever inside your head
Seeing most amazing Thing of Danger to Change
The Whole World and so you go: Mffla
Prakalakashakatakalulu, and
You are not even Finnish yet!

But see ing as how ev er y th ing
Changes into oth er thi ngs you
Have stirred up bees' hornets' helmets

And people are looking wisely, or as wisely
As praying manti can look at you

The stick the walking stick the sheleighley
Not even knowing how to spell shellayly

Door stopper is (or, becomes) dictionary
Dictionary becomes (or, is) (you were born with dictionary as)
Your favorite word because it is all words
Nah that would be Alphabet Universe. Or You.

God breathes slowly. Here comes the Unspoken Word.

God is a solitary salsero in the Bronx, all the poems
Are in the fireplace -- kindling. The Book
Of Book props window open. But Fire
Escape is broken so Fire does/does not escape

So they open the refrigerator and there you are
Still waiting for them to understand the crucial
Mffla Prakalakashakatakalulu. Luckily (Luckily?), you
Forgot to die frozen so perfectly blued life-like. But luckily
(Luckily!) Madame Tussaud is right there to bid on
Your cryogenically-preserved salsero voice
Singing about the “peck peck” of pigeons
As if we all did was that pecking

We all all day just peck peck
Like pigeons do do
Everybody wants
Comforts of the middle class
Nobody can pay for them
Another deep political philosophical conundrum
Famous Model wearing Kleenex bikini speaking
Through Gertrude Stein’s brain

Voice in bikini
Stuck on prairie, desert
Stuck in ocean, river
Stuck on subway, the Token Rider and Her Staff of Mighty Beings
I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Sir
The Captain of the Committee to Create Committees
To Form the Institution clenches dagger twixt his mustache hairs
And plunges like a safe
Out the seductive window
Ahoy! Speak, you Motherfucker!
Mffla Prakalakashakatakalulu!
 


  Bob Holman