oblomovshchina

Whimsy

2010-10-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

The Book of Who

Who hunts, who fishes

but seldom wishes

Who speaks, Who gestures

but Who never postures

Who loves, Who desires

but Who rarely misfires

Who marches, Who parades

but Who seldom trades

Who is, Who believes

but Who rarely deceives

Who sings, Who dances

but Who seldom prances

Who counts, Who raves

but Who rarely saves

Who touches, Who caresses

but Who hardly messes

Who trips, Who stumbles

but Who rarely grumbles

Who grins, Who smiles

but Who seldom ridicules

Who winks, Who amuses

but rarely confuses

Who reasons, Who contrives

but Who never connives

Who serves, Who pleases

but Who rarely teases

Who comes, Who leaves

but Who seldom grieves

Who reasons, Who judges

but Who barely budges

Who points, Who specifies

but Who seldom implies

Who spits, Who dribbles

but Who never quibbles

Who sleeps, Who snores

but Who rarely bores

Who walks, Who rambles

but Who seldom gambles

Who flirts, Who entrances

but Who rarely romances

Who explains, Who clarifies

but Who seldom mystifies

Who runs, Who races

but Who barely paces

Who ponders, Who illustrates

but Who seldom debates

Who blinks, Who recuses

but Who rarely confuses

Who annoys, Who agitates

but Who seldom frustrates

Who prays, who reaches

but Who never preaches

Who soaks, Who bathes

but Who seldom shaves

Who swears, Who pledges

but Who rarely hedges

Who writes, Who muses

but Who rarely excuses

Who steers, Who navigates

but Who never hesitates

Who jigs, Who gyrates

but Who hardly vibrates

Who drinks, Who piddles

but Who rarely diddles

Who coughs, Who sneezes

but Who barely wheezes

Who feels, Who aches

but Who seldom fakes

Who winks, Who stares

but Who barely glares

Who dreams, Who meditates

but Who rarely hesitates

Who draws, Who sketches

but Who seldom kvetches

Who orders, Who arranges

but Who hardly changes

Who spies, Who investigates

but Who rarely delegates

Who laughs, Who giggles

but Who seldom jiggles

Who directs, Who urges

but Who never purges

Who bargains, Who negotiates

but Who rarely obfuscates

Who asks, Who advises

but Who seldom sacrifices

Who sorts, Who classifies

but Who never ossifies

Who talks, Who articulates

but who rarely exasperates

Who plants, Who cultivates

but Who briefly vegetates

Who says, Who investigates

but Who seldom delegates

Who travels, Who migrates

but Who rarely agitates

Who sleeps, Who wakes

but Who barely shakes

Who grins, Who amuses

but Who never abuses

Who jots, Who rhapsodizes

but Who rarely plagiarizes

Who uses, Who tokes

but Who never smokes

Who flirts, Who dates

but Who seldom mates

Who entraps, Who seduces

but Who rarely produces

Who declaims, Who recites

but Who hardly excites

Who lusts, Who desires

but Who seldom sires

Who plans, Who estimates

but Who rarely delegates

Who points, Who designates

but who never hesitates

Who risks, Who speculates

but Who rarely dictates

Who illuminates, Who ruminates

but Who never fulminates

Who wonders, Who digresses

but Who rarely obsesses

Who draws, Who creates

but Who seldom imitates

Who swears, Who pledges

but Who hardly hedges

Who directs, Who galvanizes

but Who never patronizes

Who jokes, Who jibes

but Who rarely imbibes

Who runs, Who rushes

but Who seldom touches

Who brags, Who inflates

but Who hardly exaggerates

Who gallops, Who rides

but Who rarely hides

Who experiments, who accumulates

but Who seldom subliminates

Who partners, Who collaborates

but Who rarely irritates

Who schemes, Who contrives

but Who never connives

Who stutters, Who mumbles

but Who seldom grumbles

Who travels, Who traverses

but Who rarely reverses

Who paints, Who varnishes

but Who never tarnishes

Who thinks, Who synthesizes

but Who seldom standardizes

Who gets, Who subscribes

but Who rarely proscribes

Who agrees, Who ratifies

but Who seldom justifies

Who passes, Who dies

but Who never lies

mlb 10/10

_________________________________________

Untitled

A crab sidles

thru the irrigation ditch

and passes fish

still and transparent.

As it moves

bursts of mud rises

and flacks the water.

mlb 8/67

__________________________________________

The Gombeen Man (After S. Dangerfield)

It's the Gombeen Man and I'm not dead

all the bones have risen to my head.

Fear not to tread

on her pasty face,

hair in curlers and

slops of scent and deodorant.

Press on, heels in

to a finer freer cancer,

rusted lung, pointed tongue.

Feel on Sir Taster

to a fuller more satisfying

wampum in the sky,

dread of heart and heathenish habit.

It's the Gombeen Man and I'm not dead

all the bones have risen to my head.

mlb 12/66

__________________________________________

Bullwhacker in the Sky (After E. Pound)

Rutted runner rotth

Brutish stare stainth

Postures painted painth

Gestures grimaced gainth

mlb 1967

Three Poems

2010-09-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

Untitled

a spare change philosopher
rides the CTA
and emerges from eternities
of Platonic
jiggles and twists
towards Chinese Art Museums
and Butcher Shops.

a soft philosopher, he
strums his jews harp
his sacs banging together
like sour chimes.

his blowsy pagan art
and neolithic ordor
offends the morning crowd
and a pendant
hangs round his neck
like a Runic doublecross
bisecting centuries.

mlb          Albuquerque, Albireo Quarterly, Spring 1976

_______________________________________________

A Party

At parties
I'm something else
as Quinn
describes my bag.

One Ofay
awash in splibs
as black debate
wings thru Beaujolais
and Calvert with Coke.

Close the books.
Furies in the streets.
And all the time
in that little room
a party.

mlb          Albuquerque, Albireo Quarterly, Spring 1976

________________________________________________

In a Strange Terminal

In a strange terminal
memories fracture and fragment
like hungry and inquisitive flies.
The flies chatter incessantly and
sense and settle on a second's thought.
Their wings never stop and
they feed on my past
weaving the most fabulous stories
in some obscure language
which I can barely discern.

mlb           10/03

In Memorium

2010-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

The Great Gorgo

Carney days are dead
Gorgo, the Great, is gone.
The fire-eater extraordinaire
consumed fire
his throat and belly
glowing bigger.
Crazy Gorgo
could blow flames
Through his nose
like a laughing dragon.

mlb 11/66

_______________________________________

Chairman Al

     Chairman Al sits behind his desk
like a delicate spider
his hands judiciously spinning schemes,
explicitly almost prissily
setting out the ground rules.
His instrumentalist mind outling
probabilities.
His words grasping books like flies
and drawing nutriment
from empty heads and fleshy tidbits.
Contingencies and alternatives
spin against and flake
the file cabinets
stuffed with inactive folders
sprinkling the present with past glories.
     His style, a crude mix
of faded ivy league and southwest macho.
Wearing heavy turquoise
like a collapsed halo,
each stone a story,
an endless litany
of carefully cultivated monologues.
Hardboiled mannerisms shrewdly exploit
the exquisite fabric of a self made man.

mlb          6/76
___________________________________

To Brecht

When I sleep
I sweat all over.
Wind makes
my eyes tear.
I drip.
And each cigarette
pushes my heart.

mlb          7/66