"Steps and balconies…nailed with abandon…
making hazardous ladders against the universal
wall."
- Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (1968)
Meant for one part human find . the halo^head leap
from glass towers down avenues into electric cars; heard
on elevator rides through moon roofs – seconds split now,
the nano in billions . bird, coin; marine, divine.
\ Played for gang . clip^idle hands that cradle
the promise of the magazine lock | Please, no! falls
on stutter^start ears. For carrion keepers who stamp
the hall pass for flatulence swollen so beside
the point.
Served to chefs who swear they control the plates
and ovens in mandarin districts, as grilles seek
alliance with blind^hot grids; the root power shifts,
old grow^catch stock convenience ceding.
\ Yeah man, the unbeing creeps faster than a plane
dumps splashings of phantom repellent.
*
\ Whose whales ? stranded on this private beach; fires,
floods deemed omens of balance up^inching; forests
logged for floor concealment . the codes to rain
light quiet agency.
Still, watch out ! get
those crapaud throat^sacs singing they wouldn’t stop
till the feast is over.
\ For now, part
take! as the broad leaves said to the elephant passing
deer | glass of wine on the terrace; free bagels.
Stripped, laps
consuming . bells, no telling if^when | so you know.
– W.W.
TO A PROUD MEEK INHERITOR OF THE EARTH'S TILT
Once he too was a heavy earthworm beneath
your lawn and flower-garden – until he rose
into the air on a magpie’s wing and breath
and could perch now and then among your lilacs
(which he, as a worm, could only smell and dream
of tasting) and not have to care if skylarks
sang sweeter, flew higher or freer than he;
to fly black-and-white and cry cut-and-dried seemed
enough of wanting to become, so to stay.
………………………………………………
(from “Readiness” by Brian Chan, 2013)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 