Witch

Stygian Lady,
Femme of Night,
Sailing across
That Orb of White

'Stead of fear
There'd mayhap be,
Tonight I wish
To fly like thee!

(Absolutely impromptu)
DB/10.31.15

A Proclamation

                                               



I AM THE TAMMANY TIGER!!
NEW YORK CITY IS MY BEDROOM
AND THIS BOXCAR IS MY BED!!
I. NEVER. SLEEP!!
LOCK YOUR DOORS
AND SCURRY INTO YOUR CLOSETS
LIKE THE TIMID MICE YOU ARE,
FOR MY ROARS
WILL NEVER END!!
COWER IN PERPETUAL FEAR
FOR YOU ALL-ALL-
ARE MY PREY!!
I WILL POUNCE ON YOUR CHILDREN
AND MAKE THEM KNOW
THE SUBLIME, SUPREME,
DELICIOUS JOYS
OF GREED AND CORRUPTION!! O YES!!
I WILL WAVE MY FUZZY LIL PAW
OVER AMERICA
AND BEND YOU ALL
TO MY INEVITABLE WILL!!
LIVE IN PERPETUAL FEAR
UNTIL THE VERY LAST MOMENT
WHEN I FINALLY COME FOR YOU!!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!


 DB/C1991,2015

1900

new day
new year
new decade
New York
no, thanks
Chicago
ja, besser
stockyard cattle
slaughter murder
meet me in St. Louis
four years from now
picnic in Central Park
(how does the Other Half live?)
Gibson Girls
everywhere I go
men with bowler hats
natty three-piece suits
august
Horseless Carriages
very few
summertime
walks down shady country lanes
rides in interurban rail cars
sunshine warms my body
color instead of
black and white
cool Victorian beach scene
adults laugh
children play
maybe one of them
my great-great grandfather or mother

somewhere on a hot green prairie
a Native American chief
squats dejectedly
in front of his tipi
"they will move us all
into a reservation to-morrow
in a faraway horizon"
is the Great Spirit dead,
nothing more
than a wisp of fog
in the night?
no
keep dancing
and singing the Ghost Song
it will never leave,
it will never
say goodbye
to you

what?
go?
now?
no way
I still want to kiss
that pretty-haired maiden
on a Mississippi riverboat
and the both of us
to be fram'd by the sunset
the Nymphs like Sirens
call my name
over and over
from among the tall reeds
at the lakeshore
you go
on ahead
I'll meet you
at the edge of Time
I want to stay here
for a while

a long while



DB/c1991,2015