Back Together Again

Posted on 13th January 2020 in Poetry

(2012)

This fine silk thread
borrowed from an orb weaver
I will use for your hair
so the sun’s light refracts full spectrum
casting color on the shadows etched into the walls
reservoir of my cobra heart
docile till you come near

These stones
rolled smooth by river’s torrent
and ocean’s tide
will fit into the sockets where your eyes
once watched this dramedy unfold

These conchs will be your ears
mounted upon an urchin
that will pose as your head
inside, for your brain
I shall ejaculate my semen
so your thoughts will be productive

your lips will be made of reeds
stretched across your face
dried after a devastating winter
and your nose crafted from the girders
of a fallen skyscraper
so you can smell trouble
as far as your stones can see

For your tongue
I will sew in the swatches of fabric
you selected for curtains
to block out our view
of the neighbors spying
our creation

your torso
will be fashioned from the tupelo
whose seed blew into our nest
by monsoon winds who knew
where to find us
planted on the grounds our first child was conceived
carved with cat’s claw in exquisite detail
to replicate your topography

When he dies
your arms will be the wings of the heron
born orphan for whom
you regurgitated carp, bass, eel and blue-gill
with those you can satellite the orb
and keep tabs on me

I will steal
the legs of a race horse
as she crosses the finish line
You will have the strength
and speed
to do our shopping
and the horse who died for you
will be exploited no more

For your heart
I transplant this punching bag
to absorb the shock of my dragon strikes
you shall need to resuscitate you frequently
as you transcend the Red Land

Two balloons
sent to you while
you lay on your death bed
will be your lungs,
this way we are spared the cost
of more balloons
lest you catch another chance at death

your stomach
will be the camping grill
we bought and never used
you can cook your own food now
and won’t have to eat it
had you stayed around a little longer
you might have had the chance to chew

The rest of your organs
will be junk
from the attic, the garage
the closets, the basement and the shed
Spare parts to carry out the functions
we never think about anyway
I will stuff them
into your Tupelo trunk in no particular order
packed tight
to keep your tree from rattling
but careful not to
puncture your balloon lungs
compress your punching bag heart
douse the embers of your built in BBQ
or constrict the flow of your sap
that occasionally seeps
through little cracks in your bark
and which I collect to sweeten
the herbs I planted
as pubes for tea

This grotesque ensemble
I will seat by the fireplace
on very cold days
On warmer days
I will mount you, erect,
on the roof
to interfere with gamma rays from distant stars
and to fuck with everyone’s cell reception

I will take you
for rides on my ghost-drawn cart
so your stones can see
the progress humans have made
this decade past
this decade lost
trying to put you
back together again

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Selections from the Polish Book of the Dead and Other Drunk Incantations

Posted on 27th December 2019 in Poetry

I.

It is no joke

and no mystery that

we are all here together

singing songs from our ancestors

of love, sorrow, and death

me in this hope stained coat

you with the blood of a beet on your skirt

those two making love in the corner

the fiddler crying to the rhythm of laughter

from the drummer whose dancing

has the girls sprawled on the floor

sending their unconceived children

off to war so they’re born

into a nobler state of grace

then we can all escape from this place of despair

to where nothing but music fills the air

 

 

II.

we carried our corpses
a flute a guitar a violin an accordion
and a case of vodka
accompanied by
a dancer a trickster a warrior a crier
cursing along the back-roads of the nowe miasto
to where
we once gathered to play
our love songs
after the invasion
and the next

 

to the places our father’s
fought to their deaths
to play for them
to drink for them
to sing to them
to smoke their last cigarettes
until we were drunk
hurled on the ground
our cold red faces pressed against
white crystals formed around
the edges of boot-prints in the mud
sleeping as they do
a few meters underground
buried by decades of war
covered by the new world order
and a fresh layer of snow

 

Now mostly sober
we carry our corpses back
from the Cytadela
half pickled half fermented
gathering unearthed ordinance
and dislodged shrapnel
to place inside the violin’s F-hole
drop into the sound hole of your guitar
jam into the end of her flute
pierce the trickster’s accordian
and ram down our throats
until there is no memory of the fighting
save the muted sounds of instruments
doing their dirty work

 

 

 

 

 

III.

Child

we come here on the coldest of days

to make love to the wind

to be drunk, eat bread

and suck pear nectar from our wrists

dance our tears into the fertile earth

 

No worries

you will be adult soon enough

able to love

allowed to drink

for now take this fruit and this bread

and dance your joy into the ground

on this coldest of days

 

 

 

 

 

IV.

One bottle we for us

the other our ghosts

who finished theirs first

rendering the perfect moment

of lucid insanity

with the blood drinking deities

and the Bodhisattva of vodka

puking our way through this illusional forest

somewhere along the polish tibetan border

warming our hands on this cold bottle

we rested our tired bodies

leaving our ghosts a’wander

traversing the steppes

for a brief, intense and unexpected

encounter with Candra

 

 

V.

when they opened up your body
to determine the cause of death
they found
music no one had ever heard before
you hadn’t had the chance to write it down

visions of the astral realm you got stuck in
in transit entranced in perpetual dream
no man or woman has ever seen

a sense of compassion extending
beyond the expansioin of all things current
in the universes domain

a sense of loyalty bound in truth
and trust grounded in knowledge
of the rituals of love

a timeless quality wrought
of sacred traditions
kept silent for eons soul long

when they opened up your body
to determine the cause of death
they found you quite alive more than most

 

 

 

 

VI.

Each note

a singularity

a tear for my laughter

 

Each tear

a kiss

upon your heaving bosom

 

Each kiss

a word

in between papierosow

 

Each word

a breath

until the end of this bottle

 

Each Breath

A spell

collapsing the future

 

Each Spell

a song

of warring among lovers

 

Each Song

a prayer

to your god and her devil brothers

 

Each Prayer

a curse

painted on your music staff

 

 

 

 

 

 

VII.

Whisper drunken songs of death to me

as I cross over into sobriety

so I can skip the intermission

butoh

bardo

bardzo

 

a lamentation

with long slow strokes

of your bow in the lowest register

a gentle sobbing as I go

gandharva

butoh

bardzo

 

press your warm hand

on my face

so I can feel your blood trace

as mine ceases to flow

garuda

butoh

bardo

 

drape your body across mine

to protect my soul

and lose your own

insobriety

dakini

heruka

bardzo

 

 

 

 

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Untitled

Posted on 27th December 2019 in Poetry, Reflections

~for Greyhawk, Capt X, and Hephaestus

When
You Die
Make sure you leave behind
A shred of light
enough to blind your followers

and words in sequence
to shatter all shallow thought
that does not meet the standard of love

slowly
they will find
the little trinket you left on the shelf by the door
the letter inside the book you propped up on the desk
the scar from where your Duende once flowed

they will understand
then
the power of silence
loss
and how it is to be gone
to be here
with you
then now

you will be
their constant reminder
this is spirit dream
to relax and be taken by time
breath in the smoke of your ancestors
pass it on to those in their wake

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Matrimony

Posted on 21st November 2018 in Articles, Poetry

She held his hand

One more last breath he said

She waited

He smiled

In his last moments

He teased her with the ultimate

She smiled

She held his hand tighter

He teared up

It wasn’t like they thought this moment wouldn’t come

They just didn’t know how to imagine it

 

He held her hand, too

While he had his strength

One more last breath

She smiled

They both waited

Thinking of their struggles

Their children

The injustice

The sun

Realizing none of it mattered but the feeling

You have inside

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Nepeta Cataria Amica Mea

Posted on 12th March 2018 in Poetry, Reflections, Self Determination

- Anonymous, Bilad al Shams circa 1500

this one will return every year
to remind you
of that awkward feeling
of being alive
waiting to transcend

celestial mechanics will dominate
how things play themselves out
your participation is to relax
let the salinity of your joy
carry you to the next
lovers last breaths

no seed is required
to perpetuate
that once love blown
taken root on a floating island
hummingbirds will come to feed
spiders will make their nest

he will come in spirit
his presence conducted by wind
a mad orchestra of soloists
measured by the patterns
of their lives respective
after the coda

germinating early
before the slugs begin their frenzy
readying for the ant and aphid
a livelong cycle bizarre
you wouldn’t know
until you step outside

this one will return every year
to remind you of how beautiful you are
as your neck folds your cheeks sag
you wither and wonder
will their thoughts
be the same as your own

terrestrial mechanics
will dominate
that seed wind blown
will populate a future
to behold
they will come next time early
to steal your soul back
to where it came from

 

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Clan Between Worlds: We Are All the Same

Posted on 13th October 2016 in Poetry
by Wonkum Mikitchia: Delivered by Video at 2016 100000 Poets for Change Denver: The Clan Between Worlds

 

I see you are in mortal combat with life and life is winning.
Of course it would.
It is the most powerful of the fundamental forces.
Self Emergent. Self Organizing. It persists.
See what you can do to destroy it.
Rest assured. Life will destroy you.
Death, on the other hand, will embrace you dearly.
We are all the same.

its not that way at all
its not what they told you
when you get here you’ll know
we are all the same
you can’t possibly understand that now
there’s only one thing
in this state you’re in
between worlds
birth and death
wrapped in skin
separating you
from your brother wind
going into you
your sister sky
sliding out of you

its not what they told you
they don’t know what they’re doing
you can’t see the transformation
wilderness of dreams
this is not liberation theater
destroy the word
we are all the same

how did you and I become
I don’t mean me and you
I mean the words fool
why do you use them the way you’re told
why give them your attention
when we know they don’t know what they’re doing
limited by racist perception
free to roam this enchanted prison
only one thing
even rule for a fool’s day or two
but you don’t want to be like them
stupid and afraid
we know their hearts are closed
we are all the same

you can’t see the transformation
out beyond a world afield
its all an illusion
between right and wrong
on such a scale that you can only be a part of
love is insurrection
talon on bone
this is our sanctuary
lay down your arms
you are the suicide revolution
only one thing
death your finery
love and art
unite in blood and body part
we are all the same

clan between you and I
they don’t know what they’re doing
they’re stuck in the between
defy your identity
its not what they told you
there is only one thing
when you get here you’ll know
its going right into you
every time you see the beauty
there is only whats in your head man
every time you feel the pain
there is only whats in your heart ma’am

I am Wonkum Mikitchia
I ask of you only one thing
this is our sanctuary
define your identity
we are all the same
its just light and gravity
the great spirits dream
horizon of desire
born of alien clays
we are not differentials
the expectation pool
its a mafia state
how will you heal
we are all the same
when you get here you’ll know
its not what they told you

I am Wonkum Mikitchia
I ask of you only one thing
this is our sanctuary
every time you feel the pain
this is how to heal
there is only one way
every time you see the beauty
its whats in your heart
beyond between
we are all the same