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[from the August, 1999, workshop:]
Foggy August
they say it is La Nina
the second head of the twin monster
just a term describe a small aberration or a ship going off course
cool fogs all day long drip moisture everywhere
all day I wait for the sun but like the green hard blackberries nothing
warm or sweet
cold August
like to bang on your door
wake up, get out of bed, don't sleep all day long
instead I eat a melted cheese sandwitch burnt by a microwave
and just wait
* * * *
when I grew up I thought I would die in a nuclear war
i didn't believe I would get old
I read Einstein to my couse, "there will be instant death for the
fortunate minority but for the vast majority a slow torture of disease
and
disintegration,"
I wanted to go quick and I thought when the flash of light comes where
will I be? making love, masturbating, on the toilet reading a book
oh shit, there wouldn't be time, it would be all over
it was the fifties and the early sixties and the nuclear clock said
just before midnight
Powers was paraded in Russia
Kennedy and Kruschev wrestling over Cuban missiles
the guards in the Minuteman silos check their keys
"who kows," he says, could be anytime we nuke them Ruskies,"
then it didn't happen
almost but
then it was Vietnam
glistening Napalm and burning flesh
one could kill differently
like a new toothpaste that would leave your teeth white and get rid
of the
tartar
like a neutron bomb
* * * *
Janey had been playing all day long
she climbed trees and fought her brother
then she took a puff of a cigarette
cough, cough, she didn't like it
she slid on her belly out behind a rock "aye yah eye ee ah,"
young tarzan gripped the rope as she flew to the tree house
there she painted herself purple with the juice of dark blackberries
here she danced and got drunk on blackberry syrup
there she stained her eyelids and painted her nails a black blue flush
there she had the dreams of a young girl whose breasts were starting
to
swell
what could I tell her?
what could I say?
that the polar caps were melting and that drought and famine everywhere
I smiled and said nothing
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