Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite Corpse
I hear a thunder and fall, a split along the limb
The exquisite, exquisite, exquisite, of the exquisite corpse
The Scientific Wonder Club; they know the winds have changed
A warm, a warm a warm wind on the exquisite corpse
It’s not done, it looks bad, we all are cells, solemnly aware
Our makers don’t care
Calculate the air we breathe, come to realize we need
exquisite exquisite exquisite sky in baby bluish mouthfuls
And blood awash the valley, and blood awash the air
I stare I stare I stare I do, ‘cause it is in my veins too
It’s too far, I can’t reach, we all are open mouthed
Gathered at the beach, as the waves sidle up the sand bar.
This is the flesh of the land, I press my ear to the sand
I press my ear to hear, what the body commands
The white windy poles, they are like to palms
With gripping fingers slipping slipping, so she was never dead, only sleeping…
So these hands, which held fast, so these hands melt
anchored to the past, as the sea sidles up the sand bar
We cut the body in half, we crack the stomach in two Inside butterflies flicker and flew flicker and flew
We are a boy child, who wants to see what’s inside?
I sunk me down to the pitch depths of the sea, ‘cause I thought the sea was still wild
January 1st. 6:00am The alarm exclaims it and, yes, Kurt will work today The sun takes two full hours just to say “it’s morning!” (with the full effect, and in the voice of so many birds) “IT’S MORNING. DID YOU ALL HEAR WHAT I SAID??” Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick
Nobody knows what will become of the earth. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick Least of all this guy named Kurt--M hmm ….held in the arms of the Exquisite Corpse…
Kurt pushes at the breast of the heartland, to suckle the black oil, like a baby drinks so eagerly. One flimsy town after another, thrown up around the hole To suckle the black oil, like, damn, aren’t you never satisfied? The muscle of the Rustbelt--the nomads--arrive (as always) looking for a little relief They got mortgage payments, medical bills, mouths to feed, you know Kurt, the boss, the man himself, he moves these pieces and just like that, well, the people are MOVED.
January 2nd. 6:00am In his home which contains every comfort and perpetual twilight No sound of pecking drills trespasses, strike, pull, strike, pull down the pipe, to the gulf coast waters Racing on in the face of absolute collapse.
The Beauty Of
Do you see that kid? There in the trees
He found a carcass, deer. He parts the ribs
The meat has riddled, the heart has split
But the beauty of what he’s found is that it’s taken back into the living ground
In death a gift I’d like to be, I hope the Earth remembers me
The mewling wind, the olive water
the red rock. The canyon listens
Without intent, she may not love you…
But the beauty of the carcass is all the creatures carry on a part of it
Chorus
I say grace, for birth and growth. For death and decay
Grace I say! Grace I say. Grace I say
And the beauty of decay, is nothing on earth is truly thrown away
The Flesh of the Land There's something coming back to life The carcass of a deer She is filled with the will and the will is going back to where it comes from Mmhmm the flesh of the land the flesh of the land
The railroad dealt in real estate. The old Nations saw it all: those rails Riveted right over the curve of the earth, you know it’s driven by some moneyed man, and, he wants the flesh of the land
But there in the clearing…
There’s no one where the dear still lay, but ask the osprey who’s running through the birch? Tired of sitting in church, it’s the boy Coming up on the way it’s starts, the way it ends, the choice of how and when And what is on the line, how little things combine
Oh the Exquisite Corpse, so still, all she left behind was a will
The ground exhales beneath my feet, she knows just where I am She is filled with the will, she is made by the will of ones who’ve joined the flesh of the land
The minister is at his window, and a doe is his witness The mission casts a shadow on the woods behind the churches lawn He fears the flesh of the land
But there in the clearing…there’s no one where the dear still lay Ask the osprey who’s running through the birch? Tired of sitting in church, it’s the boy So close to the face of the earth’s pretty soul, telling you so you know What is on the line, what will be written on the picket sign It’s heard to say it all, it’s hard to define So just remember that life is sweet and everything’s alive
Miami
When she’s calm her eye is a lake, sshhhhh she’ll be mad if you shake her awake It was frightening, one time, her eye was wide, a cyclone Roving, pulsing, cracking, lightning I remember the day when, all the light went out down in Miami like a fact that is torn from its hinges in the storm First: frenetic like fire, then, gone, like smoke You may be tired, but you’ve never been tired like these folks No you’ve never been tired like you would be if there was no hope and nowhere to fall
So tread, kick! Not later, now. You and I we wouldn’t let us get to that point where it’s just out of our hands One more time for the world; tread! Kick! Not later, NOW! Time is of the essence, got to get to work, yes the stakes are high high, high, high, HIGH
When she speaks she speaks in riddles,
something in the air, something in the waves, through the mouths of animals, you and me, can you feel it? Will you remember to remember if she tells you?
You were driving down the highway, wavering out in the heat… are you really there? Faster now and you are melting right into the air Little device in your hand, little vice in your head a lot less ice on the sea and the land Will you remember to remember if I tell you?
On The Wings of a Dart
Fly me to the target on the wings of a dart Fling it into orbit, the revolution, the big push
A kid opens their mouth and the thunder of the north pole cracking in half Moves through you, under you, and your exquisite flesh and your very life path In 2005 I wrote these words: “One thing—one thing that I learned in science class today is I I do cry. I do cry after all”
Fly me to the target on the wings of a dart Let us try to get there before the bull’s eye blows apart There’s an evil substance in the trench, there’s 10 cows and 1 bull behind the fence What’s wrong? What is wrong with this picture? Sitting in the waiting room, 11 years old Trying to figure it out—what in this picture doesn’t belong?
See the rows of heads in the stacks of rooms over rows of homes, facing gridded streets Wheels for everyone, sweets for every child What in all this wealth is still continuing to Gape. So. Wide? The meaning of decadence is to rot from within
Family Trees
I’m propagating a different kind of child
A lung to purify Man’s noxious heat
Imagine them towering pines, dewy needles sturdy armature
Their arms will take after my arms
“Oh you have your mother’s arms,” they’ll say
The bible of a patriarch
Clunks over and cries against my womb
I’ll pick it off a leech
I’m not barren you’re barren
A land speculator wrote in you
“Go forth and subdue”
Every single day I pray
Cool down this earth that may melt away
Sow it in the ground
Seize the day
Every single day the grind
To keep together an effort that may soon unwind
Sow it in the ground
sow it in the ground
Row by row
Something in us that had overthrown now has overgrown
Now has overgrown
Dream about a Columbine that must be watered while you’re out of town
Shake the splayed cone of a White Pine just over an opening in the ground
Press the dirt around
The sea shore don’t lie
The Mississippi river doesn’t lie either
Your mom is not lying, she’ll send a hurricane if you’re not good!
She likes it this warm, not that warm
She’ll make New York City the new Atlantis
Her heart is the hot fizzling core of the world
I said of the world
I’m propagating a different kind of child
There A lung to purify Man’s noxious heat
Condor
I’m not coming home, and it shows in my stride Overhead there’s a condor circling wide And the world’s getting bright, till it flash like a mirror Signaling “I am here on this island I’m here” Looking through a microscope, looking down at the tightrope It is good to have hope, open your arms, and walk slow
I was stretched out like a cross in my dream, drying off beside a stream When something huge passed over me, and I noticed, this symmetry ‘Cause it was a California Condor, gliding high and a cross was the shadow it cast upon my body and everything seemed to pause
It was like someone back from the dead I mean, have you ever seen a thing like that? A ward of the government agency--the one that deals with destiny The last surviving one’s would be Kept alive in captivity. So when the cage *clicked* and swung wide singing “free” Did the bird just stare at you? Like it’s staring at me? Oh of all the creatures to see I think Fate’s form is weirdly warped around This carrion bird’s own exquisite corpse.
Now I’m looking down the 53rd story, and my shadow falls before me Pouring down into the street, all of this activity And all our special hardships to meet, in the sound of running feet At the swing of a cage opening, oh my heart, yes, my heart go beat, beat, beat, beat
Maybe I should start a garden, try living out of my yard to twine and weave between the slats, and fill all the little cracks I’ll write to Henderyx back in the hometown, say--look what you done made me do And I dreamed the future was one of Escher’s illusions Precisely, indisputably possible
Satellite
Leaning out of a window, summer... can’t sleep (young boy) Sees a star tread the night sky…“What’s that” Washington is a coin in your pocket. Flip a quarter for one of two evils
The Star asked the Satellite “Why do you lie awake at night?” The satellite tread on, and it saw and it said nothing, and it saw and it said all
On the old highway two dear turn and freeze Then they leap from the headlights into the trees
No patch of earth shall be uncharted. Spaceship.Bedroom Screens and buttons, blocks and weapons both little and life size Washington is stationed in most countries Drifting watchful while veterans go mad
The star asked the Satellite “Why do you lie awake at night?” The satellite just looked down, and it saw and it said nothing, and it saw and it said all So, your son is a good boy?
Photo From Outer Space!
Here is tender sight: "Earthrise" it's a photo of a little blue egg! Pinch a thread of running water--see how it maneuvers around you time is of the essence and we are..
Once on this Earth, never again, everything that has come and gone I'm thankful for our time on Earth but to whom do I pray in thanks for this? to whom do I pray? Hey to whom do I sing? to whom do I say Amen
And outside my window, a vehicle is idling, a train is arriving the morning is drenched and on fire...alights upon a pool, fallen rain everything gleams, rising, intent upon a future cloud Grasp a ray of light, see how it makes a shadow of you light is of the essence, and we are...
Chorus
The clockwork wings of a blackbird, rise intent upon a future sky the flock will winter in present-day Carolina, in what is now Carolina Once on this Earth...never again...
1921
In the rearview mirror, 1921. A snapshot of your silhouette, looking behind you California. Oh, chock full of material goods, you hocked gold, you the hocked the good life To use it all and to lose it all Is both the point and the collateral wound of the industry
You went out west to turn a profit The money the money you knew what California was for Breezing down the mountain’s west flank in your model T and your lit cigar and the American dream burning in the tank When a man is born in a country so vast that is rising to power With the law in his wallet he’s hammering down the natural order With fair skin and a forked tongue and the muscle of custom Well he doesn’t leave nothing but a lot of trash and flag on the moon And the end of the world.
