If you listen intently
you’ll hear an asterisk
of waves: portent
no-lookie; it appears,
you peeked
as you peer, so do you see,
things will appear, apparently
randomly pop up in mid-air
simply because you will them
there
follow my bouncing ball
it’s just a half-step slower
watch me as I break down
these
quantum
waves
© Chagall 2014
She beats
sentience bursts from
every pore
she pours
life into buckets
she flings
wide-flung winds
alee, always
warm salt air
where all life
every permutation
jostled by
any perturbation
is
the possible
cherished outcome
an eternal wind she can grace
o’ wouldn’t she ride
forever?
© Chagall 2014
The promise of anything surpasses, fantasy
is seemingly better than real
Until you bathe electric;
potential across even a shallow pool
will simply shock the shit out of you
Make your hair stand on end –
scare the wits out of you as the old lady used to say
I thought she was saying
scare the witch out of you
by the way
How we’d won her over
with nonpareils and parasols
to balance her in the rain
She rather relished being
the lightening rod now and then
“Not until you beat and bathe yourself
in the real.”
Clean zest zig-zagged fragrant rind
droplets of cold citrus oil sprays
mist gently delicious sweet orange-lime and lemon-cacao
Her breath came less, in tiny breathlettes
until she was all but breathless
© Chagall 2014
At all times
protect the circle
from breach of trust
© Chagall 2014
A paler horse for the time
no worries at all – if any, they’re small.
They told you, I hope, that I used to bang gongs?
First let me tell you that I love
frost, snowflakes, eyelashes and somewhere – everywhere tears.
Me, I’d uphold and upend the merry, depending on
the time of day, or the time of year.
In a pale wane moon out the hourglass,
just a speckle on a wire white with choir light
on plexiglass, polished chrome and pretty barristers shuffling home
on gravel paths, they rise then crest and ride you fast to the other side,
just a belly-whop, just a jelly roll, there will never be another you
and Nat King Cole comes from window light, where everything rises and falls,
not just once or twice, but always, and forever plus a single day
Bang a gong –
uphold and upend the merry.
Sing a lilt of the will o’ the wisp.
© Chagall 2014
She tells herself to let go – soar –
and so she does
and soar she does
but only for just a short while
She often walks on coals
then her soles burn hot
then her soul burns hot
she is lost in her gaze, fixed on her spot right there
Okay to breathe now. How your shoulders smell like rain
and apple dew.
We carve a single stretch, a shared arc – a yawn on the wall
our bodies run long supple lines intertwined pulsed at all the right points
just like DNA
in June on a picnic blanket overwhelmed by the possibilities on all fronts
She dances herself into tight glass
corners in high places, finds herself looking
down where lights light up way down there somewhere far below where it’s before
there was anyone other, besides, else, or at all
Before there was reason to bawl
Before there was reason to ball
© Chagall 2014
It’s quieter this morning
white noise some hum a random creak pops here there
far away celestial cries – more song than shout
barely heard murmur above the proscenium
along the back space you carve.
I dive to a hollow center and find it even quieter,
save the lone chanter, still strong on feeling.
I spin
till I’m dizzily drizzled;
my, such cute little bongos.
© Chagall 2014
Somewhere in time
there’s a Mister Softee truck
pulling up alongside my curb
© Chagall 2014
From March 27, 2013. Have a great weekend. —Chagall
10 to 3,
one too many,
heart to heart,
back to back,
crack to crack,
so to speak.
me to you,
hard to tell
you to go,
when to leave.
so two ponder,
as two do,
what to do,
if to (blank),
(yours to fill).
two to tango,
soup to nuts,
one-two-three,
start to finish.
what’s to say?
who’s to know?
you to me,
“got to go.”
© Carlos Chagall, 2013
It was when he told me that
his lucky number was nine because
nine was the first prime number,
that I started to view him
differently.
© Chagall 2014
Alphabet City 