Alphabet City

The seer rolls her eyes, arms flail wildly,
she gasps, repeatedly exclaiming Oh my! as she pores
over the multitude of life-lines etched there on my palm.

Chagall 2019

Doctor said I got worse and worst news for you.
I said OK. What’s worse?
She said you got 24 hours.
I said OK. What’s worst?
She said, I really did try to call you yesterday.

• With that in mind, breathe in deeply, wherever you are,
  and savor the overwhelming headiness of life, the actual.

This Bud’s for you.

Chagall 2019

Parallel universes are a bitch.
Ever try juggling more than 2?

Chagall 2019

spider webs
on my
guitar stand

there’s
filament
everywhere

so I tune
to gossamer

my tension
just right
at the peg

oh,
what a life
I’ve woven

strum me

Chagall 2019

I have heard the sky distinctly
vocalize adoration

In fact
it’s the norm

The blue is a choir’s harmony,
that you’ll miss if you only see

Ride on clouds, look down
over people, wave, they gaze up

The deepest shadows
beneath you, above brightest light,
the first phantoms we see tonight

I may wish, I am told,
and I might

Tonight, somewhere,
is truth

A promise
to be good

Come true…
comes true!

The dizzying height
from stars looking down
is nothing but pure hallelujah

Chagall 2019

I need a gal with a chipper,
a chipper, a chipper, to help me with
downed trees

I need a guy with a mower,
a mower, a mower, to help me with
patchy bent grass

I need a crew with clippers, big clippers,
to help me prune
canopies

I need another me, another arm
to steady my stand upon this bough
while I saw it out from under

Chagall 2019

The candle is old, I remember when
its flame wavered in the window-breeze
behind the curtains of her walk-up flat,
the wick is waxed over, I pare it back
and light it one more time

Chagall 2019

I just had a tussle – a major spat – in my mind,
in which I played both parts (I think there were only two…)
anyway, it went like this:

I, with a low-pitched voice, yell: Says who, you?
I, high-pitched now, respond: Yeah, me, that’s who!

A wrestling match ensues, and all I can see is
a ball of dust, an indiscernible mass of
these two entangled, rolling on the ground

Then, silence

As the victor, I have earned and am executing the privilege of
reaching out to you, to describe and to attest to
these events which took place

Chagall 2019

Maybe it’s time
to resurrect
an old question:
Have you ever been
experienced?

Chagall 2019

I say, “You have glitter all on your cheek.”
She says, “I believe those are nebulae.”
I look closer, see the stars, ponder, “Hmmm…”
She asks, “Why do you hum?”
Even amid the resonance, I can tell
she recognizes the tune, so I say,
“Hum along.”

And now we ponder
the wonder of her
together

Chagall 2019