Some days I am a saracen
sipping milk with cinnamon
from a blue glass
growing fat
off English muffins spread with marmalade
singing myself
limp-wristed lullabies
in some courageous Durango
of the dream-drenched movie mind
where victory is
spit shine
and clean sweep
some contemplated
property to flip.
Today poets everywhere
will write tidy odes
to over-the-counter
sleep aides
a failure to account
for the red velvet macaroons
sold in Union Square
under the moniker
**the new cupcake**
This is a departure Mr. Nurkin. I hear strains of "Duncan" in here and I don't mean Heinz.
ReplyDelete"courageous Durango
of the dream-drenched movie mind"
Love the sounds in these lines.
Yes, yes, DB. Though I'll note that addressing Drew by the shortened form of his once longer Russian name does in no way preserve the sanctity of pseudonymity. Even when making witty baked good references... For my part I'm just glad we're back on alphabetic order. Lee's sudden fire alarm scared me.
ReplyDeleteDrew - I find the music in this poem soothing and disturbing at the same time -- which I mean as a good thing. My favorite stanza is the one on victory though...Keep thinking of the notion presented here alongside Dickinson's "Success is counted sweetest..." JFH
Comrades, thanks for indulging my departure, which is in fact a layer of discourse put in service of our collective pseudonymity. But we've all been given away. N comes before R, unless you are writing the word "RUN." To soothe and disturb is ever my aim.
ReplyDeleteOh goodness I just realized my faux pas! Désolé, mes amis!
ReplyDeleteAh, I was just joshin' anyhow. Trying to pick a knife fight with Mr. Ree. Tonight is a nice night.
ReplyDeleteDamn, those fightin' words, fuzzy bear!
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot about fuzzy bear!
ReplyDeleteDrew, I love how you spin off these lines that I could just have just as easily found in the better books by Ashbery, not the newest crap. I'm thinking of "red velvet macaroons...sold...under the moniker **the new cupcake**." And how you seem to self-reference it with the asterisks, like an inside joke. But you say it without the aristocratic haberdashery, or the froth.
ReplyDeleteA whimsical poem. A lot different than what I remember of your poetry at YDS - all serious, pensive, longer lines - but I liked it. The sounds, like others have pointed out, are playfully seductive. Some lines are mad gay! - like 'singing myself / limp-wristed lullabies / in some courageous Durango / of the dream-drenched movie mind. I can see you grinning while writing this poem.
ReplyDeleteO, and I just noticed JFH (what's 'F,' Francoise?) trying to pick a fight. Nahs naht for a nahf faht! I fucked up the alphabetical order, but are we sticking by that?
ReplyDelete