Rubber Orchestras

Presence Africane

I visit rubber orchestras – Ted Joans


Joan’s velvet
landscape
disorients
shadow/s
expresses its form
as electrical forests


Cesaire’s
virgins
of presence
promises
metamorphasis
initiates
itinerant parades
becoming
engines of cease-
less and fugitive

transperence

engines of
Egypt and suprise



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From a recent experiment with surrealist technique.
Unfortunately the formatting has been lost so you can't
experience the spacing and tabbing which is as much
part of the poem as the words themselves. I will try
to correct it, eventually. Although I think it also
works well as it is.
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A poem is a machine made of words - William Carlos Williams

New Poem from 'Bird Head Son'

NURSE



Nurse?

Nurse who used to goal keep for Hilltop United?
Knock knee Nurse who brother was a gangster
an get shoot up down south in San Fernando?
Nurse from Febeau?
Nurse who used to ride with Loaf and Lochan?
An carry ting to chook man? Nurse,
he mother was a teacher.

He self.

Crossing by South Quay in front Royal Bank
where the drag mall used to be. He
poor and humble down in this ketch arse town
where man killing man like mapepire.
He neck like a straw in the bottle he holdin.

Rollin

It like a swan.
In the bitter light.

And the verbs of his eyes: sun wash that out.






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This is a work in progress but it may get included in my fortcoming collection 'Bird Head Son'. More about the title another time. This was started in Trinidad last August, it was my 1st time back in 6 years and I saw an old badjohn I used to know, crossing a port of spain street in the late afternoon light.