April is still national poetry month

Greg Luce, of Enchilada's Blog, wrote about two challenges issued by somebody for the month of April. One was to write a poem a day. The other is to take the last line of a favorite poem and use it as the first line of a new poem. Greg did that quite well on his blog.


Here is my own vain attempt:


Semipermanent

It looks like a cracked Egyptian tablecloth,
hanging from the line all by itself.
It’s been there ever since I moved in a block or so down the street.

It’s there every morning when I walk to the bus stop and there again (or still) every evening.
It could be from the reign of Psusennes, last king of the 21st Egyptian Empire, washed and hung by his beautiful daughter Maatkare.
Except that it hangs in a non-descript neighborhood in an anonymous suburb, not in the anteroom of a pyramid or crypt.

It’s like a rock or a treestump, except that some human made it
and some other human hung it out there to dry. Or die.
Somebody simply moved away, I guess, and left this thing (a sheet, a curtain, whatever it is) behind.

As I sit on my front step on a warm evening, I can hear it, luffing and snapping in the breeze. I strain to understand these sounds.




Guess where the first line came from. Prize: Two tickets to the off-Broadway revival of LeRoi Jones' "The Toilet."

April is National Poetry Month

Song lyrics don't always come off well as poetry. But I have become so fond of (or obsessed with) a song by The Skeletons that I have memorized it and practiced reciting it as a poem. (You do NOT want me to sing.)

Thinking about using it as an audition piece for an upcoming Arts Guild play.

Does this work as a poem?

I Ain't Lyin'

The Isrealis built a toll road
between the West Bank and Gaza.
The Palestinians won the contract
to run the half-way plaza.
Now Arab girls and Isreali boys
are walking hand in hand.
Now I think I'm beginning to see
what they meant by The Promised Land.

I've seen you in the papers lately,
been watching you on the news.
Sometimes you get panned,
but mostly rave reviews.
At least they don't ignore you.
But remember all those ups and downs.
It won't be long till your new heroes
all start looking like clowns.

On the other hand, you know I'd never blame someone
for something they didn't do.
You shouldn't count on them
if they don't count on you.
A deal is just a deal
and here's a word to the wise:
You ain't never gonna tell the truth
til you live down all those lies.

Listen to me...
It's nice...
I ain't lyin'...

I'll tell you about this guy we knew
who thought he'd figured it out.
He said time is just a concept,
and he was gonna sit it out.
He sat down by the sewer on Wednesday
and on Thursday he died.
And at the coroner's inquest,
they called it a sewercide
(but he was a joker).

Not like this other guy
who thought he was so wise.
He spent his whole life making A's
in things you can't criticize.
Like motherhood and highway safety, the deficit.
And he may be right.
But to date his proudest accomplishment
is having been
born
white.

That was recorded in 1997 on an album produced by Hightone Records. Some people say The Skeletons were the best bar band in America. I'm not sure what that means, but I sure like the way they do this song.