.

Stark stately Gerhard Kauffman found himself
on the main deck of a tall ship in a low bay
with others and the low wind did howl
battering the lowering and rising flag -
hammers and skulls -
anchors suspended fighting the last war

and in the galleys the beating of
a wolf-skin drum but no rowers
to be seen.
Gerhard Kauffman stood among the obvious stowaways
torchlit and disoriented
ports-of-call as the low wind blew
burrowing in the psyche
idyllic among the rhythm of water and drum.

An imaginary character he found himself without obligation or destination
feeling himself going blind as the naked moongliht receded
an onset of agitation among the crew
skeleton rounding the rocks
from blackness to blackness
___________________________

This ship
in a Coca-Cola bottle
has self-
undiscovered tropics as yet and destined
to be unchartered
this was not a voyage of outward discovery

destructed in a geographically wrong way
forming spiral architectures
and ivory staircases to bronze belltowers
suggestive of mystic secrets, but
in the words of of Gerhard Kauffman
"endlessly disappointing" as vision gave way
to pure simple sight, the difference being
urgency and weather.

depricated in insincerity-
A voyage doomed to obscurity
the moment anchor raised
on a money-making Pyramid scheme.
Ever the cynic, Gerhard Kauffman:
"You know how the Pyramids were built."

________________________________________

Oar for oar
The natives had been warned
but patience held
like the ocean held the land
and the air
and it was only steps from the treeline

began the war of gray areas
and technology like God does not play favorites
and the ocean is a suitable gravedigger
he found himself in someone else's mind
- the Captain was certainly dead:
serves him right, the bastard couldn't even go down with the ship.

Nature had prepared a fortress
and the forethought to kill off the guardians
three men and a corpse started a fire
and roasted a wild boar,
nothing native to this place.

How I Have Included Christian Emphasis on Teaching Young Boys to Swim

A penny broke the surface and liberated a hundred
thousand tiny perfect bubbles
oxidized
and cracked the concrete base,

draining into catacombs a torrent of off-color
crashing swelling past the tombs of rememberd heroes
in street names and memorial bridges
(Goddammit it's always bridges with you.)
among interred and to my surprise a Civil War general

stole a statue from a local park demolished for a
community swimming-pool the color of chlorine
and where the sun always shines from an angle forty-
five degrees from horizon

onto

A June lyric

Awash
in reflected sunlight
who would believe Charley
had never before been to an
American baseball game?
Hopeless on Canal
as Barca's charge careening
comets into plateglass
tropicalis
Charley on the mezzanine -
A drummer on the side
in a jazz combo
decidely Old World -
will make a feast
knock off every bowler and gray suits at the ticket
counter
bull run from seven cities
and seven corners of the isle
- skull capped bishops and the seventh inning
Charley was misdirected
There ought to not be
Behind Knossos sank
fearful Jesuit.

Fireworks

A New
Jersey row
burned us out
identity in a blaze
and inhalation
made streets twice gilded
and
too narrow for a regiment
even shoulder-to-shoulder
now filled with regiments
of the huddle
partisan
and Charley surmounted
in a military park
years before Apache
and Commanche were on our
vernacular
side -
Dust-bunnies
transcended through
the ancient glyphs delineating
the attic window
Cronos overlooking the vinyard
Sandy trading the bitter
for the sour
We walked.

August

The post-season
speaking to practice -
boys in ragged suits
melting
just because
and taking stands hazed
and valiant in their immemorial qualities hastening
none talked about past twenty.
Manic in white coats
Maniacs in brown -
and red sunset on concrete walls
over those walls white and blue and
red sunset on burned out cars
before late nights
and later days and dialects -
your eyes are changing color in this country.

The warm autumn

Slow days speeded
Charley drowned in the Lincoln Tunnel
in a dream -
never breathed
a sigh (of relief or otherwise)
not like Hudson
an antecedent, springtime conquistador
in the bank lobby
bars of gold in a safety deposit box -
A Jaguar.
Now we're talking.
Sandy in an Italian restaurant
faking an accent, a police officer
faking confidence - reinforcing and negating
the other's flaws.
A hundred thousand eagles
thunderbirds circling
feathers trailing staircase
winding through windows, billboards
stern faces stare down in judgment top-lit
lightning spears into the rooftops
Charley enters and the symbolism ceases.

Mischief Night

Burning a seasonal
The floodwaters covered the warpath
in late September
but did not recede
and engulf
the low reeds
and high smokestacks
and plateau this reclaimed land -
Atlantic and bay threshing
ships and immigrants
into an ill-conceived tapestry -
not regrettable except in the moment
we started a fire -
Hesperides yielded tithes of televisions
Saul's first color
once more the association
fire and identity
concerned citizen's association
and cavalry in division:
saber gleam reflection
Havana and televised drama
Charley got a record player
and spent Halloween alone.

Icicle

Nothing good could happen-
Revealing one-sided grudges
the hall clock neglected into Mountain Time
fell its tones on the first silent
snowfalls - an exploratory mission
- falling from above the third story window
but passed by Sandy
with no serious repricussions for either
and no marathon
and on a cross-town bus low-brimmed
friends became strangers eyes
on the texture of the floor
and the bus skidded on the sludge
rowed
colorless-uniformed toughs
shivering as a badge of pride
Charley wrote her name in the first
snowfall in cuneiform script
and the moon fell
on the immigrant storefront and its spiderwebbed glass.

Wonders of the World

you told me a story
over wrought
iron fences
bought with
the money
(accountant money)
that sent you
away to
Berkeley
about Chicago
and the second
city as a
metaphor
for Babylon
and you winked
self-conscious
and aware
in the ivy halls
and we didn't
believe in God or revenge.
I still read you
in all the books.