# mouth

2020-11-09
♊
return

    	I'm forgetting what everyone's mouth looks like
    	Do people have teeth any more?	I can't remember
    	I for one have been grinding mine down to polished stones
    	My mouth sparkles now when I smile not that
    	You could see it			The mask, remember?
    	"They didn't know who I was before ..." And all that nonsense

    	Once a coworker removed hers to take a drink
    	Of something, probably a cola I think it was, it had
    	A logo on the side and all, and a straw was in its lid
    	I was surprised, I had forgotten she had a nose
    	Maybe it was had gone away, the father of us all grabbing it
    	Between his thumb and forefinger, secreting it behind
    	His back			I remember a boy
    	With a yellow plastic poncho stealing my nose, he was older

    	But I played along with him because I liked him and he me
    	He always said he was a duck and was excited when I told him
    	My last name, it was an omen for him, a sign of something
    	Bigger than the both of us, and I think I agree
    	Since then I've had an affinity for ducks, their business walks,
    	Their loud and hoarse calls beckoning the lakes rise up
    	To meet them			their reflections
    	Riding the backs of the waves betraying nothing of underneath

    	Somehow they can sense or see or smell or tell
    	The fish that swim beneath -- do ducks eat fish? --
    	Am I making this up as I go?  Of course I am, what
    	Else would I be doing?	Will I continue asking
    	Questions?	Would I be anyone if I didn't?
    	There comes a time			when questions end
    	And silence falls, and thinking settles in

    	So	Fish and birds and boys	From the mouths
    	Of babes, so they say, our mouths sing out	The algae
    	On the pond obscures its depths	The sky becomes
    	A mirror.  Look into it and see the deadness in
    	Your eyes			black pools themselves
    	The void you stare into is your own self

    	Uh where were we where were we going as we walked
    	Down this long road of life toward an uncertain
    	Future the mountains in the distance gray and
    	Uninviting the clouds over them flashing sometimes
    	With lightning or something more sinister even
    	Exit Stage Left said whoever does it matter
    	I'm losing steam			and I'm not even
    	Halfway to the finish of the thing that I've set out

    	To do			I've got to bloop the scoop
    	The billabong and scrape away
    	To swain, to swoon, to fall and noop and
    	Fraer the skeed, the tome to day
    	The wioup and barn and skiddle tree
    	And Friday Farmers From the Farm
    	All swan, and poit the yardle dard but
    	Rolly under Portal vram			ried
    	A hundred hours won't be enough to hide it

    	A shadow falls, the sunlight fades
    	A hundred hours, maybe more
    	The users and the borograbes
    	Are cold and don't know where to go

    	I'm trying hard not to have writ
    	About my writing, but now have
    	It's where all of my poems flit
    	Or fly toward Death, or else they give

    	Another theme, like God or words
    	Or (really old ones) poorly made
    	Rhymes on lines that end in no
    	Particular spot: lemonade

    	Lemonade, lemonade lemonade lemon-
    	Ade, lemonade, lemon, aid, aide,
    	Le mon aide, lem, on aid, lemon
    	Aid, lemonade lemonade lemonade lem

    	Stradovus grabovus oof lol bragivus
    	One two three and four hundred fifty
    	Great knees, great salt, devries, diamond
    	Gold Silver Lapis Lapidary Vibing dollar

    	a ba ca da ea fa ga
    	ha ia ja ka la ma na
    	oa pa qa
    	ra sa ta
    	ua va wa xa ya za aa
    	One hundred Ten Thousand One Million

    	Am I Gertrude Stein Yet?
    	Am I Stertrude Gein Yet?
    	Have You Read To Here Yet?
    	Have You?  Have You?  Bet.

    	My dreams are not super whatever
    	I said to the man on the plane's wing
    	Wind whistled past a gloomy tune
    	I couldn't hear him over it he was

    	Over the wing over the plane on the
    	Sea on the log on the bump on the bottom
    	Of the log with the frong and the mirror
    	The mirror the mirror the echo the mirror
    	Mirror light laser beam look mira mira
    	Bleed on the glass blooms a rose grew from concrete
    	Or something I can't remember wasn't listening
    	Wasn't paying attention anyway watching the counter
    	Click by the taxicab of life ferrying us over
    	And over and yes, again over the wheel
    	The catherine wheel catherine cathy what was it she
    	Said Rats?	Scats?	Bats?  Gnats?  Slap
    	The fat, render the scat, drink the cat blood
    	Under your mat					a bad rap
    	Okay okay okay okay, ohana means family

    	And family means family beans family family
    	Strains to come together to mean anything
    	There is no me or you or they or he or she or us
    	Anymore only the family only the blood only
    	The covenant only the sheep only the glistening
    	The Battlefield stench rising to the sky the
    	Moon red as blood of fallen soldiers presiding
    	Over the mass thick with smoke with viscera
    	With dripping fat rendering again and again and
    	Still under it all the earth turning in hate

    	Solid hate black as dirt
    	Black black as space stretching into the core
    	Of the world of the sea of the sand of the
    	Wizard's heart yawning a maw of a mass of
    	A hole of meat of death of doom
    	Beating heart thrumming its drum in the dark
    	Too many flies to kill them all
    	Too many demons to exercise
    	Their mouths yawn open filled with pus and
    	Bile and boiling over with maggots

    	Mask them muzzle them put them away
    	Find them again another day		Disease
    	Disease don't look in the mirror and say Its name
    	Three times

    	Disease