Seven Short Poems
Blinky Palermo, Flipper (1970)
THE ARTIST
"I don't want to be an artist
I want to be the apocalypse"
THE BACHELOR
the bachelor eats a fried egg
the bachelor sits cross-legged on the floor
the bachelor opens a tall-can of beer
with the heel of inherited spoon
THE FUTURE
nearly bald on the sides
food delivery guy
riding high
on a bike
(Berlin, 2017)
THE PRESENT
once the confusion washes away
this too will become
a golden memory
THE TRUTH
try to writhe free
from the hand of god
and fail
try to become god
and in the process
create hell
THE DISGUISE
I dreamed of great success
but oh, success is so illusive:
one moment you’re an angel
and the next one you’re a nuisance
my friends all started telling me
I'd make a decent father
and I’d like to half-believe them
were it not that I had only grown
a moustache
THE PILGRIMAGE
every morning
cargo ships
arriving in the ports
deliver gassed green bananas
and a few determined spiders
every morning
kneeling mothers pray
their children’s safe return
across the conflict zone
that lies beyond the kitchen counter
every morning
sunrise meets with
countless square kilometres
of places uninhabited
by things with given names
(peace)